Halo: Contact Harvest


Book Description

The New York Times bestseller—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo! 2524. Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space. But humanity has unknowingly trespassed on holy ground—straying into the path of the aggressive, theocratic empire known as the Covenant. What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter soon catapults all of mankind into a struggle for its very existence. But humanity is also currently locked in a bitter civil war of its own: the Insurrection. With resources strained to the breaking point, the ultimate survival of Harvest’s citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees. In this unlikely group of heroes, one will stand above the rest—a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson....




Halo: Shadow of Intent


Book Description

An original digital-first e-novella set in the Halo Universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! After decades of grim combat against the humans and then the traitorous Covenant Prophets, the Sangheili warrior Rtas ‘Vadum—the Half-Jaw—has earned a long rest. But not all of the Prophets perished in their holy city, High Charity, and now one of their fearsome Prelates has sworn his vengeance. This powerful threat has set a cataclysmic plan in motion—a plan to lure the Half-Jaw into a trap that will herald the utter destruction of the entire Sangheili race…




Galaxy Blues


Book Description

Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele returns to the universe of his Coyote Trilogy and Spindrift with the story of one man’s trials and tribulations as he voyages across the cosmos—and within himself. “My name is Jules Truffant, and this is the story of how I redeemed the human race . . .” Expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet, Jules Truffant faces a future on the ground instead of in the stars. Desperate to put his disgrace behind him, he stows away onboard a Coyote Federation flagship in order to start his life over on the colony world. But after a misunderstanding involving a stolen lifeboat and a crash landing, Jules begins his new life on Coyote in prison. Before he can be deported back to Earth for a lengthy incarceration, Jules receives an unexpected visitor. Morgan Goldstein, a billionaire entrepreneur, offers him a proposition: sign up as shuttle pilot aboard the freighter Pride of Cucamonga in exchange for amnesty. The Pride’s mission to Rho Corenae Borealis to develop a trade relationship with the alien hjadd runs smoothly—at first. Then Jules’s luck betrays him once again. Now, to make amends with both the aliens and his employers, he must take part in a voyage across the galaxy to place a probe squarely in the path of a black hole as it plows through an inhabited star system.




Halo: Silent Storm


Book Description

A Master Chief story and original full-length novel set in the Halo universe—based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! 2526. It has been a year since humanity engaged in its destructive first contact with a theocratic military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. Now the hostilities have led to open war, and the United Nations Space Command understands virtually nothing about its new enemy. There are only two certainties—the Covenant is determined to eradicate humanity, and they have the superior technology to do just that. The UNSC’s only hope lies with the Spartans: enhanced supersoldiers raised and trained from childhood via a clandestine black ops project to be living weapons. Their designated commander, Petty Officer John-117, has been assigned to lead the Spartans on a desperate counterattack designed to rock the Covenant back on its heels, and to buy humanity the time it needs to gather intelligence and prepare its defenses. But not everyone wants the Spartans to succeed. A coalition of human insurrectionist leaders believes an alliance with the Covenant to be its best hope of finally winning independence from the Unified Earth Government. To further their plans, the insurrectionists have dispatched a sleeper agent to sabotage the UNSC counterattack—and ensure that John-117 and the Spartans never return from battle....




Halo: Smoke and Shadow


Book Description

An original digital-first enovella set in the Halo Universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! Find. Claim. Profit. In a post-war galaxy littered with scrap, it’s the salvager’s motto. And with a fast ship and a lust for adventure, Rion Forge has certainly made her mark on the trade. When the discovery of a wrecked UNSC cruiser brings Rion’s past back to haunt her, stirring fresh hope into a decades-old wound, she’s hell-bent on finding answers: What really happened to her father and his ship, the Spirit of Fire? This digital-first enovella also contains the complete text of Kelly Gay's short story “Into the Fire,” originally featured in the collection Halo: Fractures.




Halo: Shadows of Reach


Book Description

USA TODAY BESTSELLER A Master Chief story and original full-length novel set in the Halo universe—based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! October 2559. It has been a year since the renegade artificial intelligence Cortana issued a galaxy-wide ultimatum, subjecting many worlds to martial law under the indomitable grip of her Forerunner weapons. Outside her view, the members of Blue Team—John-117, the Master Chief; Fred-104; Kelly-087; and Linda-058—are assigned from the UNSC Infinity to make a covert insertion onto the ravaged planet Reach. Their former home and training ground—and the site of humanity’s most cataclysmic military defeat near the end of the Covenant War—Reach still hides myriad secrets after all these years. Blue Team’s mission is to penetrate the rubble-filled depths of CASTLE Base and recover top-secret assets locked away in Dr. Catherine Halsey’s abandoned laboratory—assets which may prove to be humanity’s last hope against Cortana. But Reach has been invaded by a powerful and ruthless alien faction, who have their own reasons for being there. Establishing themselves as a vicious occupying force on the devastated planet, this enemy will soon transform Blue Team’s simple retrieval operation into a full-blown crisis. And with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, mission failure is not an option…




