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==Prologue== | ==Prologue== | ||
Here is the Prologue! http://enterprise.supadu.com/images/ckfinder/26/pdfs/Halo/44569-Halo-Broken-Circle-Excerpt-Landing-Page.pdf [[User:Codename: SURGEON|Codename: SURGEON]] ([[User talk:Codename: SURGEON|talk]]) 09:35, 29 October 2014 (EDT) | Here is the Prologue! http://enterprise.supadu.com/images/ckfinder/26/pdfs/Halo/44569-Halo-Broken-Circle-Excerpt-Landing-Page.pdf [[User:Codename: SURGEON|Codename: SURGEON]] ([[User talk:Codename: SURGEON|talk]]) 09:35, 29 October 2014 (EDT) | ||
==Impressions== | |||
Finally got around to writing down some thoughts on the book. Overall I thought it was pretty decent and tackled a fresh subject matter. I've never been the biggest Covenant fan but this was a breath of fresh air after a couple of years of fiction focusing almost exclusively on postwar humanity and ''Infinity''. The style had hints of ''The Cole Protocol'' but the aliens were characterized better, IMO; e.g. Sangheili honor obsession is there but it's not taken to the insane levels of ''TCP'', yet each race has their own recognizable voice and mannerisms. The characters themselves aren't too impressive, though—in both eras we have our clearly defined good guys and bad guys with little to no ambiguity. Zo Resken is pretty much future!Mken in every respect, except maybe with less agency. But I did like the introduction of "good" San'Shyuum, something the universe has been severely lacking. I hope the focus on them hints at things to come. | |||
The Prophet of Clarity's story had served as a good companion piece to ''Halo 2''—it was nice seeing these events we've previously only heard about, like the massacre of the Councilors in Delta Halo's control room. But to me, the book ran out of steam after they left High Charity—Shirley may have been given the task of writing a book about the formation of the Covenant and the Great Schism, but it feels he really wanted to tell the <s>Xellulites</s>Ussans' story too (unless 343i has plans for them, which wouldn't be too far-fetched). But in the last part I found myself caring very little about these recently-introduced Ussan characters and their internal struggles. It didn't help that most of the character names were particularly forgettable, apostrophe-ridden alien generica and near the end I had trouble following who was supposed to be who. Add to that the textbook deus ex machina of Enduring Bias reawakening and solving every problem in one fell swoop, which raises the question of whether the last part of the book was more than a tad rushed. | |||
Shirley did his research admirably (or the editing team has gotten better)—I only noticed a couple of mishaps, most prominent of them the way Covenant ages were referenced; the book seems to ignore the numbered ages system and claim that the named ages were all singular, unique periods of time. I like how he solved the [[antigravity belt]] issue: they used to be little more than a relic from a time before antigrav chairs were a thing in the fiction and Shirley made the two coexist reasonably. Tons of obscure things are also namedropped (my favorite of them the [[gravity bridge]]s). Even though it's just as possible Shirley spent a productive day of research on Halopedia, it's still commendable. | |||
Much attention is devoted to the shield world and its supposedly extraordinary disassembly mechanism and while somewhat novel it didn't impress me that much given what we know Forerunner tech can do. When you have full-size Dyson spheres enclosed in compressed spacetime and multi-lightyear hyperspacial defenses, a planet-sized structure that can blow apart and (barely) survive is hardly that extraordinary. It felt more like a second-rate model instead of the final masterpiece of the shield world project it was presented as. | |||
I also wonder if they're even going to revisit the fate of Janjur Qom. Since the Bestiarum there's been an implied aura of mystery to the planet and even the star going supernova is not confirmed (except in the ''Encyclopedia'', though I'd take anything from that book with a grain of salt). While ''Broken Circle'' mentions the star's possible instability, we never get a confirmation of it being destroyed. It's always possible the Prophets continued to raid the Stoics for their females—I doubt a group as small as the one Mken retrieved would be enough to maintain genetic diversity over several thousand years. And what became of the Luminary? I found myself wondering why was Mken's mission treated as a one-shot thing—couldn't the Covenant just send in another party to acquire it? --[[User:Jugus|<font color="MidnightBlue"><b>Jugus</b></font>]] <small>([[User talk:Jugus|<font color="Gray">Talk</font>]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jugus|<font color="Gray">Contribs</font>]])</small> 12:51, 20 November 2014 (EST) | |||