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The Forerunner Saga #1
Halo: Cryptum (Forerunner Saga, #1)
The first novel in the Forerunner Saga trilogy by science fiction legend Greg Bear--set in the Halo universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series!One hundred thousand years ago, the galaxy was populated by a great variety of beings. But one species--eons beyond all others in both technology and knowledge--achieved dominance. They ruled in peace, but met opposition with quick and brutal effectiveness. They were the Forerunners--the keepers of the Mantle of Responsibility, the next stage of life in the Universe's Living Time. And then they vanished. This is their story.
Audio CD
First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Greg Bear
228 books2,094 followersGreg Bear was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict (Forge of God books), parallel universes (The Way series), consciousness and cultural practices (Queen of Angels), and accelerated evolution (Blood Music, Darwin’s Radio, and Darwin’s Children). His last work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. Greg Bear wrote over 50 books in total.
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
(For a more complete biography, see Wikipedia.)
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September 6, 2013
Halo: Cryptum Review
Prequels tend to suck. That’s a fact that many a fan has had to deal with when reconciling unwelcome additions to their favorite franchises; the on-going chagrin for the Star Wars prequels is telling enough, but even more recent reactions to the Star Trek and Spider Man origin story rehashes (addendum: similar complaints are rumbling about The Man of Steel) remind us that, especially where highly elaborate fiction is involved, ignorance really can be bliss. Don’t take me wrong: surrounding a story in un-created space is akin to drowning it in negligence, but structured, intentional mystery is a welcome and necessary function of the appeal for many genre stories. It is surprising then that 343 Studios, which now controls and operates the Halo license, decided to abandon all of that mysterious charm and publish a trilogy of books that flesh out and characterize the climactic moments of the ancient inception point: the creation of the titular Halos that form the grounds for all subsequent conflicts in the series. And, perhaps not unexpectedly, the first entry in the trilogy stumbles pretty hard.
Now, it is certainly pertinent to admit that my experience with Greg Bear, the author of the Forerunner trilogy, is limited. I own several of his books, but, despite having won a plethora of Hugos and Nebulas, I’ve never felt compelled to pull one of his novels off my shelf and crack it open. Among all of my science fiction fan friends, I’ve never once had a recommendation to read a Greg Bear book--in fact, I’m the only one who owns a Bear book, to my knowledge. So I have to acknowledge that going into reading Halo: Cryptum, I was more a bit suspicious of the “star power” that 343 had been boasting since signing Bear up to write. I can safely report that the book is competently written, and successfully employs an appropriately immense scope to qualify for the Halo moniker. That’s a good start; from the outset I was curious to see where his colorful, highly personal prose was going, because it doesn’t start where you’d expect a Halo novel to begin.
Indeed, Cryptum is set 100,000 years in the past--specifically just a few years before Forerunner empire is set to implode under the encroaching pressures of the parasitic Flood. It also stars, as its main focal point, a young Forerunner named Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, rated as a Manipular in the Builder Caste, sent to serve with Miners after failing to live up to the standards of his Second-Form father, who is a close associate of the Master Builder. Now, the untrained eye likely gave up on that last sentence, but it is a good representation of the level of jargon that clutters Cryptum’s guts. This is what I consider to be the most fundamental flaw of the book and the one that I want to discuss first and foremost, since what lies beyond the language barrier is a perfectly acceptable space-adventure novel with just enough familiar elements to tie it into the Halo milieu. Bear pulls no punches; the book is written in a limited first person voice that attempts to pass the jargon off naturally, and he does a commendable job of doing just that. However, that doesn’t mean it is enjoyable to have to constantly parse a section for relatable meaning. In seeking to make the Forerunner less mysterious and more comprehensible, the use of Jargon succeeds in a Frankenstein of success and alienating distancing.
That factor brings me to a second criticism that stuck with me throughout the novel. I consider it one of the cardinal rules of writing to never write from a non-human perspective. Being a human, and a man at that, I find it nearly impossible to authentically empathize with a non-human (and sometimes even non-male) being; I lack the equipment to do a genuine job of it, and any attempt will necessarily result in a bad analogue. My experiences are colored by my brain’s perceptions of the world and my local-ephemeral context, which means that I can sympathize, for example, with a hungry dog, I can’t really know what it’s like to be hungry for a dog. I can relate my experience to this other animal and assume equanimity in the vacuous feeling of not eating, but it isn’t a 1:1 match, and never can be. Likewise, to be frank and perhaps offensive, I can sympathize with menstrual cramps, having been kicked in the ‘nads before, but I only have ovary-analogues which lead a necessarily distinct pain from that which a woman suffers. I can’t empathize with something that I am not, and empathizing with an alien being, which hails from a civilization not thousands of years old, but millions, is far beyond my frame of reference. It seems, by that reckoning, ridiculous to write from the perspective of such a being, and indeed I would argue that it is an injustice to the fiction to assume that Forerunner mentality is so familiar to our own that it can be so casually assumed by a human audience.
The jargon, therefore, attempts to validate that empathic void left by the alien narrator’s fundamental difference from a human perspective, but it is an improper and exceptionally limited illusion. Once the real-world analogue to these concepts is internalized, they become silly, colorful synonyms that clutter the text rather than develop the character of the Forerunner civilization; I tended to read it like I do highly politicized speech: fancy words that obfuscate meaning, rather than convey nuance. I don’t like books that do that (and I’m drawing a line here between Shakespeare, which is prosey and artistic, and a modern day romance writer who bedecks the work in violet metaphor for the sole sake of drawing out the word count); I like my plot complex and rich, not the nonsense fantasy vocabulary that overlays it. Character motivation is much more important to me than the nomenclature of a character’s armor and its components.
Thankfully, there is character to be had in Cryptum. It just isn’t enough to overcome the sour impression of the jargon-filled pages. As mentioned before, the book tells the story of Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, a Forerunner Manipular (read: child) of the builder caste (read: wealthy architectural/scholarly class) from Bornstellar’s perspective. It opens with him on Erde-Tyrene (read: Earth), crossing a sea to visit an island that his ancilla (read: AI) told him held clues to finding the Oraganon (read: buried treasure). In essence, this is a book about a young man searching for treasure. He brings with him Chakas and Riser (a “florian,” or “hobbit”; click here for more actual information on this real life (but extinct) hominid), two humans who behave very strangely when they reach the strange ring-shaped island where once Riser’s family made its home. Indeed, we learn that these two humans have a “geas” or a god-given fate to call forth the great treasure Bornstellar is after. Thus comes the titular Cryptum, wherein lies the Didact in his dreaming un-death. Ugh. The purple prose.
All of this requires enormous context to understand, but it happens very quickly in the book; what is related above is just the first half of the first act within the novel. Because Riser and Chakas are ignorant, filthy little humans, Bornstellar has no one to discuss these concepts through dialogue: no audience stand-in, and so much of the necessary back-story comes through often clumsy info-dumps that take the form of imaginative and introspective soliloquies that spring ex nihilo. For big fans of the franchise, these will read like nuggets of gold, for sure; they hearken back to the Terminals that are scattered through the Halo games’ campaigns. But as a literary function, I found the writing in that regard to be sloppy and ugly. It has the effect of drawing out what was, in reality, a very brief period of time within the novel into a long and dry side-bar.
Once the Didact is awakened and restored to healthy strength, he kidnaps Bornstellar and his human companions and drags them around the galaxy on some unknown mission. During this odyssey, Bear stretches his sci-fi legs; we hear of enormous battles filled with thousands of ships, of solar-system sized quarantines fenced off by trillions of drones swimming in and out of slipspace (read: hyperspace), and of the true might of the Forerunner Civilization. A lot of what fills the second half of Halo: Cryptum is genuinely fun. It’s a swashbuckling space adventure, wherein a band of hapless heroes undertake a quest they don’t truly understand. Bornstellar’s ignorance relative to the ancient Didact flips the novel on its head; his smarmy know-everything attitude that colors him wise at the beginning is soon revealed to be a sham: he’s a twelve-year old (literally (in earth years? Not sure)) compared to the Didact’s ten thousand year life, the last thousand of which has been spent in near-death suspension within the Cryptum. The concepts get big and broad, as befits a Halo novel, but, unlike my experience with the extraterrestrial conglomerate, the Covenant, which serves as the antagonist in other Halo books, the more I learned of the Forerunner culture the less interesting I found it.
In very brief, Forerunner civilization is a distended, time-dilated amalgam of caste-based life and pseudo-democracy. Their reach spans more than three million worlds, and tens of millions of years; they’ve noted more than 127 species of intelligent life and waged a wild, reckless battle with the ancestors to Humans. Yet, each Forerunner we meet appears to be a total self-centered schemer, or else a hopelessly romantic ignoramus lost in the “glory days.” And we do meet precious few; there are no teeming cities filled with Forerunners, no city-ships akin to Iain Bank’s GSV’s which house hundreds of millions of souls. Indeed, for a massive, nearly omnipotent civilization, the Forerunner are remarkably absent from their own affairs. The effect reminded me of the representation of Asgard from the 2011’s Thor: a rich set of splendid structures utterly devoid of a real populace. That’s lame. Forerunner civilization lacks the impressive strides taken to flesh out and characterize the other races within Halo. It’s almost as if they’re already dead.
As a reader, it made the entire episode feel melodramatic; whenever the “Forerunner civilization” was threatened, especially in the climactic final chapters, I had no stake in the game. There was no Thessia, crisscrossed with beautiful amphibious cities, no Vavitch Orbital that hadn’t yet evacuated its half-oblivious populous. Just empty halls as crypt-like as they are in the Halo games themselves.
So, while the book is a competent novel, it lacks the character and personality present in many of the other, earlier novels, and doesn’t hold a candle to the first entry in Karen Traviss’ Halo: Glasslands, which is the first in another trilogy within the series. I can’t help but think that Bornstellar is something of a wasted opportunity, for all of his intrigue and Bear’s genuine skill in building him out to be a living narrator goes to waste on a story that feels at once distended and over-thin. Indeed, having read so many other game books for the Games as Lit podcast, I find it hard to believe that this wasn’t a committee-chosen contract job. It takes many of the right steps towards a genuinely interesting, but it feels machined rather than crafted. For example the Forerunner perspective seems angled specifically to introduce and crash-course readers in Forerunner jargon to prepare them for Halo 4. A human’s perspective--especially a diminished Human--would have a similar perspective of the Forerunner from that of the current characters: that they’re aloof, long-lived demigods parading in armor and playing out their arcane politics on the scale of galaxies. And to an extent, that is true even with Bornstellar as a narrator. I just couldn’t really come to grips with the justifications for how Forerunners treat one another, or why such a massive civilization has the problems that it apparently does.
