Halo: Contact Harvest

Halo: Contact Harvest

Halo: Contact Harvest is a military science fiction novel by Joseph Staten, based on the Halo series of video games. Set in 2525, twenty-seven years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, the novel tells the story of the United Nations Space Command’s first encounter with the Covenant on the colony world of Harvest. The novel is an ensemble piece, following human and alien characters.

About Halo: Contact Harvest in brief

Summary Halo: Contact HarvestHalo: Contact Harvest is a military science fiction novel by Joseph Staten, based on the Halo series of video games. Set in 2525, twenty-seven years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, the novel tells the story of the United Nations Space Command’s first encounter with the alien collective known as the Covenant on the colony world of Harvest. The novel is an ensemble piece, following human and alien characters. The protagonist is a young Marine, Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson, who also appears in the Halo video games, and who is sent to the colony of Harvest to deal with suspected Insurrection activity. The book was generally well received and became The New York Times bestseller in its first week. Critics pointed to the novel’s success as a sign of the increasing importance of story in video games; Staten said he wanted to write a novel that appealed to gamers, as well as those who had never read a Halo novel.

A side character in the novel is Wallace Jenkins, a hapless Marine who is assimilated by the parasitic Flood in the video games and plays an important role in the book. The Flood also illuminates the origins of several Covenant characters who play important roles in the games, such as the Chieftain Tartarus and the Prophet Hierarchs, Truth, Mercy and Regret. The cover depicts the protagonist, Avery Johnson holding a weapon called the Battle Rifle, which was first introduced in the game Halo 2. Fans were quick to say that Staten had made a mistake over the cover, as the weapon is a prototypical form of the version players use in thegame. Staten later pointed out he had good reasons for including the offending weapon in thebook, and justified the inclusion by stating that the weapon was a prototype version of the game’s Battle Rifle.