The Greg Bear novels bore me to death! When Primordium came out, I re-read Cryptum as a refresher. I can’t power through those two books again before delving into Silentium. What is the best site for reading 30 minute summaries of those two books?
Everybody has different tastes and Greg Bear isn’t really for me, but if it’s Halo, I’ll read it. I’m glad Bear is only writing three books.
I’d sayHalopedia. If you go through there, then even if the initial summary leaves some questions you can follow links to character pages and stuff.
I gotta say, I’m with you on Primordium. I’m reading it now for the first time (nearly finished) and I have not been enjoying it. I loved Cryptum but Primordium just drags on. Every time it feels like something is going to happen, it doesn’t. It’s not even suspenseful, just really uneventful. And the Riser chapter, that was just annoying. Just my feelings, I have a feeling Silentium will be a little more Cryptum like so I think I’ll enjoy it.
I really loved the perspective of ancient humans on a Halo while the Forerunners are in the midst of a civil war. There’s a lot of intrigue in Halo: Primordium. I’m rereading it right now before Halo: Silentium comes out (already got through Halo: Cryptum), and I have to say I’m enjoying it a lot more than I did the first time. The book has a fascinating setting, and Greg Bear’s writing is so interesting when he gets into these characters. When he writes from an ancient human perspective, it feels absolutely right. When he writes from a Forerunner’s perspective, it still feels absolutely right. He’s incredibly versatile and it’s fascinating how different Halo: Cryptum and Halo: Primordium feel due to their differing protagonists, despite being two books of the same trilogy.
I just don’t really know if I can understand how anybody finds these novels boring. They’re certainly slow paced, I’ll give you that. But the writing is incredibly descriptive and Greg Bear’s characterization of his characters and his settings are so much more rich than almost any other Halo fiction writer. If you read the novels as slowly as they’re intended to be read, and actually visualize these events in your head, everything gets a lot more interesting. While going back and rereading all of the Halo novels, I have to say that the Forerunner Trilogy has ended up being my favorite. I hope that Halo: Silentium follows suit there.
I have to agree with eben gibon king, though. Halopedia is your best bet to find summaries (albeit not very detailed) of these novels. I really encourage you to go back and pace yourself and just try reading them again, though. When your brain actively engages the material in the right way, the novels are so much more interesting.
> I really loved the perspective of ancient humans on a Halo while the Forerunners are in the midst of a civil war. There’s a lot of intrigue in Halo: Primordium. I’m rereading it right now before Halo: Silentium comes out (already got through Halo: Cryptum), and I have to say I’m enjoying it a lot more than I did the first time. The book has a fascinating setting, and Greg Bear’s writing is so interesting when he gets into these characters. When he writes from an ancient human perspective, it feels absolutely right. When he writes from a Forerunner’s perspective, it still feels absolutely right. He’s incredibly versatile and it’s fascinating how different Halo: Cryptum and Halo: Primordium feel due to their differing protagonists, despite being two books of the same trilogy.
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> I just don’t really know if I can understand how anybody finds these novels boring. They’re certainly slow paced, I’ll give you that. But the writing is incredibly descriptive and Greg Bear’s characterization of his characters and his settings are so much more rich than almost any other Halo fiction writer. If you read the novels as slowly as they’re intended to be read, and actually visualize these events in your head, everything gets a lot more interesting. While going back and rereading all of the Halo novels, I have to say that the Forerunner Trilogy has ended up being my favorite. I hope that Halo: Silentium follows suit there.
People have different tastes. I personally felt he over did much of the description in Primordium, and spent far too much time on their travels and far too little on the actual events. Cryptum was possibly my favourite in the series. I visualise everything when I read and all Primordium felt like for the most part, was a long boring walk.
That said, I’ve clearly got some different tastes to many on these forums, I quite enjoy the writing style of the Kilo-Five books (though neither of them had an ending which annoys me to no end), I dislike the Cole Protocol and Contact Harvest. People have different tastes, and that’s a good things. If we all liked the same thing life would be boring.
Cryptum was great, I really loved learning about the Forerunner.
On the other hand, Primordium was just terrible. Id say a person can read the first few chapters, then skip to the last few chapters and still learn all there is to learn from the book. The entire like, 80% of the middle of the book is just Gamelpar, Vinevra and Chakas wandering around, its -Yoink- boring as hell.
> I visualise everything when I read and all Primordium felt like for the most part, was a long boring walk.
So true!
I know Bear is an accomplished writer. It’s just a style I don’t particularly enjoy.