I find it a shame that the book leaves such a bad first impression, but I can’t help but feel that this is the final product of some calculated committee that was tasked with deciding how the book would pan out. It is an acceptable read that doesn’t know how to unravel its own mysteries with anything like the grace of the first three games. Thankfully, Cryptum is part of a trilogy with an arc most fans already understand. That gives Bear what I think is a considerable advantage; the first book can (and is) largely an introductory but expendable installation used to set the stakes. By Cryptum’s end, players are familiar with the expanse of Forerunner civilization and power, however, ridiculous, and with the basic politics of the events that lead up to the rings being fired and the Forerunners being eliminated. Aya.
Prequels tend to suck. That’s a fact that many a fan has had to deal with when reconciling unwelcome additions to their favorite franchises; the on-going chagrin for the Star Wars prequels is telling enough, but even more recent reactions to the Star Trek and Spider Man origin story rehashes (addendum: similar complaints are rumbling about The Man of Steel) remind us that, especially where highly elaborate fiction is involved, ignorance really can be bliss. Don’t take me wrong: surrounding a story in un-created space is akin to drowning it in negligence, but structured, intentional mystery is a welcome and necessary function of the appeal for many genre stories. It is surprising then that 343 Studios, which now controls and operates the Halo license, decided to abandon all of that mysterious charm and publish a trilogy of books that flesh out and characterize the climactic moments of the ancient inception point: the creation of the titular Halos that form the grounds for all subsequent conflicts in the series. And, perhaps not unexpectedly, the first entry in the trilogy stumbles pretty hard.
Now, it is certainly pertinent to admit that my experience with Greg Bear, the author of the Forerunner trilogy, is limited. I own several of his books, but, despite having won a plethora of Hugos and Nebulas, I’ve never felt compelled to pull one of his novels off my shelf and crack it open. Among all of my science fiction fan friends, I’ve never once had a recommendation to read a Greg Bear book--in fact, I’m the only one who owns a Bear book, to my knowledge. So I have to acknowledge that going into reading Halo: Cryptum, I was more a bit suspicious of the “star power” that 343 had been boasting since signing Bear up to write. I can safely report that the book is competently written, and successfully employs an appropriately immense scope to qualify for the Halo moniker. That’s a good start; from the outset I was curious to see where his colorful, highly personal prose was going, because it doesn’t start where you’d expect a Halo novel to begin.
Indeed, Cryptum is set 100,000 years in the past--specifically just a few years before Forerunner empire is set to implode under the encroaching pressures of the parasitic Flood. It also stars, as its main focal point, a young Forerunner named Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, rated as a Manipular in the Builder Caste, sent to serve with Miners after failing to live up to the standards of his Second-Form father, who is a close associate of the Master Builder. Now, the untrained eye likely gave up on that last sentence, but it is a good representation of the level of jargon that clutters Cryptum’s guts. This is what I consider to be the most fundamental flaw of the book and the one that I want to discuss first and foremost, since what lies beyond the language barrier is a perfectly acceptable space-adventure novel with just enough familiar elements to tie it into the Halo milieu. Bear pulls no punches; the book is written in a limited first person voice that attempts to pass the jargon off naturally, and he does a commendable job of doing just that. However, that doesn’t mean it is enjoyable to have to constantly parse a section for relatable meaning. In seeking to make the Forerunner less mysterious and more comprehensible, the use of Jargon succeeds in a Frankenstein of success and alienating distancing.
That factor brings me to a second criticism that stuck with me throughout the novel. I consider it one of the cardinal rules of writing to never write from a non-human perspective. Being a human, and a man at that, I find it nearly impossible to authentically empathize with a non-human (and sometimes even non-male) being; I lack the equipment to do a genuine job of it, and any attempt will necessarily result in a bad analogue. My experiences are colored by my brain’s perceptions of the world and my local-ephemeral context, which means that I can sympathize, for example, with a hungry dog, I can’t really know what it’s like to be hungry for a dog. I can relate my experience to this other animal and assume equanimity in the vacuous feeling of not eating, but it isn’t a 1:1 match, and never can be. Likewise, to be frank and perhaps offensive, I can sympathize with menstrual cramps, having been kicked in the ‘nads before, but I only have ovary-analogues which lead a necessarily distinct pain from that which a woman suffers. I can’t empathize with something that I am not, and empathizing with an alien being, which hails from a civilization not thousands of years old, but millions, is far beyond my frame of reference. It seems, by that reckoning, ridiculous to write from the perspective of such a being, and indeed I would argue that it is an injustice to the fiction to assume that Forerunner mentality is so familiar to our own that it can be so casually assumed by a human audience.
The jargon, therefore, attempts to validate that empathic void left by the alien narrator’s fundamental difference from a human perspective, but it is an improper and exceptionally limited illusion. Once the real-world analogue to these concepts is internalized, they become silly, colorful synonyms that clutter the text rather than develop the character of the Forerunner civilization; I tended to read it like I do highly politicized speech: fancy words that obfuscate meaning, rather than convey nuance. I don’t like books that do that (and I’m drawing a line here between Shakespeare, which is prosey and artistic, and a modern day romance writer who bedecks the work in violet metaphor for the sole sake of drawing out the word count); I like my plot complex and rich, not the nonsense fantasy vocabulary that overlays it. Character motivation is much more important to me than the nomenclature of a character’s armor and its components.
Thankfully, there is character to be had in Cryptum. It just isn’t enough to overcome the sour impression of the jargon-filled pages. As mentioned before, the book tells the story of Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, a Forerunner Manipular (read: child) of the builder caste (read: wealthy architectural/scholarly class) from Bornstellar’s perspective. It opens with him on Erde-Tyrene (read: Earth), crossing a sea to visit an island that his ancilla (read: AI) told him held clues to finding the Oraganon (read: buried treasure). In essence, this is a book about a young man searching for treasure. He brings with him Chakas and Riser (a “florian,” or “hobbit”; click here for more actual information on this real life (but extinct) hominid), two humans who behave very strangely when they reach the strange ring-shaped island where once Riser’s family made its home. Indeed, we learn that these two humans have a “geas” or a god-given fate to call forth the great treasure Bornstellar is after. Thus comes the titular Cryptum, wherein lies the Didact in his dreaming un-death. Ugh. The purple prose.
All of this requires enormous context to understand, but it happens very quickly in the book; what is related above is just the first half of the first act within the novel. Because Riser and Chakas are ignorant, filthy little humans, Bornstellar has no one to discuss these concepts through dialogue: no audience stand-in, and so much of the necessary back-story comes through often clumsy info-dumps that take the form of imaginative and introspective soliloquies that spring ex nihilo. For big fans of the franchise, these will read like nuggets of gold, for sure; they hearken back to the Terminals that are scattered through the Halo games’ campaigns. But as a literary function, I found the writing in that regard to be sloppy and ugly. It has the effect of drawing out what was, in reality, a very brief period of time within the novel into a long and dry side-bar.
Once the Didact is awakened and restored to healthy strength, he kidnaps Bornstellar and his human companions and drags them around the galaxy on some unknown mission. During this odyssey, Bear stretches his sci-fi legs; we hear of enormous battles filled with thousands of ships, of solar-system sized quarantines fenced off by trillions of drones swimming in and out of slipspace (read: hyperspace), and of the true might of the Forerunner Civilization. A lot of what fills the second half of Halo: Cryptum is genuinely fun. It’s a swashbuckling space adventure, wherein a band of hapless heroes undertake a quest they don’t truly understand. Bornstellar’s ignorance relative to the ancient Didact flips the novel on its head; his smarmy know-everything attitude that colors him wise at the beginning is soon revealed to be a sham: he’s a twelve-year old (literally (in earth years? Not sure)) compared to the Didact’s ten thousand year life, the last thousand of which has been spent in near-death suspension within the Cryptum. The concepts get big and broad, as befits a Halo novel, but, unlike my experience with the extraterrestrial conglomerate, the Covenant, which serves as the antagonist in other Halo books, the more I learned of the Forerunner culture the less interesting I found it.
In very brief, Forerunner civilization is a distended, time-dilated amalgam of caste-based life and pseudo-democracy. Their reach spans more than three million worlds, and tens of millions of years; they’ve noted more than 127 species of intelligent life and waged a wild, reckless battle with the ancestors to Humans. Yet, each Forerunner we meet appears to be a total self-centered schemer, or else a hopelessly romantic ignoramus lost in the “glory days.” And we do meet precious few; there are no teeming cities filled with Forerunners, no city-ships akin to Iain Bank’s GSV’s which house hundreds of millions of souls. Indeed, for a massive, nearly omnipotent civilization, the Forerunner are remarkably absent from their own affairs. The effect reminded me of the representation of Asgard from the 2011’s Thor: a rich set of splendid structures utterly devoid of a real populace. That’s lame. Forerunner civilization lacks the impressive strides taken to flesh out and characterize the other races within Halo. It’s almost as if they’re already dead.
As a reader, it made the entire episode feel melodramatic; whenever the “Forerunner civilization” was threatened, especially in the climactic final chapters, I had no stake in the game. There was no Thessia, crisscrossed with beautiful amphibious cities, no Vavitch Orbital that hadn’t yet evacuated its half-oblivious populous. Just empty halls as crypt-like as they are in the Halo games themselves.
So, while the book is a competent novel, it lacks the character and personality present in many of the other, earlier novels, and doesn’t hold a candle to the first entry in Karen Traviss’ Halo: Glasslands, which is the first in another trilogy within the series. I can’t help but think that Bornstellar is something of a wasted opportunity, for all of his intrigue and Bear’s genuine skill in building him out to be a living narrator goes to waste on a story that feels at once distended and over-thin. Indeed, having read so many other game books for the Games as Lit podcast, I find it hard to believe that this wasn’t a committee-chosen contract job. It takes many of the right steps towards a genuinely interesting, but it feels machined rather than crafted. For example the Forerunner perspective seems angled specifically to introduce and crash-course readers in Forerunner jargon to prepare them for Halo 4. A human’s perspective--especially a diminished Human--would have a similar perspective of the Forerunner from that of the current characters: that they’re aloof, long-lived demigods parading in armor and playing out their arcane politics on the scale of galaxies. And to an extent, that is true even with Bornstellar as a narrator. I just couldn’t really come to grips with the justifications for how Forerunners treat one another, or why such a massive civilization has the problems that it apparently does.
I find it a shame that the book leaves such a bad first impression, but I can’t help but feel that this is the final product of some calculated committee that was tasked with deciding how the book would pan out. It is an acceptable read that doesn’t know how to unravel its own mysteries with anything like the grace of the first three games. Thankfully, Cryptum is part of a trilogy with an arc most fans already understand. That gives Bear what I think is a considerable advantage; the first book can (and is) largely an introductory but expendable installation used to set the stakes. By Cryptum’s end, players are familiar with the expanse of Forerunner civilization and power, however, ridiculous, and with the basic politics of the events that lead up to the rings being fired and the Forerunners being eliminated. Aya.
