Halo: New Blood

Written by Matt Forbeck

Narrated by Scott Brick

The New York Times bestselling series based on the blockbuster Xbox® games continues with the acclaimed story of Spartan Edward Buck—first seen in HALO: ODST and reappearing in HALO 5: GUARDIANS!

While Spartans get all the glory, no soldier―not even the legendary Master Chief―wins a war on his own. Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck and his team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs) played a major role in saving Earth from all-out invasion at the end of the Covenant War―acts of bravery and ingenuity that did not go unnoticed by the United Nations Space Command.

Now, after many Spartans have been killed in battle and the Master Chief is listed as MIA, the UNSC decides to create a new generation of Spartans to defend humanity from threats both outside―and within. When they come to Buck with an extraordinary proposition, he is forced to make a life-altering decision. With the Covenant War finally over, is it time for him to retire to the sidelines for a life he could only dream about…or is he prepared to step up and become part of the military’s new blood?

Copyright © 2015 by Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Halo, the Halo logo, Xbox, and the Xbox logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio / Halo Books
• Release date: Mar 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781442389434

Matt Forbeck

Matt Forbeck has been a full-time creator of award-winning games and fiction since 1989. He has sixteen novels published to date, including the award-nominated Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon and the critically acclaimed Amortals and Vegas Knights. His latest work includes the Magic: The Gathering comic book and the historical horror novel Carpathia.

Reviews for Halo

[Katie Pryal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story, some romance, love the action. and it gives you a great perspective from bucks view.

[Norsche · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another must read for any Halo fan. A fun break from some of Halo's more space-operatic fare to tell a more boots-on-the-ground story about Buck and some of the other characters from Halo: ODST. I personally enjoyed the stories-within-a-story narrative structure, but your mileage may vary. Ultimately, if you enjoy Halo, I think you'll likely enjoy this book. I find the narration on the audiobook well done and not distracting which is how I think an audiobook should be.

[Laura Perrier · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’m already a huge halo fan and my mom is using a trial and I’m having a blast. Listening to this was amazing and It was so vivid about everything in such few words. Honestly if you aren’t even a halo fan it’s worth the read/listen because you will quickly learn the details of halo and you may even buy the MCC

[tbones-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Halo New Blood was exciting and action packed. I think, since I played the game a little bit, a while back, I was able to visualize things better. Forbeck does a decent job of trying to describe the Halo world to his audience but for a new recruit to the UNSC or The Spartans, I'd say play the video games or look up some Halo stuff online, then attack this title.

[plappen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set approximately 500 years from now, this novel, part of a series, is about humanity in the middle of an interplanetary war. Their opponent is a large group of species and factions collectively called the Covenant.

Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck is an average soldier in that war. He and his Strike Team are part of the Orbital Deep Shock Troopers, or ODST. The relationship between Strike Team members is much more than just trusting each other. They have to know what their colleague is going to do before he does it. Even though they have the latest weapons and battle armor, the Troopers still have a high death rate.

The ODST play a major role in thwarting a Covenant invasion of Earth at the end of the Covenant War. Buck has every justification for wanting to retire to someplace quiet with Veronica (who works for the Office of Naval Intelligence), his girlfriend. The Spartan program will give Buck and the other Troopers the chance to, literally, become super soldiers. Buck is very reluctant to go through the internal, and external, modifications that are necessary, until Veronica convinces him.

Meantime, there are some humans who really don't like the United Nations (the name of the human planetary confederation). Now that the Covenant War is over, they can't help but think that the Spartan soldiers will be used on them, to stifle all dissent. For Buck, fighting the Covenant War, was, figuratively, easy (if a being is alien, fire away). It gets a lot harder when the enemy is human, perhaps even another Spartan.

This is my first exposure to the "world" of Halo, based on the popular computer game. This novel is really good. As you can expect, there is a lot of action, but the characters are real people, too. The author does a first-rate job from start to finish, and it is well worth reading.