Halo: Cryptum novel out now

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 5 January, 2011

The Forerunners' past revealed.

Microsoft has further expanded the gargantuan Halo universe with a new novel that reveals the truth behind the mysterious alien race known as the Forerunners.

Halo: Cryptum, by sci-fi author Greg Bear, is the first in a planned trilogy of books set in the era of the Forerunners. Fans of Bungie's first-person shooter series will know the Forerunners well: they created the devastating Halo rings.

Cryptum is of course one of many books based on the Halo series. There are also animated films, live action shorts and other transmedia goodies. Halo is big business: to date more than 40 million copies of Halo games have been sold worldwide. Halo: Reach generated more than $200 million in sales in the US and Europe in the first 24 hours of its release.

With the Halo IP now in the hands of Microsoft, in-house studio 343 Industries is staffing up for unannounced Halo projects. Is it working on Halo 4?

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • Jonathan_Fakenham #1 1 year ago

    Ordered this earlier this morning actually. It'll be interesting to dig into the Forerunners' backstory.

  • HisDudness #2 1 year ago

    2011's first Pulitzer candidate?

  • bumgut #3 1 year ago

    Greg Bear is a 'proper' Hard Sci-Fi author.

  • coolbritannia #4 1 year ago

    I have all the Halo novels, but after the retconning in Reach they can hardly be considered canon anymore, which makes me sad. Bungie said they worked to their specific bible but that all went out the window...

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #5 1 year ago

    I'd kinda rather this sort of backstory was revealed in the main games, rather than spin-off novels that I'll probably never find the time to read...

  • miiiguel #6 1 year ago

    2011's first Pulitzer candidate?

    Do you know what's the Pulitzer prize ? If it was a joke you used the wrong one.

  • Eighthours #7 1 year ago

    Greg Bear is a 'proper' Hard Sci-Fi author.

    Who figured he could pay off his mortgage in a fortnight. ;)

  • M4RV #8 1 year ago

    @coolbritannia:

    What retcons are you talking about...?! They even worked with Nylund - who wrote most of the novels - in order to avoid said retcons to begin with. I assume you haven't purchased the limited or legendary edition of the game, otherwise you would know what I'm talking about.

    - - - -

    Either way, really excited about this. It's on my pre-order list, together with Tales from the Halo Universe, Volume II. :)
    Edited by M4RV at 05/01/11 @ 10:25

  • altitude2k #9 1 year ago

    The only discrepancy between Reach and The Fall of Reach was that you would have expected the characters on one side of the story to at least mention the characters on the other side of the story, especially given the inclusion of Halsey, Keyes and the fact that Jorge was a Spartan II.

    In Reach they don't (my guess is so as not to confuse those who haven't read the books), but it doesn't cause an outright conflict between the two stories.
    Edited by altitude2k at 05/01/11 @ 10:45

  • CptButchFlowers #10 1 year ago

    Isn't the pillar of autumn suppose to be off planet when the covenant turn up? Therefore the end of Fall of Reach and beginning of First Strike make no sense

  • HisDudness #11 1 year ago

    I can't believe I'm doing this and I apologize in advance...
    Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

  • Cronan #12 1 year ago

    Great news, love Greg Bear's stuff.

    Please God, let it not be Halo 4.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #13 1 year ago

    I still hold out hope for a Forerunner game at some point.

    Haven't read any of the previous Halo novels as I sometimes struggle with "Expanded Universe" content but am intrigued about the Forerunners. Might pop along to Waterstones and pick this up.

  • BuddyChrist #14 1 year ago

    Epic stories that they failed to include in the games. Instead I found myself disabling anti air guns and shields, then reactivating anti air guns and shields ... Yay

  • Whitster #15 1 year ago

    The first 4 books were good, but I found they went downhill after Nyland left. I struggled through Contact Harvest and couldn't get into Cole Protocol at all. Was tempted to order the book of short stories as Fred Van Lente had one in there but never got around to it.

  • altitude2k #16 1 year ago

    @CptButchFlowers

    I was confused as to how and when the PoA returned to dry dock, but I gave up trying to work out when in the story this may have happened and just accepted the fact is that it's certainly plausible given the importance of Cortana albeit not mentioned in tFoR. After all, the book was not a minute-by-minute account of what happened to that ship.

    In order for new stories to be created it is sometimes necessary for writers to fill out potential gaps in previous stories. So just because it's not mentioned in the former doesn't mean it's not plausible, and non-canon in the latter.

    That's how I look at it, anyway.