October 27, 2021
I read this book YEARS ago and I remember loving it. I've been a big Halo fan since the early 2000s and to be honest, I still think this is the best sci-fi world I've experienced.
For those who aren't aware (or aren't video game fans) Halo: Combat Evolved was a video game that was released in 2001 and is credited for modernizing the first person shooter genre. Robust lore was created for the game and the storytelling was awesome. Halo is definitely one of the entertainment pieces that most defined my childhood and teen years, and it is what got me into sci fi. It's everything I want in a sci fi story, and I know a lot of people may roll their eyes... "A video game?? Really??" Yes. It's that good.
The lore of Halo is fantastic and it has such a rich backstory that has spawned books and tons of fodder for new adventures and stories to be told. I remember reading Cryptum because I was very much interested in the Forerunners, which you really don't know much about when playing the games. At the time I wasn't a big reader but I couldn't put this down.
Anyway, I don't know if you would enjoy this if you haven't heard of Halo. However I do recommend any sci fi fans to check out the world of Halo because the lore is incredible. I've been obsessed with Halo since I was 7 and I'm now 25 and still love it.
For those who aren't aware (or aren't video game fans) Halo: Combat Evolved was a video game that was released in 2001 and is credited for modernizing the first person shooter genre. Robust lore was created for the game and the storytelling was awesome. Halo is definitely one of the entertainment pieces that most defined my childhood and teen years, and it is what got me into sci fi. It's everything I want in a sci fi story, and I know a lot of people may roll their eyes... "A video game?? Really??" Yes. It's that good.
The lore of Halo is fantastic and it has such a rich backstory that has spawned books and tons of fodder for new adventures and stories to be told. I remember reading Cryptum because I was very much interested in the Forerunners, which you really don't know much about when playing the games. At the time I wasn't a big reader but I couldn't put this down.
Anyway, I don't know if you would enjoy this if you haven't heard of Halo. However I do recommend any sci fi fans to check out the world of Halo because the lore is incredible. I've been obsessed with Halo since I was 7 and I'm now 25 and still love it.
April 8, 2025
Update: I listened to about 30% of Primordium and will be dnfing the series.
This is different...okay it was terrible. I saw somewhere that Greg Bear is to science fiction what Stephen King is for horror and I'm not a King fan so idk what this means 😂
I'm conflicted bc Eric Nylund and William Dietz rocked my world in prev Halo books, I read them so quickly, and it's Halo so the urge and desire to give it a higher rating is there but I can't justify it.
This is different...okay it was terrible. I saw somewhere that Greg Bear is to science fiction what Stephen King is for horror and I'm not a King fan so idk what this means 😂
I'm conflicted bc Eric Nylund and William Dietz rocked my world in prev Halo books, I read them so quickly, and it's Halo so the urge and desire to give it a higher rating is there but I can't justify it.
February 9, 2014
Greg Bear completely destroyed my fond ideology of an advanced, peaceful and selfless alien society in this book by interpreting the Forerunners as a species more closely resembling modern day humans with an appetite for politics, control and war. Mindless techno babble dominates seemingly every page as if readers are engineer experts on this fictional technology. Lack of a antagonist makes for a boring read as well as the awkward historical revelations of humankind's war with the Forerunner's which states Humans to be the Forerunners' greatest foe ever to be faced despite the fact all humans are some how captured by the Forerunners and dumbed down by genetically reversing evolution and splitting species. Let's face it, when it comes to Halo we want action, naval battles and righteous warriors facing nihilistic odds of survival.
January 17, 2012
This is the start of a trilogy detailing the rise of the Forerunners in the Halo world. The first book is by Greg Bear as is the second.
In this start to the Forerunner Saga we meet a very young Forerunner named Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting who just can’t sit still it appears. He is obsessed with the past and sneaks away to look for lost treasures.
Contrary to his Dad’s instructions he strikes out for a planet called Erde-Tyrene where it is rumoured that ancient Forerunner and Precursor technology lies waiting to be discovered. Bornstellar finds two humans that are willing to take him to a special place that is hidden from direct site either on land or from the air.
There the young Forerunner activates an ancient cryptum that contains a warrior who has been asleep for over a thousand years.
Soon Bornstellar and his two human guides are on a ship with the warrior and on their way to stop a plot to destroy the centre of Forerunner Technology. Along the way Bornstellar is linked to the warrior as he mutates to a higher state in the Forerunner hierarchy.
Great forces are at odds with the Forerunner political elite and we are introduced to not only Halo and what they were created for, but also the background to the Flood, and the Ark.
This book is a great start to describing in more detail how the Forerunner dominance of space occurred and who their enemies were.
I can’t wait to get a copy of the second book which came out this month (January 2012)
In this start to the Forerunner Saga we meet a very young Forerunner named Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting who just can’t sit still it appears. He is obsessed with the past and sneaks away to look for lost treasures.
Contrary to his Dad’s instructions he strikes out for a planet called Erde-Tyrene where it is rumoured that ancient Forerunner and Precursor technology lies waiting to be discovered. Bornstellar finds two humans that are willing to take him to a special place that is hidden from direct site either on land or from the air.
There the young Forerunner activates an ancient cryptum that contains a warrior who has been asleep for over a thousand years.
Soon Bornstellar and his two human guides are on a ship with the warrior and on their way to stop a plot to destroy the centre of Forerunner Technology. Along the way Bornstellar is linked to the warrior as he mutates to a higher state in the Forerunner hierarchy.
Great forces are at odds with the Forerunner political elite and we are introduced to not only Halo and what they were created for, but also the background to the Flood, and the Ark.
This book is a great start to describing in more detail how the Forerunner dominance of space occurred and who their enemies were.
I can’t wait to get a copy of the second book which came out this month (January 2012)
August 3, 2022
I picked this one up to meet a prompt for a bingo readathon (based on a video game). I’ve been leaning towards more sci-fi lately so I thought this would be fun to try out. Sadly, while having some intriguing parts to the story, overall it didn’t quite work for me. If you are a fan of the games though, this could potentially work much better for you. I myself am not a gamer so I didn’t have that investment beforehand. I do have to say though that I did enjoy the narrator.
June 27, 2020
DNF. There were less than 20 pages left to read and yet I couldn’t muster up any f*cks to see how it ended.
April 21, 2021
There is not one action scene in this entire book. Is that . . . even possible? I don't think I know of any sci-fi or fantasy book that doesn't have one fight or battle scene. This has genuinely blown my mind. The ending part is technically action, but not really. No shots fired, no punches thrown, no swords slashed. Absolutely nothing. This whole book is talking. That said, I still really liked it. The lore was awesome and the way it connects everything to the originals was fun.
I can see why some did not enjoy this book, as it is far different than every other book in the series. This was its own thing for sure. It sets itself apart. It is my least favourite of the series. But this just shows why Halo is my favourite book series of all time, because I still liked Cryptum. These books are just too good.
I can't wait to learn more about the Primordial. I've already been spoiled for many things by watching YouTube lore videos, but getting the context will add so much to the experience.
I can see why some did not enjoy this book, as it is far different than every other book in the series. This was its own thing for sure. It sets itself apart. It is my least favourite of the series. But this just shows why Halo is my favourite book series of all time, because I still liked Cryptum. These books are just too good.
I can't wait to learn more about the Primordial. I've already been spoiled for many things by watching YouTube lore videos, but getting the context will add so much to the experience.
March 28, 2012
I had the hardest time following this storyline. I love Halo and was particularly interested in the Forerunner Saga, but lord does this book have a high learning curve. There are times where I would get so frustrated with all these unexplained (and conveniently Alien named) objects that my imagination would be working overtime in order to create an image of what the author was trying to write about. The best I can say about this book is that it takes work to read, even for me and I have a fantastic imagination.
Perhaps if I read more of Greg Bear I'd be more used to his imagery.
Perhaps if I read more of Greg Bear I'd be more used to his imagery.
March 17, 2024
“There are points in life when everything changes, and changes in a big way. The old sophistic texts refer to these points as synchrons. Synchrons supposedly tie great forces and personalities together. You can’t predict them and you can’t avoid them. Only rarely can you feel them. They are like knots creeping forward on your string of time. Ultimately, they tie you to the great currents of the universe - bind you a common fate.”
Cryptum’s grandiose sci-fi space opera is punctuated with many moments like this: from reflective and philosophical to meandering and simply lost from the point of view of protagonist Bornstellar, a rebellious young Forerunner thrown amidst an intergalactic moment of great change in which he finds himself a reluctant centre of attention. Initially a Manipular, an adolescent stage of Forerunner life, from the rate of Builders, one of several societal castes of the Forerunner ecumene, the novel follows the main character’s personal recollection of events that transpired in what is now a deep past to him. We follow his journey through the vastness of a cosmos until now either unexplored in previous novels or visited in the Halo game franchise on a surface level. Greg Bear’s writing elevates the series canon from military fiction set in space to a genuinely grand science-fiction tapestry rich with political history, growing mysteries to be pieced together and a more mature set of themes which develop with the characters throughout: themes of exile and change, family and rejection, shared consciousness, and frequent exploration of character archetypes’ responses to an impending final doom.
The first act follows Bornstellar in his most arrogant and immature persona: a disregard for humans, a now devolved species maintained by a higher power of Forerunner on a proto-Earth planet known as Erde-Tyrene, as well as a generally apathetic disregard for responsibility, duty or appreciation of wider Forerunner societal demands. It is interesting that this rebellious behaviour - running away from his step-family on Edom (Mars), recruiting a pair of humans to assist him in a quest to locate an ancient Precursor artefact - is exactly what sets in motion the wider scale of events he then finds himself bound to. Bear makes frequent reference to a level of ‘programming’ inherent in the pair of humans, Chakas and Riser, known as a geas: that is, they were predestined to follow this path, their lived chosen to be a part of a larger importance, mostly unbeknownst to them in the form of genetic memory. Bornstellar is also subject to this, arguably more so, as by the end of the novel we learn much of the plot’s momentum was by design of The Librarian, a higher ‘rate’ Forerunner privy to existential threats who guided the fates of multiple protagonists throughout. The theme of fates, of the individual and of a group or species, is already prevalent in the series, but by the end of the novel, Bear presents the idea as a light against dark that is almost cyclic, but also doomed to fall to the side of destruction and ruin - a revelation that the intertwined fates of both Bornstellar and The Didact share struggles with across their journey.
