Hey everyone, long time Halo fan here. I’m wanting to read the Forerunner books but have several questions.
Where do I start?
Is there anything I should know about them before going in? Any material I should see/read before hand?
Are they easy to follow? If not, am I better off just watching a synopsis on Youtube?
Thanks in advance.
Cryptium is where you start. They can be hard to follow i wouldn’t just listen to a synopsis though it robs you of the experience and a lot of the experience is your own thoughts and theories during and after reading the saga.
The order of the books is: Cryptum → Primordium → Silentium.
You don’t need to know anything specific before going in. These are the books that introduce a lot about the Forerunners that are hinted at in later games. It’s relatively easy to follow the surface-level narrative, but taking your time to let it sink in will answer questions you’d otherwise have on a surface-level read-through.
I highly suggest taking your time to read them, because there’s a lot of layers to the story, details that are hinted but not said outright … like a mystery or jigsaw puzzle to piece together. If you blast through them too quickly or just read/watch a synopsis, you’ll miss all of the nuance, and come away with a shallow understanding of the lore.
I very much suggest when you read the novels, take notes on specific things, and at the end go through and check those notes and see how they fit together.
-anything about the Precursors, Flood, or Neural Physics.
-anything about the Forerunners’ homeworld, or the assumption of Erde-Tyrene to be Humanity’s Homeworld.
-any reference to similarities in biology between the Forerunners and Humanity.
If you aren’t looking for them, they’re easy to miss, but once you’ve put them together, the deeper layer to the story makes it all fit into a much clearer, coherent narrative, answering questions you might otherwise have regarding the surface-level narrative.
As the order is already provided ill just add that as far as sci-fi goes they don’t reinvent much nor are they complicated pretty easy reads over all.
That said they are well written and add lots of depth to the fiction.
I enjoyed reading them but surprisingly I found them even better as audio books I listened to them leading up to infinite to refresh and found them great when walking the dogs or doing some house work.
The simple nature and uncomplicated plot and heavy handed approach(not an insult) to suggesting deeper lore without stating it outright make it a great series for audio.
Enjoy.
Since most of the stuff has been covered, here’s some suggestions for after you finish the forerunner trilogy
-Halo 4 terminals rewatch as they show pieces from those books