List of Halo novels by release date

This article is about novels by release date. For them grouped by series, see Halo novels.

A compilation of cover art for all of the Halo novels released between 2001 and early 2024.

This page lists all Halo novels and short story anthologies, organised in release order. For a list of books organised via their respective series, see here.

Halo novels by release date

List of novels by release date
Book no.	Novel	Author	Series	Publication date	Summary	Notes
1	Halo: The Fall of Reach	Eric Nylund	The Original Series	October 30, 2001	Details the SPARTAN-II program, the Covenant attack on Reach, and how the UNSC Pillar of Autumn escaped to Halo.	Editions after August 3, 2010 contain updated text and an adjunct section.
2	Halo: The Flood	William C. Dietz	The Original Series	April 1, 2003	The novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved. Also features a number of additional subplots which expand on the events on Installation 04.	Editions after October 13, 2010 contain updated text and an adjunct section.
3	Halo: First Strike	Eric Nylund	The Original Series	December 2, 2003	Fills in the gap between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, explaining the Master Chief's return to Earth and the survival of a number of characters from Reach and Halo.	Editions after December 21, 2010 contain updated text and an adjunct section.
4	Halo: Ghosts of Onyx	Eric Nylund	The Original Series	October 31, 2006	Follows Kurt-051, the training of the Spartan-IIIs on Onyx, and the three-sided battle for the planet in 2552.	N/A
5	Halo: Contact Harvest	Joseph Staten	Standalone	October 30, 2007	Follows Sergeant Avery Johnson and features the events leading up to first contact with the Covenant at Harvest and the beginning of the Human-Covenant War.	N/A
6	Halo: The Cole Protocol	Tobias Buckell	Gray Team series	November 25, 2008	Introduces Gray Team and details the backstories of Jacob Keyes and Thel 'Vadamee.	N/A
7	Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe	Various (anthology release)	Anthology	November 24, 2009	This collection features eleven stories from the perspectives of humans and the Covenant.	In 2010, this compilation was split into two Volumes, with an extra story in both. Volume I contains Soma the Painter, while Volume II contains Wages of Sin; these stories are not contained in later editions.
8	Halo: Cryptum	Greg Bear	The Forerunner Saga	January 4, 2011	Details the experiences of the Forerunner Manipular known as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting and the Didact during the Forerunner-Flood war.	A glossary was released to define certain terms from this novel.
9	Halo: Glasslands	Karen Traviss	Kilo-Five Trilogy	October 25, 2011	Details the state of the Halo universe after the end of the Human-Covenant War and serves as a follow-up to Ghosts of Onyx.	N/A
10	Halo: Primordium	Greg Bear	The Forerunner Saga	January 3, 2012	Details the story of a human known as Chakas and his journey across Installation 07.	N/A
11	Halo: The Thursday War	Karen Traviss	Kilo-Five Trilogy	October 2, 2012	Continues the story of Kilo-Five and humanity's involvement in the Blooding Years.	N/A
12	Halo: Silentium	Greg Bear	The Forerunner Saga	March 19, 2013	Recounts the twilight years of the Forerunner civilization, the Ur-Didact's descent into insanity, and the firing of the Halo Array.	An epilogue/coda for Halo: Silentium was released called Rebirth.
13	Halo: Mortal Dictata	Karen Traviss	Kilo-Five Trilogy	January 21, 2014	Focuses on the Venezian rebel movement threatening Earth and the terrorist Staffan Sentzke's connection to Kilo-Five's Naomi-010.	N/A
14	Halo: Broken Circle	John Shirley	Standalone	November 4, 2014	A story told from the perspective of several Sangheili and San'Shyuum characters during both the beginnings of the Covenant and the Great Schism.	N/A
15	Halo: New Blood	Matt Forbeck	Alpha-Nine series	March 2, 2015	Follows Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck and his squad Alpha-Nine during and after the Human-Covenant War.	The Gallery Books edition released on March 15, 2016 features a coda at the end connecting the novel to Halo 5: Guardians.
16	Halo: Hunters in the Dark	Peter David	Standalone	June 16, 2015	Follows a joint human-Sangheili expedition to the Ark in the post-war era.	N/A
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