Halo: The Rubicon Protocol (30)

If you loved halo infinite and all its lore like I did this is the book for you. It goes into detail the 6 months before chief arrived on the ring. It’s absolutely worth the read, so much emotion, so much great storytelling

Great story that really should've been referenced in halo infinite. It gives a voice to the characters we find in-game

This novel paints a good picture of the situation on zeta halo prior to the events of halo infinite's campaign. As far as adding anything of value to the narrative, it doesnt do very much. It does have some cool moments though and adds some context to locations and scenes you'll recognize if youve played the game and paid attention. Its a solid read, and if you're going to pick up any of the halo novels from the past 10 or so years, this should be one of them.

Great book full of memorable characters and an engaging plot. Best Halo book I've read in while. Things are looking uncertain but uncertainty breeds creativity.

Gay is an excellent writer in general and her Halo work is unmatched in my opinion. Her characters behave and talk like real people - even the Spartans. She writes for adults and it really shoes in comparison to the others. There is none of the self-pitying "oorah" culture on display here. Everyone knows the risks and acts credibly.If you've played Infinite you have had spoilers. If you read this before you play, there are spoilers. The book fills the gap between the destruction of Infinity and the revival of 117.Highly recommended - and read her other stuff too!

Ever wondered about the Spartans, Soldiers, Battle Fields, and Tech you find laying around on Zeta Halo as you played the game? Or just wanted to get a feel for the newest story arc in Halo?In this book, you get everything from personalities and backstories of the people you came across from battles and Audio Logs in the Halo Infinite game to additional opportunities to explore Zeta Halo from another sensory experience. Overall, what an amazing way to give lore hungry fans their own "DLC"!

Kelly Gay has been one of the better new-age Halo writers. She first wrote a short story in Halo: Evolutions. That was expanded into Smoke and Shadow and is now part of a trilogy that follows Rion Forge (Sgt. Forge from Halo Wars) and Chakas/343 Guilty Spark/Spark and the Ace of Spades crew around the galaxy. That series is very good because Gay can write adventure, mystery, and sci-fi "discovery" type novels well.This book, however, finds the author writing about all the minor characters of Halo: Infinite. She does not do a great job, at all. The battles are skipped over. One chapter ends basically with "they prepared for the battle" and the next chapter starts with "ok the battle is finished". There is no Tobias S. Buckell (The Cole Protocol) style of ship-to-ship battle tactician and nuance. There is no Eric Nylund (the original trilogy of books, not counting William Dietz' The Flood; more on the later in a moment) style of individual hand-to-hand or squad-to-squad based combat. There is no Troy Denning style of battlefield-overview with a bit of the engagements/skirmishes that were found in the Blue Team prequel side-stories.The book felt rushed in its pacing. The book also felt rushed, despite being delayed twice, over a year, because they added literally 14 (7 back and front) pages to have 343 pages (I see what you did, there), with 10 pages (5 back and front) of advertisements. They literally list the book and title three times, once on the cover, with two other pages... insanity.The sub-characters introduced to support the minor characters basically get brought into the story to die (no spoilers, but if you know how Halo: Infinite starts, you already sorta know). There are minor mentions of the High Value Targets (HVTs) from the campaign. The audio logs found in the game, narrated by Spartan Horvath, are sorta-canonized but aren't referenced.This is also the first book in 20+ books, since before Halo 4 (mind you this is book 30), that does not have an Epilogue. There is basically no resolution. It ends on a cliffhanger, literally, as Spartan Horvath is on a mountainside. There is no set-up for what is to come. There is no teaser for "ooohhh 343 has some big lore plans". There is no update on the Infinity, Blue Team, Fireteam Osiris (like them or not, they're characters in the lore still), Halsey, Palmer, Lasky. Alive? Who knows? Does 343 even know or are they just waiting for the court of public opinion to give a loud enough voice to decide what to do with these people they've spent the last 10 years building for them? The ONLY thing this book does is, in reference to Horvath above, end with him in a snowy landscape.What should that remind you of? One of the two-thirds of Halo: Infinite that was cut. We got the Pacific Northwest scenery, landscape, and open-world that was this game (and reminiscent of the level Halo, from Halo: CE). They cut the beach/ocean/water levels, as well as the snowy areas that were featured in levels 5, Assault on the Control Room, and 8, Two Betrayals (a reversal of 2/3 of level 5), both in Halo: CE. The ending of this book is basically a teaser of what COULD come as the "promised" "campaign DLC" that 343 talked about introducing over a year ago, but hasn't said anything since discussing cutting 2/3 of the game.Buy this book if you are looking for something to read that is Halo; as plain and simplistic as that reads. Buy this book knowing it's not anywhere close to the best the extended-universe lore has to offer. Buy this book if you are waiting for the next 6 months when Halo: Outcasts (with Spartan Vale of Fireteam Osiris and the Arbiter (does he even need an introduction?) on the cover) comes out or the next year when Halo: Epitaph (with the return of the Ur-Didact from Halo 4 and rumors to discuss the Halo map of the same name and the still-yet-untranslated after 12 years Forerunner Glyphs).Don't buy this book if you're looking for explanations as to what happened in that gap between the opening cutscene of Halo: Infinite and level 1 where Chief gets woken up by the Pilot Fernandooooooo. Don't buy this book unless you found Halo: The Flood to be worthwhile. That book is the black sheep of the original 4 (Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, and Ghosts of Onyx), just like this one is her worst book of the 4 Gay has written, for Halo. Don't buy this book unless you like exposition and character driven stories versus plot, action, guns and military stuff 300 years in the future from now, which is what Halo is all about.Final thoughts: It was nice to see all the extra ships, vehicles, guns, and equipment that have existed in other Halo games (Halo Wars 1, 2, for ex.) and books. Both Bungie and 343 have been known to not include things in-game because it doesn't fit the single player campaign narrative or the multiplayer balancing, but them acknowledging things in these books shows that they know people, the fans, still care about Wolverines or Seraphs, for example.

I wont spoil it but stupidly good. If you love HALO, and love desperate scenarios, this is that book. Horror without being horror, one of my favorite books from the Franchise.

Pour tous les fans de Halo, ce livre nous donne plus de détails sur les événements du dernier jeu Infinite. A lire.

Cuenta la historia desde el ataque a la UNSC Infinity hasta el inicio de Halo Infinity, todo muy bien detallado y narrado, muy buen libro.

it didnt come wrapped in a protective plastic. I wanted it once wrapped and another one for reading bc the book looks pretty nice on its self

Il serait plaisant de recevoir un livre neuf en parfaite condition (quand on paye effectivement pour cela) et non un livre avec la reliure abimée. Merci.

All books have their moments where it seems bleak and the characters have to rally and hope; this book never lets up, things go from bad to worse. The story was interesting and a good way of filling the backstory for the Halo Infinite game but I found it depressing and it didn’t have a very satisfying ending because the game is essentially the ending.