Mine would have to be Ghosts of Onyx.
I absolutely LOVE that book. Spoiler! :---------- R.I.P Kurt
What is your favourite Halo book and why?
Cryptum for me.
I personally adored the direction they went with the Forerunners, as well as introducing the Stalin of all villains - the Timeless One, who has since become a pet interest of mine and whom I have discussed with Greg Bear himself. Not to mention that the battle of the Capitol has to be the most jaw-dropping, visceral and amazing scenes ever.
> Cryptum for me.
>
> I personally adored the direction they went with the Forerunners, as well as introducing the Stalin of all villains - the Timeless One, who has since become a pet interest of mine and whom I have discussed with Greg Bear himself. Not to mention that the battle of the Capitol has to be the most jaw-dropping, visceral and amazing scenes ever.
Cryptum was a very close second for me.
Ghosts of Onyx will always hold a special place for me, due mainly to the portrayal of Kurt and the battle between William and the Hunters (which is just plain legendary).
However, though I know if gets a fair amount of heat around the forum (and reading again), I really enjoyed Glasslands. Having just reread it, I think I’ve pinned it down too: it’s because of it’s non-Spartan focused story. Yes, there are Spartans present in the book, however the novel manages to give us an outsiders look at the Spartan program, which is something I like. The moral dilemma also intrigues me, but that’s a discussion for another thread.
A close second for it would definitely by Primordium though. The reveal at the ending has me super excited for Halo 4, what with the return of one of my favorite characters (in one form or another). Just awesome.
Reach or cryptum.
Reach because it defined so much of the halo universe and covered so much time.
Cryptum because it was such a wild traditional sci-fi book to start, but slowly it was a traditional sci fi book but about familiar halo stuff, with all these resonant connections to stuff I already knew and loved, and that was cool.
Absolutely Halo: Cryptum. Loved it entirely.
Primordium.
it isn’t simply “a lot of walking” as people like to say. Yes, the characters do travel vast distances but in turn we learn a lot about humanity, the Flood, the Forerunners, the Halos and get huge hints at what is to come at Halo 4.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step after all.
Contact Harvest is my favorite. I hated the Forerunner books, The Fall of Reach was good but dull First Strike was great, the Cole Protocol was alright, Ghosts of Onyx was boring until about half-way in, Glasslands was decent, and The Flood was questionable but entertaining.
Well I can tell you it’s most definitely not Glasslands…and the other two books in that trilogy will follow the same pattern and be my most hated as well.
My favorite though, I’d say that it’s probably the Cole Protocol, I love that one, it was incredibly good. My other favorites would be Ghosts of Onyx and the Forerunner Trilogy (I view it all as one book).
My one disappointment with the Forerunner Trilogy though was the ending of Primordium. I hated how they just killed the Timeless One like he was nothing. I dunno, it just felt so horribly anti-climactic and opposed to what they’d been making him out to be all throughout Cryptum and Primordium. I’m not disappointed that it died, but I felt the death of the Timeless One could have been done ever so much better than just sort of suddenly having him in a reverse “timelock” and then effectively frying him 
I really can’t wait for Book 3 though, I hope it’s even better than the first two 
I’d say my order of favorites is probably something like this:
- Cole Protocol
- Ghosts of Onyx/Forerunner Trilogy
- First Strike/Contact Harvest.
- The Fall of Reach (I dunno what it was, but the whole book felt sort of boring to me …and when we finally got the actual Fall of Reach part, I felt it sucked)
999,999,999,999,999. Glasslands (Yes I hated/disliked it enough to make it the biggest trillion possible)
The Fall of Reach, I liked learning about John’s past.