Darwin's Radio


Book Description

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • “WOW! What a splendid (scary) notion: a human upgrade! What a superb plot! Darwin's Radio is bloody damned good.”—Anne McCaffrey “Virus hunter” Christopher Dicken is a man on a mission, following a trail of rumors, government cover-ups, and dead bodies around the globe in search of a mysterious disease that strikes only pregnant women and invariably results in miscarriage. But when Dicken finds what he’s looking for, the answer proves to be stranger—and far deadlier—than he ever could have imagined. Something that has slept in human DNA for millions of years is waking up. Molecular biologist Kaye Lang has spent her career tracing ancient retroviruses in the human genome. She believes these microscopic fossils can come to life again. But when Dicken’s discovery becomes public, Lang’s theory suddenly turns to chilling fact. As the outbreak of this terrifying disease threatens to become a deadly epidemic, Dicken and Lang must race against time to assemble the pieces of a puzzle only they are equipped to solve—an evolutionary puzzle that will determine the future of the human race . . . if a future exists at all. Praise for Darwin’s Radio “Bear is one of our very best, and most innovative, speculative writers.”—New York Daily News “Superb . . . Bear's novel is frighteningly believable with a lot of clearly explained hard science, but the personal struggles of the well-realized characters keep everything on a human level.”—Focus “Bear is a writer of passionate vision.”—Locus “Darwin’s Radio scores a high rating on the thrill monitor.”—Birmingham Post (England) “Absorbing and ingenious.”—Kirkus Reviews




Halo: The Flood


Book Description

The bestselling adaptation of the iconic video game Halo: Combat Evolved featuring the Master Chief—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series! 2552. Having barely escaped the final battle for Reach against the vast alien alliance known as the Covenant, the crew of the Pillar of Autumn, including Spartan John-117—the Master Chief—and his AI companion Cortana, is forced to make a desperate escape into slipspace. But their destination brings them to an ancient mystery and an even greater struggle. In this far-flung corner of the universe floats a magnificently massive, artificial ringworld. The crew’s only hope of survival is to crash-land on its surface and take the battle opposing the Covenant to the ground. But they soon discover that this enigmatic ringworld is much more than it seems. Built one hundred thousand years ago by a long-lost civilization known as the Forerunners, this “Halo” is worshipped by the Covenant—a sacred artifact they hope will complete their religious quest for supposed transcendence, and they will stop at nothing to control it. Engaging in fierce combat, Master Chief and Cortana will go deep into the Halo construct and uncover its dark secret and true purpose—even as a monstrous and far more vicious enemy than the Covenant emerges to threaten all sentient life on Halo and the galaxy beyond…




Halo: Oblivion


Book Description

A Master Chief story and original full-length novel set in the Halo universe—based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! 2526. It has been more than a year since humanity first encountered the hostile military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant, and several weeks after the United Nations Space Command’s devastating counterattack of Operation: SILENT STORM was deemed an overwhelming success. The UNSC has put its faith in the hands of the Spartans, led by the legendary Master Chief, John-117: enhanced super-soldiers raised and trained from childhood via a clandestine black ops project to be living weapons. But the Covenant—enraged and fearful of their enemy’s unexpected strategies and prowess—is not taking its recent defeat lightly, and is now fully determined to eradicate humanity from existence, brutally overrunning the ill-fated planets of the Outer Colonies faster than retreats can be ordered. If the UNSC has any chance of stemming the tide of the war, the Master Chief and Blue Team must drop onto an empty, hellish world in order to capture a disabled Covenant frigate filled with valuable technology. It has all the makings of a trap, but the bait is far too tempting to ignore—and this tantalizing prize is being offered by a disgraced and vengeful Covenant fleetmaster, whose sole opportunity for redemption lies in extinguishing humanity’s only hope of survival…




Halo: Last Light


Book Description

An original novel set in the Halo Universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! It is 2553, and the three-decade long Covenant War that defined a generation has suddenly drawn to a close. Yet, in the remotest parts of human space, tensions remain that threaten to overflow into another full-scale conflict. Beneath the surface of the planet Gao lies a vast cavern system renowned for its therapeutic effects and rumored miraculous cures. But now Gao natives are turning up brutally murdered down there—violent acts that happen to coincide with the recent arrival of a UNSC research battalion protected by Spartan Blue Team, led by the renowned Spartan-II Fred-104. Maverick detective Veta Lopis of the Gao Ministry of Protection is only trying to do her job as the Special Inspector assigned to catch a serial killer—one who is possibly hiding within the Spartan ranks—but she never anticipates the situation spiraling out of control into an all-out crisis. When Gao is revealed to harbor ancient Forerunner technology that could solidify the UNSC’s military supremacy for centuries to come, Insurrection loyalists within the planetary government will do anything—even align with a vicious faction of what remains of the Covenant—to ensure that never happens…