Halo: The Cole Protocol (Halo (Tor Paperback))
by Tobias S. Buckell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tobias S. BuckellEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-11-03
ISBN: 0765354721
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of Halo: The Cole Protocol (Halo (Tor Paperback))
Book Review: Entertainingly different take on the Halo universe
Summary: 5 Stars
Let's get this out of the way right at the start. Buckell's Halo isn't Eric Nylund's Halo. Eric Nylund has essentially made Halo his own through three exceptionally well-written military sci-fi novels, and the other authors in this series aren't going to keep up.
Buckell's book, the sixth in the Halo novel series, doesn't try to do that. What Tobias Buckell does in The Cole Protocol is give us a completely different perspective from the rest of the novel series. Instead of focusing on the training and adventures of a group of super-soldiers, The Cole Protocol is about the civilians first. Sure, there's a trio of Spartans in the book, but they're presented from the viewpoint of the civilians: strange, menacing, faceless giants, something not quite human. The Cole Protocol of the title, a navy order to destroy all data that might lead the Covenant aliens to earth, is taken as a matter of fact in the games and other books; here, we see what non-military people would think of being cut off from Earth and everything else the Cole Protocol would imply for the average person in a space-faring society. The causes of the human insurrection against the United Nations is never really explored in-depth in the other books; here, we get to see how those people think and why they rebel even with a war against genocidal aliens going on. There are plot threads following the major game character Captain (here Lieutenant) Keyes and the alien later known as the Arbiter in the games, but these wound up being mostly extra fluff. The Cole Protocol is about the people of the Halo universe, and for that the book makes an excellent, entertaining read and rather essential for people who care to dig deeper into Bungie's story.
Fair warning for people interested in Halo's expanded universe after playing the games: don't start here. The Cole Protocol assumes a bit of prior knowledge of terms and events from the other novels and is more effective if you already have a bit of emotional investment in the universe. Nylund's The Fall of Reach would make a better entry point for people starting the novels, and it's just been recently reissued.
Summary of Halo: The Cole Protocol (Halo (Tor Paperback))
In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems.
Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble--and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar . . . yet somehow survived.
News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best---an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality . . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path.
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