Forum:Waypoint Announces New Publishing Deal

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343 Industries has announced a new publishing deal with Gallery Books for future Halo media. The first publication is scheduled for release in Fall 2014. Personally, I'm hoping this will be the beginning of a turn-around for the Halo novels after getting that sour impression from the Kilo-Five 'Travissty'. So what is everyone's thoughts about this new publishing deal? Do you love it? Hate it? Not sure?--Spartacus ^{Talk • Contribs} 12:42, 4 February 2014 (EST)

I've never really understood what effect the publishers had on the content of the books. I don't much care about the format - I love the little Orbit pocket novels as much as the big Tor ones. My only hope is that they get some really good authors - Tobias Buckell was okay, and Greg Bear was great even though it took a lot of getting used to a first person narrative. And, if Eric Nylund is working freelance, I would love to see where he would take Blue Team now that Traviss wasted the potential story of them in Onyx. -- Qura 'Morhek ^{The Autocrat of Morheka} 16:39, 4 February 2014 (EST)

Maybe this is what Staten has returned for. He's already written Contact Harvest. And 343 only said he wasn't working on the next Halo game; they never said anything about books... Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 17:23, 4 February 2014 (EST)

What I found the most surprising is that there's a new book coming this fall and they there's no word on the title or even the author yet. Suppose we can expect to see some info soon. Staten is definitely a possibility now that he's back with MS, and he's one of the few people who would make me relieved about the future. ODST squad novel anyone? That said, I'm still holding on to the hope of Nylund returning - while Staten is a close second as far as "modern-era" Halo fiction goes, I still have to say I personally prefer Nylund's more techy and space-operatic storytelling. And given how there has been a more or less consistent upward climb in the quality of Nylund's work so far, it would be a delight to see him pen a full-blown novel now. Still, I'll be very happy indeed if it turns out to be Joe. Buckell would be a foolproof enough choice, although to me his work has been mostly average quality. The worst-case scenario would be someone like Dietz (The Flood didn't trample on much background lore because there was very little of that to begin with at the time, but if his fiasco of a Mass Effect book is any indication he's absolute rubbish with properly fleshed-out universes). Or if they contracted Traviss for more books (borderline PR suicide for 343i). --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 00:51, 5 February 2014 (EST)

Canon Fodder - Novel Ideas

Well, as everyone knows by now, Staten is back and there's an overabundance of Halo literature coming out this year. To me, this is great because with Halo I've generally found myself preferring the books to the comics (with some exceptions). I just hope they'll be able to maintain a consistent level of quality and canon adherence with a busy schedule like this. Moreover, it's looking to be a very busy year for us here on Halopedia with the frequent novel releases, the monthly Escalation, and obviously Guardians.

There's still a nagging lack of Nylund but at least they were able to get the next best thing. I hope Staten sticks around; in a best-case scenario they'd make him lead writer again. It'll be interesting to see how he tackles the subject matter — is Shadow of Intent going to be set during the war or in the post-war era? If it's the latter, I'm suspecting we'll see some more Elite on Brute warfare since that's clearly what Bungie was building up towards back in the day before Traviss swept that conflict under the rug, no doubt with 343i's blessing. Aside from that, Frankie's entry sounds particularly intriguing. Halo has been sorely lacking in idea-centric stories and I love me some exploration of the nature of consciousness. I've been led to understand Frankie wrote the bulk of the Halo 3 terminals and if he can bring that same magic to Saint's Testimony, it's going to be a winner. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 05:56, 16 March 2015 (EDT)

I think Halo: Last Light is very intriguing because we don't know much about it (the others we have a cursory understanding of) and it could be hopefully about a vast amount of topics. I'd like to see a narrative from the Ancient Humanity's perspective. SamGall (talk) 15:38, 16 March 2015 (EDT)

I'm most excited about Shadow of Intent, if only because we always need more Halfjaw in our lives, but Saint's Testimony is also really interesting. As for stories I'd like to see - I loved Broken Circle, so I'd love to see more stories set from the Covenant point of view, in a pre- or post-Schism story. Maybe not even involving humanity - maybe we could see a tale of one of the Arbiters settling a crisis in the past, or some Covenant remnant warlord trying to carve out a place for him and his in a complex political landscape. -- Qura 'Morhek ^{The Autocrat of Morheka} 22:46, 16 March 2015 (EDT)

I'd like to see something with the lesser-exposed Covenant species; it's as though most writers treat "Sangheili" as a synonym for "Covenant" with the other races always taking a very secondary role. I get that a lot of people like them a lot (I have nothing against them myself) and it's true they're probably the most prominent of the Covenant species, having most ships and all, but it would be nice to get some variety for a change. Lydus' faction in Escalation did have some of that but that plot didn't really go anywhere; meanwhile, the introduction of "good" San'Shyuum characters was one of the merits of Broken Circle. But I wouldn't mind seeing post-Covenant factions that break the old Covenant mold more radically (as opposed to being Covenant 2.0). Things like an Unggoy warlord, or even the Lekgolo or Yanme'e being treated as something other than alien bad guys. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 05:25, 17 March 2015 (EDT)

*Sees entry from a year ago* Huh, look at that. And also two full-length novels that aren't part by the same author or part of a trilogy. If Broken Circle is any indication, then we might be seeing less direct tie-ins to Halo 5 and more stand-alones. And if Nylund gets brought back for anything, I hope it's for Gray Team.

Wait, where was claimed Frankie wrote the Halo 3 Terminals? I can see the Halo 4 ones, but the Halo 3... Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 02:35, 17 March 2015 (EDT)

I also predicted the ODST novel, though I would never have guessed they'd do it with anyone other than Staten. It turned out alright, though. A little on the edgy side, but not unbearably so.

I think I prefer the idea of standalone novels to strictly established trilogies by a single author. While I really like The Forerunner Saga (despite it taking a while to grow on me), the Kilo-Five Trilogy ultimately amounted to a whole lot of nothing stretched over three books; everything substantial that happened could've been dealt with more concisely in a single novel, while the direct Ghosts of Onyx continuation should've been left for another author. As for Nylund, my top candidate for the subject he should tackle first are the SPARTAN-IIIs — Team Saber, Tom, Lucy, as well as the rest of the forgotten-about Gamma Company. I would absolutely welcome a Glasslands rewrite by him as well. Nylund has been awfully quiet as of late — he last updated his blog over a year ago and his most recent book was released in 2013. Dunno, maybe he's just really busy with his new job. Interestingly, his latest blog post is about the 500th review of TFoR on Amazon, which I would like to take as a subtle hint of things to come, but given his absence from this year's Halo novel lineup I'm starting to think he's done with Halo for good. Nothing is impossible, though.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe Frankie stated he wrote a large portion of the Halo 3 terminals on HBO at some point. The Halo 4 terminals were mostly Brian Reed's work. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 05:25, 17 March 2015 (EDT)