The presentation and development of characters in Cryptum is excellent: complex, flawed, driven by formative experiences, each protagonist furthers the plot or delivers explorative dialogue in captivating ways that feels much less cut and dry or stereotypical than prior novels often led with. Greg Bear pulls no punches in presenting callous genocidal military leaders with charisma, themes of suicide, fraternal rejection, and perhaps most interestingly the idea of mutations as a means of advancing intelligence and development as a species. Bornstellar experiences a non-standard Brevet-mutation, binding shared memory and experiences with a an ancient Forerunner who for all intents is an outcast and branded criminal, effectively in part becoming this being himself, or at least evolving with him to become something new entirely. This idea of internal change from intense relationships and the fluidity of the physicality and the mind when experiences are so intimately combined is a fascinating central theme when set to the backdrop of how the actions of the few can define eons of intergalactic history for all life to come. It also conjures consideration of those we walk the paths of life with shape our understanding of our reality and even our own experiences, acting as a cautionary tale but also an exploration that not all pivotal acts of civilisations are formed from daring and heroism, but from trying to find oneself in the world, of trying to be true to ones identity even as it changes and is folded by experience, and of simply trying to survive.
Overall, this first entry to the Forerunner saga is a bold deviation from the initial military action storytelling in the franchise; and it lands. It is a masterstroke in thematically enriching what would otherwise be a linear action sci-fi shooter series to one with complex themes, struggling characters and a vibrant setting that is in equal parts full of splendour and horror. It answers some crucial questions from previous instalments fundamental to the internal canon of the series, whilst introducing many more, maintaining a suspenseful mystery for book two and momentum both through perfect pacing and excellent writing. It is clear why many regard the trilogy (but particularly this novel) as among the very best of the lengthy series of Halo novels, but further, Greg Bear’s storytelling here makes for a novel that anyone, Halo veteran or sci-fi newcomer, can find great enjoyment in as a standalone piece of fiction.
Cryptum’s grandiose sci-fi space opera is punctuated with many moments like this: from reflective and philosophical to meandering and simply lost from the point of view of protagonist Bornstellar, a rebellious young Forerunner thrown amidst an intergalactic moment of great change in which he finds himself a reluctant centre of attention. Initially a Manipular, an adolescent stage of Forerunner life, from the rate of Builders, one of several societal castes of the Forerunner ecumene, the novel follows the main character’s personal recollection of events that transpired in what is now a deep past to him. We follow his journey through the vastness of a cosmos until now either unexplored in previous novels or visited in the Halo game franchise on a surface level. Greg Bear’s writing elevates the series canon from military fiction set in space to a genuinely grand science-fiction tapestry rich with political history, growing mysteries to be pieced together and a more mature set of themes which develop with the characters throughout: themes of exile and change, family and rejection, shared consciousness, and frequent exploration of character archetypes’ responses to an impending final doom.
The first act follows Bornstellar in his most arrogant and immature persona: a disregard for humans, a now devolved species maintained by a higher power of Forerunner on a proto-Earth planet known as Erde-Tyrene, as well as a generally apathetic disregard for responsibility, duty or appreciation of wider Forerunner societal demands. It is interesting that this rebellious behaviour - running away from his step-family on Edom (Mars), recruiting a pair of humans to assist him in a quest to locate an ancient Precursor artefact - is exactly what sets in motion the wider scale of events he then finds himself bound to. Bear makes frequent reference to a level of ‘programming’ inherent in the pair of humans, Chakas and Riser, known as a geas: that is, they were predestined to follow this path, their lived chosen to be a part of a larger importance, mostly unbeknownst to them in the form of genetic memory. Bornstellar is also subject to this, arguably more so, as by the end of the novel we learn much of the plot’s momentum was by design of The Librarian, a higher ‘rate’ Forerunner privy to existential threats who guided the fates of multiple protagonists throughout. The theme of fates, of the individual and of a group or species, is already prevalent in the series, but by the end of the novel, Bear presents the idea as a light against dark that is almost cyclic, but also doomed to fall to the side of destruction and ruin - a revelation that the intertwined fates of both Bornstellar and The Didact share struggles with across their journey.
The presentation and development of characters in Cryptum is excellent: complex, flawed, driven by formative experiences, each protagonist furthers the plot or delivers explorative dialogue in captivating ways that feels much less cut and dry or stereotypical than prior novels often led with. Greg Bear pulls no punches in presenting callous genocidal military leaders with charisma, themes of suicide, fraternal rejection, and perhaps most interestingly the idea of mutations as a means of advancing intelligence and development as a species. Bornstellar experiences a non-standard Brevet-mutation, binding shared memory and experiences with a an ancient Forerunner who for all intents is an outcast and branded criminal, effectively in part becoming this being himself, or at least evolving with him to become something new entirely. This idea of internal change from intense relationships and the fluidity of the physicality and the mind when experiences are so intimately combined is a fascinating central theme when set to the backdrop of how the actions of the few can define eons of intergalactic history for all life to come. It also conjures consideration of those we walk the paths of life with shape our understanding of our reality and even our own experiences, acting as a cautionary tale but also an exploration that not all pivotal acts of civilisations are formed from daring and heroism, but from trying to find oneself in the world, of trying to be true to ones identity even as it changes and is folded by experience, and of simply trying to survive.
Overall, this first entry to the Forerunner saga is a bold deviation from the initial military action storytelling in the franchise; and it lands. It is a masterstroke in thematically enriching what would otherwise be a linear action sci-fi shooter series to one with complex themes, struggling characters and a vibrant setting that is in equal parts full of splendour and horror. It answers some crucial questions from previous instalments fundamental to the internal canon of the series, whilst introducing many more, maintaining a suspenseful mystery for book two and momentum both through perfect pacing and excellent writing. It is clear why many regard the trilogy (but particularly this novel) as among the very best of the lengthy series of Halo novels, but further, Greg Bear’s storytelling here makes for a novel that anyone, Halo veteran or sci-fi newcomer, can find great enjoyment in as a standalone piece of fiction.
December 18, 2022
I love the lore.
August 12, 2023
Questo è un bel libro di fantascienza, non credo che Greg Bear possa fare di meglio in questa trilogia
April 8, 2021
Wow. Greg Bear is usually so much better than this.
Okay, so, I picked this book up on recommendation from my brother. He really liked the trilogy, and thought I would too. It was okay, but there are some serious issues with it. Mostly in continuity with the lore presented in the games and what is being presented here. It's like no one was even paying attention at all. Either that or 343 just doesn't give a shit about what came before they took over the franchise and is just doing their own thing. It's probably a little of both.
The story is so far removed from anything Halo that you could probably be forgiven for going into it pretending that it's its own thing, separate from the Halo universe. The biggest problem that the book has is that the author doesn't do a very good job of describing what is actually happening. There were more than a few times in the book where I went back and reread sections, because I could not figure out what was actually happening. I kept checking to see if I'd flipped more than one page at once, because there's just so many holes in the narrative that it makes it very hard to follow in places. Pretty much any scene that involves action of any sort is a complete mess that feels like it leaves out a lot of important details. I mean. I've read some of Greg Bear's other stuff. He's so much better than this.
Also. Is this really a story that needed to be told? Were there really so many people clamoring for the backstory of the Didact? Was he such an interesting villain that an entire trilogy of books had to be written about him? He was a pretty boring, one-dimensional, one off villain, with very, very little screen time in what is undeniably the absolute WORST Halo game. Who out there was asking for this story? Who out there even gives a crap? He was a pretty nothing character there, and he still a pretty nothing character here.
Anyway, I'm interested enough to see what happens next, but I really, really hope the next two books are written better than this one.
Okay, so, I picked this book up on recommendation from my brother. He really liked the trilogy, and thought I would too. It was okay, but there are some serious issues with it. Mostly in continuity with the lore presented in the games and what is being presented here. It's like no one was even paying attention at all. Either that or 343 just doesn't give a shit about what came before they took over the franchise and is just doing their own thing. It's probably a little of both.
The story is so far removed from anything Halo that you could probably be forgiven for going into it pretending that it's its own thing, separate from the Halo universe. The biggest problem that the book has is that the author doesn't do a very good job of describing what is actually happening. There were more than a few times in the book where I went back and reread sections, because I could not figure out what was actually happening. I kept checking to see if I'd flipped more than one page at once, because there's just so many holes in the narrative that it makes it very hard to follow in places. Pretty much any scene that involves action of any sort is a complete mess that feels like it leaves out a lot of important details. I mean. I've read some of Greg Bear's other stuff. He's so much better than this.
Also. Is this really a story that needed to be told? Were there really so many people clamoring for the backstory of the Didact? Was he such an interesting villain that an entire trilogy of books had to be written about him? He was a pretty boring, one-dimensional, one off villain, with very, very little screen time in what is undeniably the absolute WORST Halo game. Who out there was asking for this story? Who out there even gives a crap? He was a pretty nothing character there, and he still a pretty nothing character here.
Anyway, I'm interested enough to see what happens next, but I really, really hope the next two books are written better than this one.
November 30, 2012
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS AGO, the galaxy was populated by a great variety of beings. But one species—eons beyond all the others in both technology and knowledge—achieved dominance. They ruled in peace but met opposition with quick and brutal effectiveness. They were the Forerunners—the keepers of the Mantle, the next stage of life in the Universe’s Living Time. And then they vanished.This is their story.” – from the back cover of Halo: Cryptum
This book has started me on a great reading journey. The embarrassing fact is that I picked this up simply because it was a Halo book by a major science fiction writer. I’ve ever read any Greg Bear material until this book. I knew of his work and knew that he was widely read. Halo Cryptum was a great entry work into a a great writer.
Greg Bear’s ability to frame cosmic level events and actions into a tangible form is stunning. Halo: Cryptum has the forerunners as its primary characters. If you’re not a Halo fan, you should know that the Forerunners presence is ubiquitous in the Halo games but that none of the characters in the games are of that race . . . the Forerunners died out millennium ago and we are just discovering their impact and technology. Halo: Cryptum is the start of this back story. The Forerunners are characters that are nearly immortal and their reach is galactic in scope. Creating a book that has humans as only peripheral elements and that the main characters are immortal and almost god-like makes a major difficulty in establishing story. Story is usually defined around the limits and dangers of humanity . . . death and our inability to actually do much beyond our physical bodies. Greg Bear does a phenomenal effort in bridging this gap and creating a god-like creature of a god-like race and making you care about him. The story is told from a young Forerunner (only a few centuries have passed). Like most youngsters, he’s brash and unsure of his future.
There are significant plot elements that happen early on in the book and it is difficult to discuss the various points of the story without giving away too much. If you want a plot review (full of spoilers), visit Halo Nation’s review. Simply to say, the scope of the story is vast . . . crossing galactic spaces with ease. The events that happen are excellent. Only rarely does Bear seem to falter in explaining such cosmic concepts. He does a remarkable job overall and those few areas with the technical detail begins to build too much are rare.
