Halo: New Blood

Another winner. Great continuation of the Halo universe. Definitely looking forward to the next book in the series. Glad they are consistent.

Halo: New Blood is the story of Edward Buck during and after the Human-Covenant War. Told in first-person, New Blood opens with Spartans Buck, Agu, and Crespo getting captured on a mission to save Vergil and Sadie from Insurrectionists. We then flashback to Buck's early life as an ODST to his training to become a SPARTAN-IV, eventually returning to the three's present situation.I will get this off my chest right away. New Blood is the story we needed before Halo 4. Not the Traviss novels. Not the comics. This.New Blood actually gave us the foundation and gateway into the SPARTAN-IV program that has been needed since 4's release. When most of our post-4 stories have protagonists who originate from said group and the comic that explored its origins barely lay the foundation and their very first appearance is as a background appearance in a novel's story, you have a problem. How can you relate to a group you barely understand? Thankfully, New Blood fixes that.Following that, lets talk about the characters. Buck feels like Buck. For the most part, I can hear Nathan Fillion's voice when I read Buck's words. The same is true with Dutch in relation to Baldwin. The same can't be said with Mickey and Romeo. They tend to be hit or miss in relation to previous portrayals. Though I guess you can say that, with Mickey, it can be said that he has grown a little and is suffering survivor's guilt, affecting his personality.The Rookie, well, the Rookie is a blank state. He had no future. I will say this, the Rookie's fate is probably the best thing 343 could do. It is the Rookie that causes Dutch to retire and the other three to join the S-IVs. Really, his fate is the best they could of done, a fate that would push the others on to the next level of their development.Following my view on the characters, I would like to talk about one of my favorite things about this story: continuity! We get mention of Dutch's wife and her sidelining injury, Dutch's want to be with her, Romeo resenting Dutch for breaking their pact they made at the end of Halo: Helljumper to retire and be with Gretchen, Mickey's parents being Insurrectionists who were killed, Buck being from Draco III and being unable to be there when the Covenant attacked and slaughtered the populace, the effects of the massacre being the reason Buck met Dare, Buck being helped by Noble Six on Reach, Vergil and Sadie showing up, etc.However, this also presents a problem. New Blood gives the impression that Mickey was a member of Alpha-Nine during the Fall of Reach even though it has been said in the first ViDoc for ODST that he has never seen a glassing, which he would had saw a lot of if he was on Reach with Buck, Dutch, and Romeo. Vergil and Sadie's reappearance felt more like window dressing than a needed addition. Forbeck could had replaced them with someone else and still not make a difference. It is also said that the S-IVs have trackers in their throats, even though neural interfaces being implanted in UNSC troops heads have been a thing since the beginning of the Halo verse. It feel like it was only included to have an excuse to have someone's throat torn out. Plus, the flashback to the events in New Mombasa dragged on for a little too long and didn't really expanded on said events.Overall, I have to say that New Blood is a nice addition to the Halo verse. It expands on old characters and treated them with dignity and hints at things to come with its ending.

Very good book. Goes fast but in the good way. Highly recommend. Hope to read more about spartans.Very good. Yup.

Halo is the franchise that turned me into a hardcore gamer, and Eric Nylund's Halo novels are a very large part of what turned me into an avid reader (sorry Harry Potter). They added depth and character to a universe I already loved, and told stories that were just as exciting as the video games they bridged together.Which makes me wonder, why wasn't THIS book the official bridge between Halo 3 and Halo 4? Karen Traviss's Kilo Five trilogy may have much more substantial links to Halo 4 as far as direct backstory is concerned, but Halo: New Blood does an infinitely better job of setting up the new state of the galaxy in general, and the Spartan-IV program specifically. Halo: New Blood actually FEELS like Halo, and not a sluggish and boring political science thesis like the Kilo Five trilogy did.New Blood also does an excellent job of expanding on the character of Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, the fan-favorite ODST played by Nathan Fillion in the games. Not only do we find out what he and the rest of the characters of Halo 3: ODST have been doing since that game, we also get to see his entire backstory with glimpses of his childhood, early career as an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), and how he first met ONI Captain Veronica Dare. And perhaps the best aspect of this is that Matt Forbeck manages to capture the character of Buck so well that I actually found myself reading this book in Nathan Fillion's voice inside my head. To my knowledge, this is the first Halo novel that has been written in first-person, and using a major game character as that narrator on top of it.This first-person perspective makes it much easier to handle the fact that this novel does not tell a linear narrative. Rather, it reads as more of a stream-of-consciousness piece, as if Buck is actually sitting down with you and telling you this story in person. It makes the reading fun, but also a bit frustrating as some important scenes cut away to different ones that take place years in the past. As I said, the first-person narration makes these jumps easy to follow, but those looking for a linear narrative will not find one here.In the end, Halo: New Blood is the best Halo book since Eric Nylund's Halo: First Strike, and I hope Matt Forbeck writes another one.

Ótimo livroRecomendo

This book was fabulous! Not only do you get a continuation from Halo 3 ODST but you get more of a story behind the Spartan IVs. Sadly this book does contain many sad and mentally tearing sentences that are surely hard too read and fathom after playing the games but it all puts the halo universe into perspective. Too all you halo fans I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have :)

Good read, nice backstory to a good character, the first person approach didn't really suit at times

Edward Buck, o querido ODST de Halo, torna-se Spartan. O livro descreve a transição e prepara um dos personagens essenciais do Halo 5: Guardians.

At first I was a bit annoyed at how the story was based on flashbacks of flashbacks, however, the author managed to weave a very interesting tale that had me gripped as well as impressed. Stick with it, it is good writing.