Halo First Strike

The bestselling adaptation of the iconic video game Halo: Combat Evolved featuring the Master Chief—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series! 2552. Having barely escaped the final battle for Reach against the vast alien alliance known as the Covenant, the crew of the Pillar of Autumn, including Spartan John-117—the Master Chief—and his AI companion Cortana, is forced to make a desperate escape into slipspace. But their destination brings them to an ancient mystery and an even greater struggle. In this far-flung corner of the universe floats a magnificently massive, artificial ringworld. The crew’s only hope of survival is to crash-land on its surface and take the battle opposing the Covenant to the ground. But they soon discover that this enigmatic ringworld is much more than it seems. Built one hundred thousand years ago by a long-lost civilization known as the Forerunners, this “Halo” is worshipped by the Covenant—a sacred artifact they hope will complete their religious quest for supposed transcendence, and they will stop at nothing to control it. Engaging in fierce combat, Master Chief and Cortana will go deep into the Halo construct and uncover its dark secret and true purpose—even as a monstrous and far more vicious enemy than the Covenant emerges to threaten all sentient life on Halo and the galaxy beyond…

The New York Times bestselling aftermath of Halo: Combat Evolved featuring the Master Chief—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series! 2552. The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant is showing no mercy as it continues to assault every human world it encounters, but in the way lies humanity’s greatest champion, the super-soldier Spartan John-117—the Master Chief. Together with his AI companion Cortana and the last remaining Spartans, the galaxy-spanning fight rages on two fronts following the destruction of the human military stronghold Reach by Covenant forces and the mysterious artificial ringworld known as “Halo” at the hands of the Master Chief. One faction—a squad of Spartans lead by Blue Team’s Fred-104 and Kelly-087—is trapped on the glassed surface of Reach, the only planet they’ve ever known as home. And beneath this ruined world, Dr. Catherine Halsey has discovered an ancient secret...one that could alter the course of the war. Meanwhile, the Master Chief and Cortana lead a second group toward a gathering of Covenant warships, as the United Nations Space Command’s worst nightmare has finally come true: the Covenant has discovered the location of Earth and is forming a massive fleet to utterly destroy it, as well as all who oppose the indomitable will of the Prophets…

With the destruction of Halo, the human-Covenant war rages on as the SPARTAN super soldier Master Chief, aided by the artificial intelligence Cortana, race against time to rescue survivors of the disaster and evade Covenant warships that still patrol much of space, in a third novel based on the award-winning Xbox game. Original. (Science Fiction & Fantasy). Original.

There is water pooled deep within the earth--a forbidden spring that flows through the history of humankind. There is a reborn ghost town in New Mexico where real phantoms congregate--along with artists, shamans, witches. . .and all manner of evil. Lightning has chased Larry Ngitis to this place where he will be called upon to do the impossible. Because the death of everything is rapidly approaching--unless Larry can turn the wheels of the world in the right direction. DRY WATER is a novel of wondrous thing that reshapes time and many realities--from the awesome imagination of Eric S. Nylund, a truly great contemporary American Fantasist. There is water pooled deep within the earth--a forbidden spring that flows through the history of humankind.There is a reborn ghost town in New Mexico where real phantoms congregate--along with artists, shamans, witches. . .and all manner of evil.Lightning has chased Larry Ngitis to this place where he will be called upon to do the impossible. Because the death of everything is rapidly approaching--unless Larry can turn the wheels of the world in the right direction.DRY WATER is a novel of wondrous thing that reshapes time and many realities--from the awesome imagination of Eric S. Nylund, a truly great contemporary American Fantasist.

USA TODAY BESTSELLER A Master Chief story and original full-length novel set in the Halo universe—based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! October 2559. It has been a year since the renegade artificial intelligence Cortana issued a galaxy-wide ultimatum, subjecting many worlds to martial law under the indomitable grip of her Forerunner weapons. Outside her view, the members of Blue Team—John-117, the Master Chief; Fred-104; Kelly-087; and Linda-058—are assigned from the UNSC Infinity to make a covert insertion onto the ravaged planet Reach. Their former home and training ground—and the site of humanity’s most cataclysmic military defeat near the end of the Covenant War—Reach still hides myriad secrets after all these years. Blue Team’s mission is to penetrate the rubble-filled depths of CASTLE Base and recover top-secret assets locked away in Dr. Catherine Halsey’s abandoned laboratory—assets which may prove to be humanity’s last hope against Cortana. But Reach has been invaded by a powerful and ruthless alien faction, who have their own reasons for being there. Establishing themselves as a vicious occupying force on the devastated planet, this enemy will soon transform Blue Team’s simple retrieval operation into a full-blown crisis. And with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, mission failure is not an option…

BE A HERO OF THERADo you want to play a game?Think you're good? Really good?Then you might be ready to play The Game ... where clans are sponsored by actual Demon Lords, Gods and Goddesses, Lovecraftian nightmares, and every other demi-entities of power.Still with me?Not running back to your massively multiplayer on-line games, shooters, or table-top role-playing where you can re-roll or respawn after you've been blasted and buried?Cool.Then roll up your sleeves and enter Thera, a kingdom at the crossroads of many worlds. Don't worry, there are all the usual augmented-reality interfaces, level progression, and game mechanics that you love, but Thera is also real, so are its inhabitants ... as is your new custom-designed avatar.Oh, your previous body? We've disposed of that old thing so you won't be distracted trying to get back to your so called "real" life.Did we mention the stakes of The Game? Nothing less than all Creation--every world in every universe and reality.Thus, Death Row inmate, Hector Savage enters Thera, eager to use the gaming skills he's cultivated his entire life. Nothing has prepared him, though, for the schemes of Abyssal Lords, barbarian ghosts, evil wizards, and other bad guys who have plans for him--all before he advances to fifth level!Can he win?Can he survive the Free Trial?Find out in this latest entry of the LitRPG genre, Hero of Thera.

"The prequel to the award-winning and bestselling video game franchise"--Cover.

A volume of short works inspired by the universe as depicted in the popular video game expands the stories of its characters while offering new insights into a variety of storyline elements and races. Simultaneous. Video game tie-in.

A Master Chief story and original full-length novel set in the Halo universe—based on the New York Times bestselling video game series! 2526. It has been a year since humanity engaged in its destructive first contact with a theocratic military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. Now the hostilities have led to open war, and the United Nations Space Command understands virtually nothing about its new enemy. There are only two certainties—the Covenant is determined to eradicate humanity, and they have the superior technology to do just that. The UNSC’s only hope lies with the Spartans: enhanced supersoldiers raised and trained from childhood via a clandestine black ops project to be living weapons. Their designated commander, Petty Officer John-117, has been assigned to lead the Spartans on a desperate counterattack designed to rock the Covenant back on its heels, and to buy humanity the time it needs to gather intelligence and prepare its defenses. But not everyone wants the Spartans to succeed. A coalition of human insurrectionist leaders believes an alliance with the Covenant to be its best hope of finally winning independence from the Unified Earth Government. To further their plans, the insurrectionists have dispatched a sleeper agent to sabotage the UNSC counterattack—and ensure that John-117 and the Spartans never return from battle....

The final novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo! 2553. With the thirty-year-long Covenant War finally over, the Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. Angry and bitter colonists—still wanting to settle scores from an insurrection put on hold for three decades—crave justice…as does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his young daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black-ops squad Kilo-Five now find its collective loyalty tested beyond the breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance, prepares to glass Earth’s cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with someone long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place…