As of yesterday afternoon, I finished reading Halo: Primordium. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book and found it interesting to read. However, my only issues with it were in regards to the identity of 343 Guilty Spark, and the intercutting interrogation scenes with ONI. I will explain why:
No where in any of the video games or other material before Primordium was it ever suggested that monitors, especially 343 GS, were Composed humans. In fact, the Composer was something that was only introduced/invented in the Forerunner trilogy and then shown in Halo 4. Before that, nothing. In every scene in Halo CE, 2, and 3, Spark shows no evidence of having been a human, of having a past life that he ends up remembering in great detail when the humans interrogate him in Primordium. Sure, some people in retrospect could interpret his line about his “creators” (which he says in CE) being explained as the Iso-Didact’s use of the Composer on him giving him his new identity. Or, it could be seen as how it was originally meant to be seen: As the Forerunners having created these AI robots, not using real humans.
In addition, Primordium, which is written from the fist-person perspective of Chakas, in no way sounds like Spark. I cannot even imagine his voice speaking any of it (though I hear that the audio book is narrated by Spark’s VA, correct?). You could argue that his mannerisms and language evolve after he’s Composed into Spark, but I don’t find that to be a good enough explanation. The gap between Chakas and Spark is so vast that I cannot make myself accept it. Call me stubborn, but this is my genuine reaction. No bias involved. I did love Primordium. It’s just easier to enjoy when I view it as an original story having nothing to do with the Halo universe. It could stand on its own really well, otherwise it conflicts with information from the original games.
Greg Bear made a great story (and I am about to start Silentium), it’s just that my issue lies with 343i wanting to tie everything into the post-Bungie games, ignoring what was explicitly stated and shown in the original games, not caring if not everything makes sense when you pull in the entire saga of video games and pre-343i novels. The Forerunner books work well when you view them as either a) a standalone series or b) tying only into the 343i era. And, as a result, the original Halo games end up working great as their own standalone trilogy, due to how much conflicting information 343i and the authors they’ve used created. Honestly, with nearly every single franchise out there that I enjoy, my biggest complaint is whenever new information is added retroactively that had no proof of existence before. It may work when trying to explain what is going on in the new iterations, but becomes clunky when you try to find how it connects to what came before. Like it or not, but the original movies, games, etc. of a franchise are just as important and valid as the new stuff, regardless of whether a new company took over or not. I would have been very happy to have Chakas not be turned into Spark, as throughout Primordium it’s shown that he really is an important character to the Forerunner story; he didn’t need to be transformed into an already-known character to be important. It then just ends up being fan-service, and not really necessary.
And about Spark’s interrogation: Obviously it’s suggesting that Spark somehow survived the destruction of Halo instalation 04B. I have a hard time believing that, that something that small could survive such a catastrophic event. And then it’s oh so convenient that he is made to tell his life’s story. And how these humans know about other Halos. And again making ONI seem like an evil shadow group instead of a morally grey organization that is as important to the war effort as the UNSC is (the ONI individual did come off as rather a -Yoink!-, IMO).
So those are really my only issues with Primordium, all involving 343 Guilty Spark.
What did the rest of you think about these revelations?