My one primary issue is the length of the book and the ending point. It is stated early on that this is the first novel of a series. When I put the book down, I was sure that Greg Bear submitted his original manuscript, the publisher wanting some additional income, said, “Hmmm. tell you what — let’s make this three novels, make the font bigger, and make three times as much money. Good job, Mr. Bear.” This book starts and the last page appears before the book has even developed. This isn’t even a first act– it’s the first three scenes of the first act. I’m seeing this trend more and more in books and it concerns me. It’s harder to find the large tomes of Rowling and King length. Instead, publishers are providing the big tomes into multiple novels, creating a serial type reading effect. It’s irritating at the least. I doubt it’s Bear’s fault– the plotting feels distinctly as if it was cut off mid-action and a chopped paragraph to summarize and link to the next novel was inserted at the end as a last second thought.
Knowing this now, I would’ve purchased this as an e-book instead of in the store. It’s a great book but I’m not sure that it’s length justifies the hardcover price. A $9.99 Kindle price seems much more favorable and justifiable. This book was definitely engaging enough that I turned around and picked up Eon by Greg Bear and read that cover to cover in two days. And the journey rolled out from there.
This book has started me on a great reading journey. The embarrassing fact is that I picked this up simply because it was a Halo book by a major science fiction writer. I’ve ever read any Greg Bear material until this book. I knew of his work and knew that he was widely read. Halo Cryptum was a great entry work into a a great writer.
Greg Bear’s ability to frame cosmic level events and actions into a tangible form is stunning. Halo: Cryptum has the forerunners as its primary characters. If you’re not a Halo fan, you should know that the Forerunners presence is ubiquitous in the Halo games but that none of the characters in the games are of that race . . . the Forerunners died out millennium ago and we are just discovering their impact and technology. Halo: Cryptum is the start of this back story. The Forerunners are characters that are nearly immortal and their reach is galactic in scope. Creating a book that has humans as only peripheral elements and that the main characters are immortal and almost god-like makes a major difficulty in establishing story. Story is usually defined around the limits and dangers of humanity . . . death and our inability to actually do much beyond our physical bodies. Greg Bear does a phenomenal effort in bridging this gap and creating a god-like creature of a god-like race and making you care about him. The story is told from a young Forerunner (only a few centuries have passed). Like most youngsters, he’s brash and unsure of his future.
There are significant plot elements that happen early on in the book and it is difficult to discuss the various points of the story without giving away too much. If you want a plot review (full of spoilers), visit Halo Nation’s review. Simply to say, the scope of the story is vast . . . crossing galactic spaces with ease. The events that happen are excellent. Only rarely does Bear seem to falter in explaining such cosmic concepts. He does a remarkable job overall and those few areas with the technical detail begins to build too much are rare.
My one primary issue is the length of the book and the ending point. It is stated early on that this is the first novel of a series. When I put the book down, I was sure that Greg Bear submitted his original manuscript, the publisher wanting some additional income, said, “Hmmm. tell you what — let’s make this three novels, make the font bigger, and make three times as much money. Good job, Mr. Bear.” This book starts and the last page appears before the book has even developed. This isn’t even a first act– it’s the first three scenes of the first act. I’m seeing this trend more and more in books and it concerns me. It’s harder to find the large tomes of Rowling and King length. Instead, publishers are providing the big tomes into multiple novels, creating a serial type reading effect. It’s irritating at the least. I doubt it’s Bear’s fault– the plotting feels distinctly as if it was cut off mid-action and a chopped paragraph to summarize and link to the next novel was inserted at the end as a last second thought.
Knowing this now, I would’ve purchased this as an e-book instead of in the store. It’s a great book but I’m not sure that it’s length justifies the hardcover price. A $9.99 Kindle price seems much more favorable and justifiable. This book was definitely engaging enough that I turned around and picked up Eon by Greg Bear and read that cover to cover in two days. And the journey rolled out from there.
November 22, 2012
I really enjoyed this book when I first started reading it, because it was different in tone and style from all the other Halo books I've been (devotedly) reading. The only problem was about halfway through when it started to get a little dry. I just found that Bornstellar wasn't the most engaging of characters. He was more interesting when he was confused, because he had emotions even if they weren't very deep ones (like curiosity or the need to rebel), and when he started to change and became more passive he grew more and more boring. And when the two human characters left the scene, a lot of the life left the story as well. Maybe it's just his style of writing, but I found the battle scenes to be a little dull as well. I confess to rushing through the last thirty pages. Bear is definitely a different kind of writer than the Halo series usually employs, and I liked that aspect, but I find him a little dry (and given that I read a lot of Victorian novels, when I say dry I mean "desert sands" kinda dry) and not as engaging as I'd wished. Oh well! I'll still read the other two.
December 17, 2022
If Master Chief from the acclaimed video game series Halo had been there none of this would have happened.
Anyway this was rly good, hard sci-fi, and a fun look at pre-game timeline of the halo universe. I also love a good story where I already know everything's fucked, Rogue One style. I could tell it was true hard sci-fi because the characters were rly weak, and the main character's development was rly just a high-concept sci-fi thing instead of actual development.
Still cool, tho! I sure hope the main character can successfully defeat the Flood without eradicating all sentient life in the Milky Way!!!! That would just be terrible.
Anyway this was rly good, hard sci-fi, and a fun look at pre-game timeline of the halo universe. I also love a good story where I already know everything's fucked, Rogue One style. I could tell it was true hard sci-fi because the characters were rly weak, and the main character's development was rly just a high-concept sci-fi thing instead of actual development.
Still cool, tho! I sure hope the main character can successfully defeat the Flood without eradicating all sentient life in the Milky Way!!!! That would just be terrible.
March 15, 2024
Pre good, nice to read about the origin of the Halo rings
July 18, 2019
I was blown away by how massive the story is. Huge expanses of time stretching millions of years. A race of aliens who have reached a lifespan and culture far outside the scope of anything imaginable. Character's who live hundreds of millennia and have planets for backyards. Technology that truly makes everything else I've read about in science fiction seem like small potatoes. Completely unimaginable, except still somehow envisioned and expressed by this author. Not just expressed, but somehow captured as reality. This book was written by a man who has won 2 Hugos and 5 Nebulas. It shows.
January 21, 2015
For a book based on an action game, this had to be the one of the slowest least interesting Sci-Fi books I've ever read.
December 11, 2021
Halo: Cryptum by Greg Bear is a video game tie-in novel based on the Halo video game franchise, and first book of the Forerunner saga.
Halo: Cryptum is essentially the prequel to the entire Halo story line. It takes place in a society of extremely ancient aliens, referred to as the forerunners, who predate all human history. In the story we see the forerunners at the height of their power.
Cryptum follows the story of a young forerunner named Bornstellar- Makes-Eternal-Lasting, or Bornstellar for short, who is frowned upon for seeking artifacts from a race that predates even them.
During his hunt he befriends a pair of humans that he considers to be lesser that he, but nonetheless they eventually become invaluable to him. He then makes an unexpected and perhaps unfortunate discovery of the dishonoured Forerunner war hero, the Didact, (whom some may remember from Halo 4). The Didact, up until this point, has been imprisoned for thousands of years, now accidentally released by Bornstellar.
Bornstellar, the Didact, and the two humans must then do their best to try and prevent an unknown alien onslaught, plots of civil war amongst the Forerunners, hideous war crimes, and the release of something so ancient and terrifyingly dangerous that its release would mean the death of life as they know it.
Halo: Cryptum is a character-driven story that relies more on narrative than action to explore life in Forerunner society as their race reaches a turning point while having to face their greatest peril. I enjoyed the coming of age story of Bornstellar as he is forced to grow up. His journey is not an easy one, but he still faces it with courage and a distinctive determination. There is one very poignant moment when he finally comprehends the impact of what the Forerunners had done to ensure their dominance in the galaxy. At that moment he realizes that his life is forever altered and that he can never return to his childhood innocence no matter how strongly he yearns for it. Bornstellar’s two human companions, Chakas and Riser, also undergo tremendous personal changes especially when they are faced with the reality of what has been done to them and what their race has lost at the hands of the Forerunners.
Since this is the first novel in the Forerunner saga it’s largely used to lay the groundwork for the rest of the novels. Things started off quite slowly, but the pace picks up nicely as the story progresses. There are lots of startling revelations along the way and the twist at the end caught me entirely by surprise.
Overall, I enjoyed Halo: Cryptum far more than I expected. The writing is well done and the Halo universe makes for a vibrant and captivating setting. This would be a great starting point for newcomers since it’s essentially the story of how it all began. Long-time Halo fans won’t be disappointed either and will finally get some answers to lots of burning questions. Definitely recommended!
Halo: Cryptum is essentially the prequel to the entire Halo story line. It takes place in a society of extremely ancient aliens, referred to as the forerunners, who predate all human history. In the story we see the forerunners at the height of their power.
Cryptum follows the story of a young forerunner named Bornstellar- Makes-Eternal-Lasting, or Bornstellar for short, who is frowned upon for seeking artifacts from a race that predates even them.
During his hunt he befriends a pair of humans that he considers to be lesser that he, but nonetheless they eventually become invaluable to him. He then makes an unexpected and perhaps unfortunate discovery of the dishonoured Forerunner war hero, the Didact, (whom some may remember from Halo 4). The Didact, up until this point, has been imprisoned for thousands of years, now accidentally released by Bornstellar.
Bornstellar, the Didact, and the two humans must then do their best to try and prevent an unknown alien onslaught, plots of civil war amongst the Forerunners, hideous war crimes, and the release of something so ancient and terrifyingly dangerous that its release would mean the death of life as they know it.
Halo: Cryptum is a character-driven story that relies more on narrative than action to explore life in Forerunner society as their race reaches a turning point while having to face their greatest peril. I enjoyed the coming of age story of Bornstellar as he is forced to grow up. His journey is not an easy one, but he still faces it with courage and a distinctive determination. There is one very poignant moment when he finally comprehends the impact of what the Forerunners had done to ensure their dominance in the galaxy. At that moment he realizes that his life is forever altered and that he can never return to his childhood innocence no matter how strongly he yearns for it. Bornstellar’s two human companions, Chakas and Riser, also undergo tremendous personal changes especially when they are faced with the reality of what has been done to them and what their race has lost at the hands of the Forerunners.
Since this is the first novel in the Forerunner saga it’s largely used to lay the groundwork for the rest of the novels. Things started off quite slowly, but the pace picks up nicely as the story progresses. There are lots of startling revelations along the way and the twist at the end caught me entirely by surprise.