  • Ror1984 #17 1 year ago

    The thing that bugged me about Reach was that Halsey didn't explicitly know of the Spartan-IIIs until Ghosts of Onyx. Granted, she found Ackerson's files in Castle Base during First Strike, but they merely alluded to S-IIIs. In Reach, she is implicitly aware of them - she never calls them S-IIIs, but she knows every Spartan-II - her Spartans by name. Still, it isn't a huge plot hole.

    As for the book, I had been waiting for this, and it just crept up on me. As I'm currently knee-deep in King's Dark Tower, it'll have to wait :(

    Also, I wonder if we'll ever find out more about the Precursors..?

  • Razorus #18 1 year ago

    Plus One to Ror1984. I'm on Song of Susannah, so I know what you mean mate. Still, gonna order Cryptum now anyway. I have every Halo book so far and I'm not gonna stop now!

  • Ror1984 #19 1 year ago

    @Razorus - I'm about two thirds through Wolves of the Calla right now, and I've just managed to get a mate interested enough to start reading the Gunslinger. Fantastic series, as are the Halo books. I think I'm gonna have to hold off though, otherwise I know the lure of reading about the Forerunners will be too strong and I'll end up putting the DT books aside!

  • Centrifugal #20 1 year ago

    From what I've heard over at the Bungie.net forums, it's absolutely fantastic. I consider myself quite knowledgeable about Halo's universe but I've read a few spoilers and they've complete changed what I knew.

    For example, apparently humanity was interstellar 100,000 years ago, until we got into a war with the Forerunners. They won, devolved us and exiled us to Earth.

    Waiting for my order.

  • StriderRex #21 1 year ago

    @altitude2k
    They completely changed the whole story in the book the Covenant attacked suddenly just as the PoA was about to go into slipspace to hijack a Covenant carrier, it was recalled to help in the defence of Reach.
    Master Chief and and one other Spartan went to a space dock to take out Col Ackersons ship which had knowledge of Earth while the rest of the Spartans went to Reach to defend it.
    The PoA joined the UNSC ships and engaged the Covenant fleet with the help of the orbital MAC guns and Cortana was on the PoA before then she had been with Master Chief.
    Finally the S-III's didnt work with the S-II's on Reach, though that could have been overlooked I suppose.

    I normally never go into this much detail but the ending of Reach left me incredibly disappointed with Bungie, they claim to love their fans, I have bought all the books, limited editions etc and have closely followed the universe as for me its right up there with Star Wars, but The Fall of Reach had a fantastic story, even now still the best of the books and many miles better than the story in Halo:Reach.

    Bungie simply said that the games are canon and nothing else is, including the books meaning they can disregard them completely which is what they did with Halo: Reach.
    I wont lie, I was a huge Halo fanboy (the 1st is still my fvourite game of all time) but this really annoyed me, the one consolation is Stephen Spielberg is thinking about optioning the books (NOT the games) so The Fall of Reach could still be made into a movie, and believe me, if you like Halo you will love to see this on the big screen (origin of the Spartans, massive space battles, Reach being overrun with Covenant).

    Sorry about the rant everyone, but I'm sure everyone has one thing that really annoys them like this (be it games, movies, books etc), ruining canonical stories, and this is mine.
    Edited by StriderRex at 05/01/11 @ 16:43

  • SilverInfinity #22 1 year ago

    I love the Halo novels made me want to read fiction again after a long hiatus from school, ever since I have bought Halo media like the animated DVD.

    I recall reading an interview with Bungie where continuity was questioned, not sure if this was it - [link url=http://www.nowgamer.com/features/838/halo-reach-interview-bungie-speaks
    ]http://www.nowgamer.com/features/838/hal...[/link]

    I read a lot of comics nowadays so am used to reading big retcons, as a fan I say keep the novels coming there is more to the universe to see!

    Someone clearly not happy with Reach on this site ;) - http://www.haloreachisnotcanon.net/about/

  • Incarta #23 1 year ago

    My GOD there's a lot of nerdy fandom in this comment section.

    ...

    *orders the book*

  • StriderRex #24 1 year ago

    @SilverInfinity
    thanks for the link to the HRINC site, I was beginning to think I was the only guy out there who felt like this!
    Incarta, Im guilty as charged ;-)

  • RedSparrows #25 1 year ago

    The books are shite, usually.

    That spoiler plot revelation would make an awesome game, however.

    I love Halo for the gameplay far more than the story.

  • Centrifugal #26 1 year ago

    @RedSparrows

    Yes, but this book is written by Greg Bear, a man who is, in my opinion, one of the greatest science fiction authors around. Unlike Eric Nylund, who is simply a good writer with some nice ideas.