SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Halo: The Cole Protocol - Tobias S Buckell

BOOK BLURB:

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its inner colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems.

Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human-occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble—and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar . . . yet somehow survived.

News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best—an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality. . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path.


REVIEW:

Fan’s of the best selling XBOX game series will absolutely get a blast out of this title that’s set in the past to the games timeline as the Cole Protocol is an early adaptation to space travel that prevents the Covenant from finding Mankind’s homeworld, Earth. Written in that Spartan style that many of todays readers are enamoured with, it is a great addition as it gets to give the series a sense of history that many felt has been missing from the various other books out there.

What perhaps does make this novel unique is the perspective from which its set. That of an invaded colony trying to get back to Earth and survive, sort of a take on the Battlestar Galactica mythos if I’m honest. Whilst perhaps trickier than a lot of the other novels to dive into, it is well formed, the concept a great one and written with skill alongside carefully crafted characters that will make the story just pop. An interesting offering and one that has made me make a note of the authors name so I’ll chase other titles by them.