Overall, I enjoyed Halo: Cryptum far more than I expected. The writing is well done and the Halo universe makes for a vibrant and captivating setting. This would be a great starting point for newcomers since it’s essentially the story of how it all began. Long-time Halo fans won’t be disappointed either and will finally get some answers to lots of burning questions. Definitely recommended!
August 4, 2024
This book is dense with words you need to dig deep into the context to understand at multiple points, but the story tapers off with these and transforms into a much more gripping and compelling telling towards the end then I was ever expecting it to be. I had played halo four but paid little attention to the story, this book makes the Didact a much more interesting component and I have to say, I am extremely excited to finish this trilogy !
July 17, 2019
It was very bland. It felt like an intro to a series that I needed previous knowledge to get on the inside with. Much more do than previous Halo books--i just couldn't get into it, and then there wasn't much action. It finally got interesting about halfway through the book then fizzled again.
August 13, 2020
Mies, wirklich
Lohnt sich mehr das halo wiki durchzulesen
Lohnt sich mehr das halo wiki durchzulesen
April 13, 2021
Wait wait wait, all of the lore and world building of the halo universe, with none of the shitty action scenes? Yessssssss count me in
June 13, 2022
Reminds me of the days when I was a teenager, playing Halo and reading sci fi books in a matter of days, like I did here. That is a very good thing.
March 20, 2024
Takes quite a while to pick up. Took me more than halfway through the book to pique my interest. Even then it's mostly because I was familiar with the lore.
August 3, 2024
Like the other Halo books, this one lacks compelling characters. However, I really enjoyed this book because it deals with the Precursors, Forerunners, the Flood, and how humans and other races fit into the Halo Universe.
February 1, 2025
I’m conflicted on the general direction that the new games and books take with respect to the Forerunners but overall it’s a good little series. Will be fun to read the next few.
June 14, 2020
As many other reviews have stated, one of the most frustrating things about this book is all the Forerunner jargon you are assumed to be familiar with (scrip, dazzler, baffler, ancilla, manipular, contender, aya, chamnune, hamanune, Erde-Tyrene, etc). Next is how I struggled to relate to any character in a meaningful way. Born has a brief moment with his family on his home planet, but I feel like this book leaves a lot to be desired on how Forerunners think and feel and what a standard mutation evolution looks like. I guess they put on armor that feeds them, trains them, has an ancilla to access the domain, and they can mutate to gain the knowledge of those before them. Okay. Where’s some of the personality and likability of these forerunners? What does business or a day in the life look like? The closest I got to liking Born was when he spoke about being rebellious and adventurous in the very beginning. He turns into a robot after the Didact imprints on him, where I lost any meaningful connection. It felt like this book dove head first into an alien civilization that as a reader we are clueless about other than they made these crazy Halos. What was their initial conflict with the Precursors? How did their relationship with ancient humans develop over time? Tens of millions of years is a long ass time for a civilization, so how is it they rose to power? I genuinely hope the following two books answer some of these questions.
Plot notes:
Opens with a Manipular sailing with humans. They apparently have the wrong song to pass peacefully over a crater of other beings. The armor of a forerunner is what keeps them alive so long. Provides nourishment and protection and access to Ancillas/Domain and all that. The humans were uncomfortable with it, so the manipular took it off.
Forerunner hierarchy: Warriors, Lifeworker (3 ever awarded Lifeshaper, including the librarian), Miners, Builders. This particular forerunner was traded out of his family to another, and went to Mars to be a miner. After a while, his ancillary recommended he go to Erde-Tyrene (earth) to further seek adventure and growth.
Chakas (human) appreciates the act of him removing armor, and said they will cycle through songs to appease the Merse to allow passage. The forerunner is looking for the Organon - a device which can reactivate all Precursor artifacts. Chakas was familiar with ancient forbidden zones in the Djamonkin Crater as well.
The forerunner arrives in Marontik (where a research base for forerunners is), an ancient human city that is primitive with hot air balloons for travel and wooden/straw huts. He finds Chakas and the Florian there to help him search for precursor treasures. The humans seem like they have seen forerunners before.
This story takes place 10,000 years after the human-forerunner war. Humans were devolved as a species, and under the Librarians care put but on Erde-Tyrene to grow again. Scrip is money, hamanune and chamanune are humans? Riser is a hamanune (200 year old little human, young for his kind), I suppose Chakas is a chamanune. The name of the forerunner is Bornstellar.
Bornstellar is led to the central island in the crater by Riser and Chakas. They are brought to a small lake and beach, which is mysterious. They see illusions (baffler or dazzler creation by a forerunner?), and only by a particular path do they reach large sphinxes of old forerunner armor from the human-forerunner war. Born does not tell the humans this. Born also suspects a forerunner may have been buried here, warrior class. Upon death, a forerunner’s final memories are recorded and locked in a Durance which can last more than a million years. Without his armor, Born feels excited and nervous at the same time. The humans also mention visits from the Librarian, but not physical, perhaps like a deity? She visits them at birth and give them their purpose. Riser’s purpose was to bring a forerunner to this spot. A forerunner Mining ship was looking for Born, but passed on after Chakas and Riser sang a weird song. As Born progressed, a 50m column with a black sphere on top rose. He suspected this was a Cryptum or warrior keep of some kind. After suggesting going back to the boat, Born is persuaded from the humans to make something exciting happen, as Riser’s family have been familiar with the island for 9000 years. Any human who gets too close will get killed by the sand. Previous humans raised walls and left pebbles to show the correct way.
Born touches the surface, and hears a voice call “Who summons the didactic? Shall I return to this place of existence?”. Born basically says uh yeah, because I’m daring! Also, Promethean is the highest class of warrior servant, which the writing was on the Cryptum. The didact is carried out by the war sphinxes powered by hard light. He is a shriveled body, weak without armor. All of the sphinxes arise and move through the jungle. The forerunner and humans may have made a mistake, as a Cryptum is reserved for the highest rate who wants meditation, or the greatest punishment.
After Born helps revive him with tentacle fluid things, the Didact regains his strength on the island. The island appears to change form and the sphinxes prevent Born and the others to leave. The Didact confronts Born and calls him a fool, coming to the conclusion his wife, the librarian put code in these humans so they would know how to open his Cryptum. He calls Born a fool, Riser a little pet useful education, and Chakas as a provoker whose kind destroyed his fleets and murdered his warriors. The Didact is humiliated. The Mantle is to be given to any who rise to it. Whoever owns it is encouraged to educate and develop whoever may take it over, but the Didact has a hatred for humans.
Many ships swarm the island, which the Didact suspects are there to ask for help or to imprison him again. However, the Didact transports everyone in the sphinxes, and informs them they are being kidnapped and must leave. He constructs a ship leftover from a builder’s seed put there by the librarian. The purpose is to have him “protect the grace of the mantle”. Had Born known their future, he says he may have killed himself then and there.
They fly off to a planet seemingly in ruins, where old precursor technology and a large Forerunner construct used to live. Didact suspects they used the planet as a test for a weapon, and that once the Librarian heard about it came up with a plan to awaken the Didact. He was under surveillance by the Builders, so she used her life work to properly plan for his awakening. He also said she planned for them to become allies, even with the humans as well. He tells Born the Organon does not exist.
We discover the planet is Charum Hakkor, where the Didact and librarian first met during the human-san’shyuum empire. The humans wanted to live near the precursor artifact and mystery. Humans did not appreciate forerunner expansion, and so fought back. Now the planet has been all but destroyed. They find an old precursor ruin that housed an ancient construct or captive, and was too powerful to release. The ancient humans were terrified by what it said, and let it stay imprisoned. The Didact decides to leave and investigate other precursor worlds to learn and find clues of what the librarian had planned for. Memories slowly come back to Chakas, from the geas that was given to him by the librarian. He doesn’t like the slaughter his race took during the forerunner oppression. It was ironic for forerunners to refuse the mantle to anyone else, and discourage the growth of other races. Off to Faun Hakkor.
Humans expanded to worlds where forerunners had settled other species. They also found destruction on Faun Hakkor, all because of “it”, presumably the flood or something of the nature. Didact decides to go check on the quarantined system of the san’shyuum. Didact admits the sphinxes are his and the librarians children, all killed in the human war and only memories remain. Didact tried to transfer his knowledge to Born, but was unsuccessful because Born had not mutated to his next form yet. Didact works better in teams of advisors, and wants to optimize his mini crew. Didact also admits we was imprisoned because of his blunt opposition to the “weapon system”.
They arrive to the san’shyuum system, and the lone warrior servant keep. Didact tells Born he must mutate to absorb his knowledge, and will be a warrior servant (unless he wants to change later). This particular mutation on the ship is tricky. The Didact runs Born through this, and Born is left with his body aching and changing, his mind changing as well. Didact says he is not entirely warrior and is in fact a Builder, but he will do for his mission. Born again questions why Lifeworkers are not the highest rate if the is of the Mantle is to preserve and foster growth of all life. Born starts seeing flashbacks of other warriors, the sphinxes at war with humans on the first planet. Born questions if humans truly were their brethren. Chakas and Riser continue meditating on the war and everything that happened. They suspect a common enemy will appear to both forerunner and human.
It becomes known that the Confirmer gave the same brevit mutation to the Didact many years ago. The librarian has passed through his large ship the Deep Reverence. He does not interfere in politics of higher rates. Didact opposed the Builders. Didact chose to exile himself rather than face the council.
Didact is concerned about the master builder testing the weapon, and destroying the precursor artifact and releasing the thing on Hakkur. He needs to find information from the san’shyuum. They discover the librarian is collecting species and transporting them to the Ark. Didact explains how the humans were fighting another war with the flood, and pushed them outside the system. Forerunners defeated humans at this point, seeking to learn their techniques of fighting the flood. The humans did not help them.
On the way to the planet, they are attacked by other forerunners so as to not interfere in the war below with San’shyuum. The war sphinxes were destroyed, and the four of them brought down to the surface of the dying planet in ruins. On the way down, Born saw a massive portal open and a huge ring come through. The Domain was now open to him and he heard that the forerunners time is concluded, and that the ring was Halo - death and destruction. Born realizes his captor is the Master Builder, Faber. Faber suspects that the librarian utilized humans, Born and the Didact to frustrate the council. Born provides no additional information, as he claims he can’t remember traveling from Edom. His father entrusted Faber with his well-being for now. Faber did not want their ship meddling in these affairs with the san’shyuum.
The Master Builder brought all prisoners to the surface to speak with the Elders. He questions them on their secret, on why they came to the planet, and what happened at Hakkur. Didact says he made a deal with the first prophet years ago, that if the flood returned the prophet would share his secret for their defeat in exchange for the freedom of his descendants. After the librarian rescued some san’shyuum, the world fell into war with the forerunners as they felt their destruction was coming. Forerunners killed the first prophet in their bombardment. The new, young san’shyuum are the ones in rebellion. Faber is convinced there is something else missing in this story.
