Customer Reviews
A Great Book - By: Matthew Thomas, 07 Sep 2008 
This book is amazing i listen to the audio book unabridged (No Deleted Parts) & i have to say the that the science is acurate but i some of it you cannot say weither it is true or not. An amazing book.
He's not the last one - By: Grant Morrison, 28 Apr 2008 Very enjoyable book, was gripped right up to the end. I know some people were bothered about it not having Spartan 117in the book an awful lot, but that made the book even more compelling to read on. Again still none the wiser as to what happened to all the forerunner even after the discovery of the shield world. Although playing Halo 3 & actively searching out the 'terminals' & reading them you get a slight picture as to what happened to them. (A clue to this - IT INVOLVES 343 GUILTY SPARK)
Although i am beginning to see another book coming out or maybe a spin off. If you have completed Halo 3 on 'legendary' you get a sneaky wee cutscene showing the remains of the frigate 'Forward Unto Dawn' containing the chief & Cortana tumbling towards Onyx which contains various people whom you will know if you have read the book. (Geek moment: on seeing this i actually leapt up of my sofa screaming OMG)
Worth a read if you're a big Halo fan - By: CJ, 13 Mar 2008 
This latest novelin the Halo series is a slight departure from the othersin that it barely features the Master Chief & instead focuses on a top secret ONI training centre on the mysterious planet Onyx. Here the UNSC are training a new breed of super soldier, the SPARTAN-III.
It also (conveniently) turns out that Onyx houses a Forerunner installation, which of course the humans ultimately run into & then the Covenant turn up, as they wouldn't mind a look either.
If you haven't played the Halo games or read any of the other books, I strongly suggest you do before tackling this one. It gives you a bit more depth to the overall plot of the series & lays some hintsin the direction of Halo 3.
It's also Nylund's weakest Halo novel. The central premise is stretched awfully thin, & although the new characters are better drawn than previously, I found some of them I didn't care about as much as I would have liked. Elements of the story are confusing, & as another reviewer has mentioned, I had to re-read certain sections earlier onin the book as I was getting a little lost.
The story winds its way to the end without muchin the way of ultimate resolution, which although not surprising is still disappointing. Worth a read if you enjoy the series, but not the best example.
Great books for people who never read! - By: Mr. Robert J. Berry, 20 Dec 2007 
If you're the kind of person who doesn't actually read much & just plays lots of videogames I'm sure the Halo books are a great waste of time. For people who read real books however the plots are predictable, shallow, & jingoistic, & the writing's terrible. If you've friends recommending you these books first think: are they primarily readers or gamers? It's bound to be the latter, because somebody who reads widely but acknowledge these books to be trite crap.
Just when you think you have a handle on this writer.... - By: *-[ROB]-*, 12 Mar 2007 If you've read my First Strike review, you'll know that I've rated Eric Nylund for taking the Halo franchise & making it his own. As he raises the bar yet againin this novel, I can only imagine that the game designers at Bungie are now awaiting his next instruction with sycophantic adoration.
It is a very different story to Last Strike & the Fall of Reach. Where as these two previous novels aim to flesh out the exiting Halo mythology whilst splicing the Halo game plots into a coherent, character-rich space opera, Ghosts of Onyx back tracks the story to a parallel plot line concerning the shadowy exploits of an ONI splinter cell & the emotional hardships spawned by the horrors of their actions on the Spartan commissioned to lead their cause. This is a story about people.
Only at the very end, the time-line somewhere shortly after the plot of Halo 2, does the story reach out to give the reader a glimpse at the shape of things to comein Halo 3.
Some people may be disappointed that this book doesn't reveal all the secrets of the Forerunner legacy within it. Personally, I think the point is that this should only be revealed when the final game is released, & not a moment earlier.
Of course, if you have played both games & read all the books published so far, you may well respond the conclusion of the forthcoming Halo 3 game with a knowing, smug little grin.
The end is near my friends.
