Halo: The Cole Protocol

[Wondermonkey]

HALO: THE COLE PROTOCOL TO LAUNCH ON NOVEMBER 25th

Halo: The Cole Protocol is the sixth in the New York Times bestselling literary series based on the blockbuster Microsoft and Bungie Studios' Halo® video games. An unabridged audiobook edition will publish simultaneously with the new novel.

Written by Nebula nominee and Prometheus Award finalist, Tobias Buckell, Halo: The Cole Protocol unveils the location of the Spartan Gray Team and takes readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War, where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered, altering the course of the humanity's epic struggle for survival. The Halo novels, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (Tor 2006) and Halo: Contact Harvest (Tor 2007) became instant bestsellers and they, along with the three previous novels, have helped establish Halo® as one of today's greatest science fiction franchises.

HALO: THE COLE PROTOCOL

Pricing: $14.95 Trade Paperback Original / $23.95 Macmillan Audio

Hooray for the Gray Team!

[Crippler]

Crap, must go preorder that from Amazon

[Quo]

from Halopedia:

• There are three Spartans on Gray Team, as shown in Halo: Fall of Reach, when Dr. Halsey says that "all of you are here, save three who are engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled."

Nice. I can't wait to read it. This means all new characters, most likely. It would take a pretty weird weave to pull them out of existing ones...

I just read that line in Fall of Reach about 2 nights ago, and I wondered where that might lead. Dr. Halsey says it right as she's introducing them to the Mjolnir armor, right before Chief meets Cortana. So these guys must still have the old shield-less, AI-less armor, again unless they are weaving the story in some random way.

Question: The books aren't really clear... do all Spartans have an AI? I mean, the ones that wear the Mjolnir armor?

[Crippler]

Originally Posted by Quo

Question: The books aren't really clear... do all Spartans have an AI? I mean, the ones that wear the Mjolnir armor?

I don't think so. (I has been awhile since I have read that book.)

[Wondermonkey]

No, they all don't have AI. But it would seem that they don't have upgraded armor either as you said. They are Spartan IIs though, Master Chief's ilk, so I think they could do a lot with this story. I'm excited, although I'm a bad Halo fan, I haven't finished reading the last one written by Joseph Staten yet. I suck.

[Crippler]

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey

I haven't finished reading the last one written by Joseph Staten yet. I suck.

What???/ That book was good man. LOTS of background info on Sarge and how the whole war started.

[Quo]

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey

I'm excited, although I'm a bad Halo fan, I haven't finished reading the last one written by Joseph Staten yet. I suck.

Ack! You do suck!

I was just thinking about the individual AI thing last, because in Fall of Reach, there's no mention of other Spartans having it. Seems odd though, because it's implied that everyone there at the volunteer meeting for the infiltration mission gets the Mjolnir armor... which includes two primary upgrades over the older armor set 1) shields, stolen from Covenant tech and improved, and 2) the ability to house an AI. They just never say that anyone else has an AI installed. You would think that if others had them they would be at least mentioned in the story, coordinating with Cortana or something.

I dunno, just seems like a tiny flaw in the storyline, that's all. MC is repeatedly defined as not the smartest, fastest or strongest of the SpII's... but he's the bravest and luckiest. So why would he be the only AI-supported Spartan II. I can see why the SPIII's don't... they're a cheaper, more mass-market version of the SPII's.

[Wondermonkey]

I'll finish it tonight, I swear!

I think maybe they are all outfitted with the ability to house AI, maybe they just don't unless they truly need it?

[mrsako]

I haven't been reading the books, I might do it someday though.

I think MC's case was unique, he was hanging on to cortana to protect her and vice versa what not.

[Peench]

Danny - the books were great. I highly recommend them.

[Wondermonkey]

From the newly updated Amazon page comes the back copy:

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.

Awesome.

[Peench]

I loved the other books, can't wait for this one. Thanks for posting.

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by Peench

I loved the other books, can't wait for this one. Thanks for posting.

Hi. You're welcome. Love, Me.