Forerunner natal planet of Ghibalb. Now in ruins and radiation. Born brought back to his family and other builder families on a yacht. He was on the run for a while chasing adventurer and getting a new father and all that. Parents 6,000 years old, while him and sister are barely 12. Dad says perhaps he needs to eat like a warrior, somewhat insulting. Born is struggling to learn who he is and what his purpose is. He tells his sister he did not find artifacts, but released the didact’s Cryptum. He explains the flood, and his mother shows concern, hiding more info. He could access the domain from the perspective of the Didact. He awaits judgement from his father, who appears to be groomed for some higher roll or rate.
Charum Hakkur prisoner has been missing for 40-50 years. What was his father’s role in the diminishment of the warrior-servants? 1000 years ago Didact forced into exile and their role diminished on the council. Forced and fleets disbanded.
Born overhears a conversation with his father and a council member. Concern of the weapons and outer systems being lost. Born confronts his father (sister and mom present), and explains how he believes the Halo used for test-firing released the creature on Charum Hakkur. Also, he realizes another Halo was used to destroy the san’shyuum. These weapons were designed by Born’s father, and commissioned by the master builder. 12 were commissioned, but one and a special ancilla went missing. The Master Builder is to be indicted for his actions, and the Didact is being returned as the leader of defense during this time. Didact and Librarian have called for Born to join him, which Born’s father feels shame for not being his son’s mentor. He wishes to share his knowledge one day.
Born discovers his original ancilla, the one given from the librarian to his swap family, had been the one to plant the seed of going to Erde-Tyrene in the first place. On the ship, another young council member informs Born he shows patterns of Builder, Warrior-Servant (Didact imprint) and Lifeworker (from the ship the Librarian made with assistance, to help Born go through his mutation). It is unique. He also says he is part of a new generation where multiple mutations are no longer needed (slight disadvantage with not gaining as much knowledge, but you are often healthier and physically in better condition). Born was chosen to learn all of the council ship’s information, which only a few forerunners have ever even known part of. Somehow, the Domain is difficult to access.
Born begins to remember how the flood came to be. There was a powder in glass cylinders discovered on ancient warships in both inhabited and uninhabited worlds. Humans found them, and discovered favorable side affects for their Pheru pets (san’shyuum had them as well) like better behavior and more physically appealing. Eventually they mutated and became vicious, and were regrettably disposed of. It was too late. It started to spread to humans, and eventually it spread to san’shyuum and across their planets. They formed an alliance to fight the flood, but it was challenging. In talks with the precursor prisoner, they discovered a terrible truth about the flood that led some humans to suicide. They found a cure that would require 1/3 of humans to have a special gene that was consumed by the flood, would begin to destroy their species. It successfully drove the flood back, but at the same time humans were trying to flee the flood and find new, uninfested planets to inhabit. The Forerunners took this as an act of aggression, and effectively destroyed the humans while signing a peace treaty with the san’shyuum. The Librarian kept some human samples to repopulate again. There was a political struggle with how to deal with the flood. The Didact and warriors proposed Shield Worlds to monitor the infection and provide pinpoint defense. They made several of these. The Builders proposed the Halo array, a weapon of mass destruction to both cement their power on the council and provide a more powerful solution. The Charum Hakkur was an authorized test fire for a Halo. The san’shyuum Halo was not, and was Faber overstepping his authority. Born learns that the flood had returned 300 years ago on forerunner planets, already spreading in new forms. This is why the Librarian has been in the process of collecting life forms for repopulation on the Ark, if the Halo array was ever to be fired.
Born sees visions of the precursor creature, terrifying in nature. He suspects it may be an experiment, or some distant sibling to an existing race. The Didact has attempted to communicate with it on a human device. Born also questions his existence on the council if they already had the actual Didact in person.
Dust (young male councilor) informs Born he is too important to not be protected (partly because of his witnessing of the master builder, partly because of librarian request) and requires security. Glory (female councilor, warrior) is to escort him to the surface of the Forerunner home planet, home to 20,000 years of their data and existence. 11 Halos surrounded the planet. 3 million fertile worlds for 500 councilors seemed small. Supposedly only a few hundred thousand forerunners exist?
We learn the Warden is a forerunner embodied monitor over 25,000 years old. Prison keeper and guardian of mercy. Mendicant Bias (named by the Didact) makes an appearance in the court proceedings, and appears to make all monitors and forerunners freeze in place, including Born. Born attempts to escape, but has a conversation with Mendicant (with the Didact speaking through Born and providing his memories and code to halt Mendicant). Mendicant asks for service, as an emergency has arisen. Born is confused. Mendicant says he is above the metarchy, and no longer serves the Didact but serves the master builder instead.
It appears Mendicant Bias, Contender, has decided to attack the capital with the Halos. He has control of 5 of them, while the other 7 are breaking free to defend themselves and likely head to the Ark. Glory rescues Dust and Born, as they fly away and view the battle. Ships come in to attack the primed Halo rings and defend the capital. They appear to destroy one halo, but 4 others remain primed. Born decides he must follow the escaping Halos through the portal to wherever they are going to survive the carnage. It appears the Librarian was colluding with the Master Builder this whole time, collecting specimens as she went for repopulation knowing that this was the plan.
Another fortress comes through the portal to help defend. It damages the Halo attempted to go through a portal, which causes a piece of debris to slice through the ship. Born and them escape, and are left in the middle of nowhere in a cloud of debris. Didact was present for putting Mendicant in service, but did not know of his other instructions from the Master Builder to test fire the ring at Charum Hakkur, then vanish for 43 years. Born recalls didact’s vision of talking to the captive. It spoke of a great forerunner betrayal, a sin, that he only told the librarian and changed her researches and his preparations for defense against the flood. They speculate why Mendicant would have attacked the capital - perhaps under the captive’s control.
Their ship drifting, they notice the Ark below and lifeworkers come to rescue them. They begin the healing process on one of the Ark’s petals. Only one ring made the transit from the capital, the rest destroyed. They are asked if there was any infection, to which Born said no. The Librarian embraced Born, telling him he IS the Didact now, as the Didact was executed by Faber on the san’shyuum world for not giving any activation codes for other Contenders or sharing where the Shield Worlds were. She says he is all they have now, as she checks on all her specimens on the Ark.
Born decides the defense of the galaxy is up to him. If any Halos return to the Ark, he will make sure they do not get repaired. He will utilize the fleets and shield worlds if he must. He remembers the conversation with the captive, who said he was the last of the Precursors who gave the forerunners shape and life - who the forerunners rose up against and ruthlessly destroyed. The Precursor (speaking in ancient forerunner) said his answer is now at hand.
Plot notes:
Opens with a Manipular sailing with humans. They apparently have the wrong song to pass peacefully over a crater of other beings. The armor of a forerunner is what keeps them alive so long. Provides nourishment and protection and access to Ancillas/Domain and all that. The humans were uncomfortable with it, so the manipular took it off.
Forerunner hierarchy: Warriors, Lifeworker (3 ever awarded Lifeshaper, including the librarian), Miners, Builders. This particular forerunner was traded out of his family to another, and went to Mars to be a miner. After a while, his ancillary recommended he go to Erde-Tyrene (earth) to further seek adventure and growth.
Chakas (human) appreciates the act of him removing armor, and said they will cycle through songs to appease the Merse to allow passage. The forerunner is looking for the Organon - a device which can reactivate all Precursor artifacts. Chakas was familiar with ancient forbidden zones in the Djamonkin Crater as well.
The forerunner arrives in Marontik (where a research base for forerunners is), an ancient human city that is primitive with hot air balloons for travel and wooden/straw huts. He finds Chakas and the Florian there to help him search for precursor treasures. The humans seem like they have seen forerunners before.
This story takes place 10,000 years after the human-forerunner war. Humans were devolved as a species, and under the Librarians care put but on Erde-Tyrene to grow again. Scrip is money, hamanune and chamanune are humans? Riser is a hamanune (200 year old little human, young for his kind), I suppose Chakas is a chamanune. The name of the forerunner is Bornstellar.
Bornstellar is led to the central island in the crater by Riser and Chakas. They are brought to a small lake and beach, which is mysterious. They see illusions (baffler or dazzler creation by a forerunner?), and only by a particular path do they reach large sphinxes of old forerunner armor from the human-forerunner war. Born does not tell the humans this. Born also suspects a forerunner may have been buried here, warrior class. Upon death, a forerunner’s final memories are recorded and locked in a Durance which can last more than a million years. Without his armor, Born feels excited and nervous at the same time. The humans also mention visits from the Librarian, but not physical, perhaps like a deity? She visits them at birth and give them their purpose. Riser’s purpose was to bring a forerunner to this spot. A forerunner Mining ship was looking for Born, but passed on after Chakas and Riser sang a weird song. As Born progressed, a 50m column with a black sphere on top rose. He suspected this was a Cryptum or warrior keep of some kind. After suggesting going back to the boat, Born is persuaded from the humans to make something exciting happen, as Riser’s family have been familiar with the island for 9000 years. Any human who gets too close will get killed by the sand. Previous humans raised walls and left pebbles to show the correct way.
Born touches the surface, and hears a voice call “Who summons the didactic? Shall I return to this place of existence?”. Born basically says uh yeah, because I’m daring! Also, Promethean is the highest class of warrior servant, which the writing was on the Cryptum. The didact is carried out by the war sphinxes powered by hard light. He is a shriveled body, weak without armor. All of the sphinxes arise and move through the jungle. The forerunner and humans may have made a mistake, as a Cryptum is reserved for the highest rate who wants meditation, or the greatest punishment.
After Born helps revive him with tentacle fluid things, the Didact regains his strength on the island. The island appears to change form and the sphinxes prevent Born and the others to leave. The Didact confronts Born and calls him a fool, coming to the conclusion his wife, the librarian put code in these humans so they would know how to open his Cryptum. He calls Born a fool, Riser a little pet useful education, and Chakas as a provoker whose kind destroyed his fleets and murdered his warriors. The Didact is humiliated. The Mantle is to be given to any who rise to it. Whoever owns it is encouraged to educate and develop whoever may take it over, but the Didact has a hatred for humans.
Many ships swarm the island, which the Didact suspects are there to ask for help or to imprison him again. However, the Didact transports everyone in the sphinxes, and informs them they are being kidnapped and must leave. He constructs a ship leftover from a builder’s seed put there by the librarian. The purpose is to have him “protect the grace of the mantle”. Had Born known their future, he says he may have killed himself then and there.
