Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe

Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
by Tobias S. Buckell, B.K. Evenson, Jonathan Goff, Kevin Grace, Tessa Kum, Robt McLees, Frank O'Connor, Eric Raab, Karen Traviss, Jeff VanderMeer, Fred Van Lente, Eric Nylund

Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
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Book Summary Information

Author: B.K. Evenson, Eric Nylund, Eric Raab, Frank O'Connor, Fred Van Lente, Jeff VanderMeer, Jonathan Goff, Karen Traviss, Kevin Grace, Robt McLees, Tessa Kum, Tobias S. Buckell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-11-24
ISBN: 0765315734
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Tor Books

Book Reviews of Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe

Book Review: It's about time.
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm not "good" at video games. I've got the reaction time of a sleepy 83 year old on opiates and will always, ALWAYS be put down by the hordes of basement dwelling folk that populate the online, multiplayer landscape. Still, I stick with gaming because nowadays that's where a lot of the good stories are, mostly because games aren't restricted to any hard and fast time limitations they way film and television are. Along came "Halo" a little while back, and all of a sudden one of those great stories was taken from the hands of Japanese RPG characters with goofy hair and giant swords. With "Halo 2," the whole thing got even sweeter, with what is arguably the first FPS storyline that treated its viewers like adults...without a drop of blood, coarse language or any other supposedly "mature" content. Instead it relied on a post-modern telling of the Human/Covenant war that no longer allowed for black and white interpretations of good and bad. Players were forced to steer the Master Chief and the Arbiter through seas of grey, only to see the two intersect at another point of confusion: the eons-old Gravemind, both monstrous and beautiful in its timeless brilliance, abilities, and moderation between the warring races of the Covenant and Humanity.

Then there was "Halo 3." Due (apparently) to the constant nagging of frat boys and terrified children, the once rich and subtle web of stories woven in "Halo 2" was reduced once more to "you are you; they are them; you shoot them." Even the seemingly infinite Gravemind lost his sense for meter and rhyme all of a sudden along with all of Cortana's reason and wit. No explanation for any of this was offered until now. That explanation comes by way of Karen Traviss' "Human Weakness," and is (seriously) the second piece of work from the Halo universe to wrench tears out of me (the first being Eric Nylund's ludicrously exceptional "Ghosts of Onyx").

The fact that this collection of stories wasn't offered at the release of "Halo 3" is nothing short of a travesty to fans of the Halo universe's fiction. The stories that don't fill in gaps in the games' chronology and logic almost seem like an apology for the wait at this point. If that is the case though...apology accepted.
-Fans of the ODST's grandstanding and patriotism get all manner of reasons to salute in "Dirt."
-The abundant history and psychology of the varying Covenant races collected over various media and years (particularly "Contact Harvest") gets fleshed out further with respect to the Brutes in "Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss."
-The crippling, paralyzing horror of the Flood is revisited in sharper detail than ever before in "The Mona Lisa."
-"Blunt Instruments" remind us in so many ways that not all the Spartans match the man-with-no-name attitude of Master Chief, who shows his own little bit of humanity in "Palace Hotel."
-The Spartan III project remains the most interesting and aberrant bit of plot material yet introduced in the fiction, as evidenced by "The Headhunters," which is two parts "Full Metal Jacket" and one part Martin and Lewis.
-"Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian" and "The Return" probe deeper into the minds of warriors with nothing left to lose from both sides of the war...and very different fights.
-What Halo fiction would be complete (or worth any price tag) without Dr. Katherine Halsey dropping in to make you wonder if trying to save humanity is even worth it if we're just going to stay rotten to one another. It's a question she's posed several times, but never with as straight a finger aimed at herself as in "Pariah."
-And though it is by no means my favorite of the bunch, I can not stress enough how brilliant Eric Nylund is for making the thoroughly technical, formulaic military briefing that is "The Impossible Life and Possible Death of Preston J. Cole" into something so entertaining. I understand Alex Garland (of "28 Days later" fame) was already paid a vast sum of money to pen a Halo movie script, but for a clear understanding of the whole mythology (and not just the Flood) Mr. Nylund appears to have everyone beat in spades. I won't say I'd be surprised if they didn't pick him up for some rewrites at the least...because how often do these things go the way they should? But I will say that in a just world, the final words in a Halo film's credits would be "Written by Eric Nylund."

The stories may be shorter than the novels and games that preceded them, but they each make up for it in their intensity and understanding of the reader's sophistication. With that in mind, if you're new to Halo universe, this is not the place to start. If, however, you think you've finished the fight, this collection will remind you that there's no such thing.

Summary of Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe

When humanity expanded beyond the safety of Earth to new stars and horizons, they never dreamed what dangers they would encounter there.  When the alien juggernaut known as the Covenant declared holy war upon the fragile human empire, millions of lives were lost?but, millions of heroes rose to the challenge.  In such a far-reaching conflict, not many of the stories of these heroes, both human and alien, have a chance to become legend.  This collection holds eleven stories that dive into the depths of the vast Halo universe, not only from the perspective of those who fought and died to save humanity, but also those who vowed to wipe humanity out of existence.

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