A good introduction to halo

if you want an easy entry into the post Halo 3 story then this is it. for Halo Wars players it packs in an emotional punch

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Heading for a big finale

The book itself was engaging, very well paced, and the narrator did a good job, even if the start felt a little jarring with their robot voice.
But as with all Halo books, it's the universe building you buy it for, and there's a decent amount of potential pay offs for those already invested in the Halo Universe...

The entire Halo story is starting to heat up again. Between this, other recent books and Halo Wars 2, it seems that pieces are lining up for an event that will redefine the series and redeem the seemingly dying story from Halo 5.
But with so many pieces in play: Banished, ONI, returning Spartans, Covenant, Sanghelios, Chief, Rebels, Cortana, Spirit of Fire, Guilty Spark, the flood, Forerunners, Mendicant bias and more; will they form a story that's believable and engaging? Will they be able to deliver what we expect from Halo? Something realistic, gritty and imaginative? This is either going to be a nail in the coffin or an adrenaline injection to the heart and I've gotten excited for the potential stories unfolding in the future.

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Interesting story, but...

Good story, but found the narrators speech difficult to listen to, particularly with the AI speech sections. I can understand why someone who hasn't played any of the games would assume the speech is more robotic though.

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1 person found this helpful

Another great installment into the Halo series!

I'll start by saying that Kelly Gay isn't my favourite narrator.
At the start I had to try and make myself accept listening to her characterizations, but as the story progressed, I feel that she really came into her own with the characters she was embodying.
So for anyone who might have similar difficulty with her in the beginning, stick with it and you'll be enjoying it by a third of the way in.

Now the story itself:
Fantastic.
At first, it didn't quite grab me.
It felt like some random story strings at first, but then it started drawing those strings in and by midway into the book it became clear that this novel in many ways ties the background story elements of many other novels together in a really neat and exciting way.

Chakas gone Guilty Spark gone his latest itteration as "Spark" is a combination of his two former selves. He is now a character that could become vital to the progression of the Halo series, as would only be appropriate as one of the original important characters.
The way his character in this is portrayed really makes you feel for him, especially his emotively careful interactions with Rian.

Rian herself, whilst I did enjoy her character, I found hers to be more of a vehicle for the rest of the story moving forward. Maybe we'll get more of her in the future, but I felt that as much as this story is described as being about her searching for her father, that it was really her emotive narrative guiding and informing the depth of narative in Spark.
But no criticisms of any characters at all in this.
They were all true to what we've come to expect of the various elements of the Halo Universe.

There are points that occured in this that make me wonder about how they could possibly be included into mainline titles, as I feel might be the point... With E3 coming up and many expecting a release date of Halo Infinite.
Spark, in this new form, surely must be involved? I wonder because of the value of his character being how and what he is with a crew in a ship that is in many ways the most advanced ship in the galaxy now.

All in all, I enjoyed this novel despite my initial doubts. A great story!

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Loved it.

A great story with a feel good ending, that fills one with hope. hopefully there's more to come!

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Struggled with narrator

I listened to the novella 'Smoke and Shaddows' narrated by Scott Brick and enjoyed everything about it, so was really looking forward to the full length novel 'Renegades'. Enjoyed the continuing storyline, but unfortunately, struggled with Justine Eyre picking up where Scott Brick left off. She's a great narrator, but not for this particular genre. I'm hoping a Scott Brick version will become available sometime soon.

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Excellent story

Fantastic story and gave a great insight to the wider universe. However i have listened to many halo stories and ive found Scott Brick a better performer with a wider range of skills.

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Fantastic redemption for a fan favorite character

I'm not sure what I expected, but this book was so much more.
I cannot recommend enough!

Only small critique would be that the voice Justine Eyre gives a certain character is quite off from thier voice in the games.

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Mind numbing

Storyline was good but the narrator put me to sleep. I had several attempts at finishing the book but I feel like someone stole time from me.

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