They fly off to a planet seemingly in ruins, where old precursor technology and a large Forerunner construct used to live. Didact suspects they used the planet as a test for a weapon, and that once the Librarian heard about it came up with a plan to awaken the Didact. He was under surveillance by the Builders, so she used her life work to properly plan for his awakening. He also said she planned for them to become allies, even with the humans as well. He tells Born the Organon does not exist.
We discover the planet is Charum Hakkor, where the Didact and librarian first met during the human-san’shyuum empire. The humans wanted to live near the precursor artifact and mystery. Humans did not appreciate forerunner expansion, and so fought back. Now the planet has been all but destroyed. They find an old precursor ruin that housed an ancient construct or captive, and was too powerful to release. The ancient humans were terrified by what it said, and let it stay imprisoned. The Didact decides to leave and investigate other precursor worlds to learn and find clues of what the librarian had planned for. Memories slowly come back to Chakas, from the geas that was given to him by the librarian. He doesn’t like the slaughter his race took during the forerunner oppression. It was ironic for forerunners to refuse the mantle to anyone else, and discourage the growth of other races. Off to Faun Hakkor.
Humans expanded to worlds where forerunners had settled other species. They also found destruction on Faun Hakkor, all because of “it”, presumably the flood or something of the nature. Didact decides to go check on the quarantined system of the san’shyuum. Didact admits the sphinxes are his and the librarians children, all killed in the human war and only memories remain. Didact tried to transfer his knowledge to Born, but was unsuccessful because Born had not mutated to his next form yet. Didact works better in teams of advisors, and wants to optimize his mini crew. Didact also admits we was imprisoned because of his blunt opposition to the “weapon system”.
They arrive to the san’shyuum system, and the lone warrior servant keep. Didact tells Born he must mutate to absorb his knowledge, and will be a warrior servant (unless he wants to change later). This particular mutation on the ship is tricky. The Didact runs Born through this, and Born is left with his body aching and changing, his mind changing as well. Didact says he is not entirely warrior and is in fact a Builder, but he will do for his mission. Born again questions why Lifeworkers are not the highest rate if the is of the Mantle is to preserve and foster growth of all life. Born starts seeing flashbacks of other warriors, the sphinxes at war with humans on the first planet. Born questions if humans truly were their brethren. Chakas and Riser continue meditating on the war and everything that happened. They suspect a common enemy will appear to both forerunner and human.
It becomes known that the Confirmer gave the same brevit mutation to the Didact many years ago. The librarian has passed through his large ship the Deep Reverence. He does not interfere in politics of higher rates. Didact opposed the Builders. Didact chose to exile himself rather than face the council.
Didact is concerned about the master builder testing the weapon, and destroying the precursor artifact and releasing the thing on Hakkur. He needs to find information from the san’shyuum. They discover the librarian is collecting species and transporting them to the Ark. Didact explains how the humans were fighting another war with the flood, and pushed them outside the system. Forerunners defeated humans at this point, seeking to learn their techniques of fighting the flood. The humans did not help them.
On the way to the planet, they are attacked by other forerunners so as to not interfere in the war below with San’shyuum. The war sphinxes were destroyed, and the four of them brought down to the surface of the dying planet in ruins. On the way down, Born saw a massive portal open and a huge ring come through. The Domain was now open to him and he heard that the forerunners time is concluded, and that the ring was Halo - death and destruction. Born realizes his captor is the Master Builder, Faber. Faber suspects that the librarian utilized humans, Born and the Didact to frustrate the council. Born provides no additional information, as he claims he can’t remember traveling from Edom. His father entrusted Faber with his well-being for now. Faber did not want their ship meddling in these affairs with the san’shyuum.
The Master Builder brought all prisoners to the surface to speak with the Elders. He questions them on their secret, on why they came to the planet, and what happened at Hakkur. Didact says he made a deal with the first prophet years ago, that if the flood returned the prophet would share his secret for their defeat in exchange for the freedom of his descendants. After the librarian rescued some san’shyuum, the world fell into war with the forerunners as they felt their destruction was coming. Forerunners killed the first prophet in their bombardment. The new, young san’shyuum are the ones in rebellion. Faber is convinced there is something else missing in this story.
Forerunner natal planet of Ghibalb. Now in ruins and radiation. Born brought back to his family and other builder families on a yacht. He was on the run for a while chasing adventurer and getting a new father and all that. Parents 6,000 years old, while him and sister are barely 12. Dad says perhaps he needs to eat like a warrior, somewhat insulting. Born is struggling to learn who he is and what his purpose is. He tells his sister he did not find artifacts, but released the didact’s Cryptum. He explains the flood, and his mother shows concern, hiding more info. He could access the domain from the perspective of the Didact. He awaits judgement from his father, who appears to be groomed for some higher roll or rate.
Charum Hakkur prisoner has been missing for 40-50 years. What was his father’s role in the diminishment of the warrior-servants? 1000 years ago Didact forced into exile and their role diminished on the council. Forced and fleets disbanded.
Born overhears a conversation with his father and a council member. Concern of the weapons and outer systems being lost. Born confronts his father (sister and mom present), and explains how he believes the Halo used for test-firing released the creature on Charum Hakkur. Also, he realizes another Halo was used to destroy the san’shyuum. These weapons were designed by Born’s father, and commissioned by the master builder. 12 were commissioned, but one and a special ancilla went missing. The Master Builder is to be indicted for his actions, and the Didact is being returned as the leader of defense during this time. Didact and Librarian have called for Born to join him, which Born’s father feels shame for not being his son’s mentor. He wishes to share his knowledge one day.
Born discovers his original ancilla, the one given from the librarian to his swap family, had been the one to plant the seed of going to Erde-Tyrene in the first place. On the ship, another young council member informs Born he shows patterns of Builder, Warrior-Servant (Didact imprint) and Lifeworker (from the ship the Librarian made with assistance, to help Born go through his mutation). It is unique. He also says he is part of a new generation where multiple mutations are no longer needed (slight disadvantage with not gaining as much knowledge, but you are often healthier and physically in better condition). Born was chosen to learn all of the council ship’s information, which only a few forerunners have ever even known part of. Somehow, the Domain is difficult to access.
Born begins to remember how the flood came to be. There was a powder in glass cylinders discovered on ancient warships in both inhabited and uninhabited worlds. Humans found them, and discovered favorable side affects for their Pheru pets (san’shyuum had them as well) like better behavior and more physically appealing. Eventually they mutated and became vicious, and were regrettably disposed of. It was too late. It started to spread to humans, and eventually it spread to san’shyuum and across their planets. They formed an alliance to fight the flood, but it was challenging. In talks with the precursor prisoner, they discovered a terrible truth about the flood that led some humans to suicide. They found a cure that would require 1/3 of humans to have a special gene that was consumed by the flood, would begin to destroy their species. It successfully drove the flood back, but at the same time humans were trying to flee the flood and find new, uninfested planets to inhabit. The Forerunners took this as an act of aggression, and effectively destroyed the humans while signing a peace treaty with the san’shyuum. The Librarian kept some human samples to repopulate again. There was a political struggle with how to deal with the flood. The Didact and warriors proposed Shield Worlds to monitor the infection and provide pinpoint defense. They made several of these. The Builders proposed the Halo array, a weapon of mass destruction to both cement their power on the council and provide a more powerful solution. The Charum Hakkur was an authorized test fire for a Halo. The san’shyuum Halo was not, and was Faber overstepping his authority. Born learns that the flood had returned 300 years ago on forerunner planets, already spreading in new forms. This is why the Librarian has been in the process of collecting life forms for repopulation on the Ark, if the Halo array was ever to be fired.
Born sees visions of the precursor creature, terrifying in nature. He suspects it may be an experiment, or some distant sibling to an existing race. The Didact has attempted to communicate with it on a human device. Born also questions his existence on the council if they already had the actual Didact in person.
Dust (young male councilor) informs Born he is too important to not be protected (partly because of his witnessing of the master builder, partly because of librarian request) and requires security. Glory (female councilor, warrior) is to escort him to the surface of the Forerunner home planet, home to 20,000 years of their data and existence. 11 Halos surrounded the planet. 3 million fertile worlds for 500 councilors seemed small. Supposedly only a few hundred thousand forerunners exist?
We learn the Warden is a forerunner embodied monitor over 25,000 years old. Prison keeper and guardian of mercy. Mendicant Bias (named by the Didact) makes an appearance in the court proceedings, and appears to make all monitors and forerunners freeze in place, including Born. Born attempts to escape, but has a conversation with Mendicant (with the Didact speaking through Born and providing his memories and code to halt Mendicant). Mendicant asks for service, as an emergency has arisen. Born is confused. Mendicant says he is above the metarchy, and no longer serves the Didact but serves the master builder instead.
It appears Mendicant Bias, Contender, has decided to attack the capital with the Halos. He has control of 5 of them, while the other 7 are breaking free to defend themselves and likely head to the Ark. Glory rescues Dust and Born, as they fly away and view the battle. Ships come in to attack the primed Halo rings and defend the capital. They appear to destroy one halo, but 4 others remain primed. Born decides he must follow the escaping Halos through the portal to wherever they are going to survive the carnage. It appears the Librarian was colluding with the Master Builder this whole time, collecting specimens as she went for repopulation knowing that this was the plan.
Another fortress comes through the portal to help defend. It damages the Halo attempted to go through a portal, which causes a piece of debris to slice through the ship. Born and them escape, and are left in the middle of nowhere in a cloud of debris. Didact was present for putting Mendicant in service, but did not know of his other instructions from the Master Builder to test fire the ring at Charum Hakkur, then vanish for 43 years. Born recalls didact’s vision of talking to the captive. It spoke of a great forerunner betrayal, a sin, that he only told the librarian and changed her researches and his preparations for defense against the flood. They speculate why Mendicant would have attacked the capital - perhaps under the captive’s control.
Their ship drifting, they notice the Ark below and lifeworkers come to rescue them. They begin the healing process on one of the Ark’s petals. Only one ring made the transit from the capital, the rest destroyed. They are asked if there was any infection, to which Born said no. The Librarian embraced Born, telling him he IS the Didact now, as the Didact was executed by Faber on the san’shyuum world for not giving any activation codes for other Contenders or sharing where the Shield Worlds were. She says he is all they have now, as she checks on all her specimens on the Ark.
Born decides the defense of the galaxy is up to him. If any Halos return to the Ark, he will make sure they do not get repaired. He will utilize the fleets and shield worlds if he must. He remembers the conversation with the captive, who said he was the last of the Precursors who gave the forerunners shape and life - who the forerunners rose up against and ruthlessly destroyed. The Precursor (speaking in ancient forerunner) said his answer is now at hand.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2025
I love Halo
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