Halo: Hunters in the Dark

Halo: Hunters In The Dark, the second book in 343 Industries' wave of new novels being released in 2015, is an interesting take on the UNSC's activites postwar that finally takes the reader back to the Lesser Ark, the location of the latter half of Halo 3's campaign. What transpires during the book isn't directly related to those events, though there are connections.First off, Peter David shows that he understands the Halo universe. His characters are believable given their backgrounds and circumstances, he introduces some interesting new elements as well as incorporating existing lore, and overall Hunters fits neatly into Halo canon.The story takes place in 2555, between the events of Halo 3 and Halo 4. The premise is that worrying developments with the Halo rings prompt a joint UNSC-Sangheili expedition to the Ark, where they encounter a wide range of threats and discoveries. A number of species and enemy types are introduced or reintroduced, including some cut from the original Halo: Combat Evolved, and ultimately a primary threat is discovered.Without spoilers, there's a lot that happens here, but ultimately the narrative doesn't particularly set up a great deal moving forward for the overall universe. While this is understandable given that most major world-building will be occurring in Halo 5 Guardians in October, the fact still remains that the story could've done a bit more setup. Overall it falls into the vein of other recent Halo stories like New Blood or Nightfall in that it's a standalone story intended to introduce a new character for Halo 5, in this instance the future Spartan Olympia Vale, who will be a member of the Spartan-IV team hunting the Master Chief in that game.It should be noted that the writing here has a couple of flaws which keep it from passing the very top tier of Halo storytelling; for instance, the author relies a bit too heavily on flashbacks or extended backstory to explain a character's actions or viewpoint on things happening. This wouldn't be so bad, except that they're indiscriminately scattered throughout the novel causing multiple important, tense scenes to suddenly be brought to a jarring standstill for a paragraph or two of exposition. Also, some of the characterizations are a little bit flat and a character development that occurs at the very end is a bit out of nowhere and feels forced in for the sake of conflict.All that said, though, this is still a good book. There's plenty of excellent fanservice here, including the return of Halo 3 Sangheili coop characters N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, members of the Sangheili Arbiter's forces and allies of humanity. The pacing is well-done overall, the story is quite interesting and Vale's setup for H5G is quite satisfactory, though not quite as good as Buck's treatment in New Blood and infinitely better than Locke's debut in Nightfall.Taken as a whole, I recommend Hunters In The Dark to any Halo fan as a worthwhile read. Peter David has made a solid entry in the Halo franchise.SPOILER:Despite the title, no Hunters (Lekgolo) actually appear in the story, unfortunately.

Hunters in the Dark is a solid piece of fiction and an awesome addition to the Halo universe. The story and characters were great and the story was paced pretty well. There are a few MINOR things I didn't like: The author compares the sounds of the Arks wildlife to purrs A LOT, everything always seems to be "Centimeters from their face", SPOILER - when they are fighting above the portal against the Strato-Sentinel, the books says they fire Heat Seeking Plasma torpedoes even though Plasma Torpedoes are Magnetically guided. The writing sometimes (very rarely) got a bit,.. simple? I cant really explain it, but it felt out style, however this occurred extremely rarely and didn't detract from the story.The book introduces some very cool flora and fauna into the universe (including some made but scrapped before Halo CE). The book also introduces us to Olympia Vale, a member of Locke's Team in Halo 5 and she is a pretty interesting character just like the rest of the characters (well 99% of them). The fight scenes are vivid and satisfying as well as the environments the protagonists find themselves in. The book occasionally makes references to the Battle of Installation 00, which occurred during the last half of Halo 3.Overall the book was great; it has taken the spot of my #3 Halo book after Ghosts of Onyx and The Fall of Reach. I hope Peter David writes another Halo novel because I really, really liked Hunters in the Dark!

Hmm, what to say. Well, the biggest positive is that this is a genuinely well-written book--most of the time. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to Halo novels (blame Eric Nylund), but also partly because I pretend to be a writer in my free time. Anyway, point is, 90% of the time the narration and tone is consistent, with the major exceptions almost always involving the humans (particularly Olympia, who feels extremely shoved in at times. I guess that's what happens when they need to establish a new player character).Scratch that, the BIGGEST positive is actually that this WASN'T written by Karen Traviss and therefore doesn't spend several hundred pages near-screaming (almost always out of character) how Halsey = Hitler/Mengele, and then have the same character promptly muse on how wonderful inflicting genocide on a certain species would be because of "their future threat."Okay, that rant out of the way, there are some serious flaws with the way this book is presented. I absolutely ADORE that "Player 3" and "Player 4" from Halo 3 are finally, truly given a chance to shine (and they're not brutally murdered! I'm looking at you, New Blood/Escalation), but that's honestly the only reason I kept reading the book. It provides another good insight into Sangheili (Elite) culture and politics. It's not that the book itself is BAD, but really... it feels less like it was telling a story than establishing background (and a character) for Halo 5. And in comparison to the earliest expanded universe novels... that just feels really cheap.**MINOR SPOILER FOLLOWS**The reason I say that is that, with some exceptions that refer to events that took place (sort of) in various other novels, nothing... really happens in this. Yes, humanity/Earth/UEG/UNSC (take your pick) establishes a new research station "somewhere", but most of the characters are relatively forgettable (now watch them be used for years), the big bad doesn't make it past the end of the novel, and I'm honestly not sure what we're supposed to walk away with.**SPOILER OVER**At any rate, yes, I'd say the digital version of this is worth buying, if only to build some background for a Halo 5 character. There's nothing terribly WRONG with the book, just minor annoyances that are symptomatic of 343 either not having a chief writing/canon czar (and more of a committee) or simply just not having anyone with decent experience managing that sort of thing. It gets 4 stars primarily for price, content, and not being written by Karen Traviss.On a different note, my biggest disappointment is that 343 has yet to realize what idiots they were by killing certain people off for the sake of making a situation serious, and have yet to rectify it. Yes, I want a retcon to bring certain characters back because it was STUPID how they were killed, and utterly meaningless. Mostly.

Enjoyed the storyline. First, Halo story to read, and I will pursue others, as I can. I think it might be worthwhile. Is

Toda la colección de la saga tiene lo suyo y tiene continuidad

This story wonderfully explores a great range of characters. From scientists to commanders, from Spartans to Sangheili. I reached the end excitedly going through the pages and woefully ending them.There's a just the right mix of dialog, action, and exploration to keep your mind occupied on events at hand.There's absolutely no need to be a Halo fan to enjoy this book as a well-written piece of sci-fi.

Actualización. Historia bien desarrollada que al ir leyendo te traerá buenos recuerdos por la saga.Siento que lo más atrae al inicio es la portada de un Spartan y un Elite. Te llega a mencionar personajes que reconoces desde un principio si has jugado todas las entregas, y maneja otros más, con los que se centra la historia.Altamente recomendable si te quieres adentrar más en el Universo de Halo y te atrae tanto la pareja dispareja de la portada y el fondo que debes reconocer ;).Además, sirve como una manera de la historia de Olimpia Vale y el por qué se convirtió en Spartan.Pd. Debes saber inglés para leerlo, la mayoría de los libros están en inglés, así que sería de gran ayuda tener un buen nivel de comprensión y lectura.Amazon como siempre sin retrasos en el envío y todo bien envuelto para que no se dañe.

Likes- characters-rationalisations- pacingDislikes-something felt off, the material while pre-existing didn't have quite the same meat to it like Eric Nylunds books.

La historia muy bien y todo, pero el libro venía dañado y raspado, por eso no le doy 5 estrellas .