I just spent several hours reading about how this dude named Chakkas wondered around one of the original rings totally lost. While this first half of the book made The Flood sound like the most epic novel ever, I held out hope that things would get interesting. And they did, for a little bit, but I’ll save the spoilers.
Now I’m at the part that says “Riser’s Story.” Okay, I don’t care about this guy. I care about four entities right now:
- The Didact
- The Librarian
- The Master Builder
- Mendicant Bias
So…does Primordium get any better, or am I wasting my time?
The thing I like about the forerunner novels is that no matter how crazy or subtle things are, they all end up having connections to things we know, or will know shortly. When you started reading cryptum, everything seemed…cryptic, but eventually Greg puts in the word “Halo” at the end of a chapter and all of the sudden you think, oh right, even though the stuff I’m reading seems so wild and outlandish this all has some meaning in the games and stuff that I know and love, which is really cool - lets find out what!
What I’m trying to say is, the payoff for primordium almost entirely happens in the last 10% of the book.
Cryptum and Primordium are the best written Halo books out there. You shouldn’t be reading through for a payoff, you should be reading it to enjoy it. Greg Bear is a damn good author, even if his work is definitely more “hard” sci-fi. That being said, if you don’t like the book just go read a summary. No matter how good someone is at writing “hard” sci-fi, it’s still a niche genre, and some people are bound not to like it.
> Cryptum and Primordium are the best written Halo books out there. You shouldn’t be reading through for a payoff, you should be reading it to enjoy it. Greg Bear is a damn good author, even if his work is definitely more “hard” sci-fi. That being said, if you don’t like the book just go read a summary. No matter how good someone is at writing “hard” sci-fi, it’s still a niche genre, and some people are bound not to like it.
Agreed. Cryptum is one of my all time favourite novels, not just my all time favourite Halo novel.
If you haven’t figured out the end of the book already, then finish it. Other wise Primordium is just Halo’s Lord of the Rings. Cryptum is a ten times better book. And to be honest, I was kinda pissed off that the book didn’t focus on The Flood/Forerunner war like the first one set up. I want to know about that war, not use his books as set up for Halo 4.
> If you haven’t figured out the end of the book already, then finish it. Other wise Primordium is just Halo’s Lord of the Rings. Cryptum is a ten times better book. And to be honest, I was kinda pissed off that the book didn’t focus on The Flood/Forerunner war like the first one set up. I want to know about that war, not use his books as set up for Halo 4.
LOL… Props for the link… Loved that scene in the movie…
Back to topic, yes its worth finishing. While the book does drag on at the beginning and middle, the ending is great. Heres hoping for the 3rd book to be as good as the first and answer some of the questions that got raised.
My one complaint about Primordium was the bit at the end with the Timeless One, I mean Greg Bear had been setting him up to be this really huge, scary, monstrous and extremely powerful evil…and then Chakas and the Didact just get rid of him like he’s nothing sigh it was just too anti-climactic for me and was rather disappointing 
Other than my one complaint up there in the spoiler, the book was beyond excellent, you definitely have to finish it, it only gets better from there. I finished it one day, couldn’t put it down once I actually started, it was fantastic. Cryptum and Primordium are definitely some of the absolute best Halo books out there.