Halo: Contact Harvest

[Dartzap]

Anyone else picked this up yet? It's a fun read following the early shenanigans of a Mr A.Johnson.Apparently Ireland still exists in the future, This is quite shocking

Does anyone happen to know why it has been printed in such a large format? There's no more plot than there was in GoO and the like, heh.

[SAMAS]

Anyone else picked this up yet? It's a fun read following the early shenanigans of a Mr A.Johnson.Apparently Ireland still exists in the future, This is quite shocking

Why? There's no Neo-Zeon to drop a colony on it.

[Vehrec]

But given the Irish propensity to blow parts of their own country up, it seems unlikely that enough of it will survive to the 26th century to build a house on.

I liked it, especially the AI bits. I've begun to wonder just how long Haloverse humans can live, if Johnson was a staff sargent in 2524 and a Master Sarge in 2552. He's got to be pushing 50, if not well past it and yet he still gets frontline assignments and kicks ass routinely as seen in all three Halo games. Is this evidence for age-delay treatments? Or just pure bad-assery?

[Noble Ire]

Contact Harvest was a fun read. I especially enjoyed the segments dealing with Covenant culture and history; the explanation of the war's cause was interesting, if somewhat abrupt, and it fits well with the later canon. The bits with the Deacon and Lighter than Some were also great, among my favorite parts of the book.

My only complaints with it are fairly minor. First, the implied scope of the UNSC, less than twenty worlds, doesn't really jibe with other materials, which suggest an empire in the range of hundreds of worlds. The discrepancy was rather jarring, especially considering the fact that the rest of the book fit into the canon quite well (aside from the fact that I always thought of Jenkins as being a fairly young guy as of Halo, but then again, I don't think his age was ever established in The Flood). Second, the sex-scene at the end of the book really seemed tacked on and unessassary; yes, Staten built the relationship up over the course of the story, but its culmination could have gone unsaid. The ending would have been more somber, as it should have been, without the few extra pages of fan-service. Still, Mack's last log entries did make up for it a little bit.

[Ryan Thunder]

Contact Harvest was a fun read. I especially enjoyed the segments dealing with Covenant culture and history; the explanation of the war's cause was interesting, if somewhat abrupt, and it fits well with the later canon. The bits with the Deacon and Lighter than Some were also great, among my favorite parts of the book.

My only complaints with it are fairly minor. First, the implied scope of the UNSC, less than twenty worlds, doesn't really jibe with other materials, which suggest an empire in the range of hundreds of worlds.

Eh? What's this? I've never seen anything to suggest any numbers at all. In fact, they seemed rather more worried about losing colonies than I think they would have been if they had hundreds of them.

[Noble Ire]

Contact Harvest was a fun read. I especially enjoyed the segments dealing with Covenant culture and history; the explanation of the war's cause was interesting, if somewhat abrupt, and it fits well with the later canon. The bits with the Deacon and Lighter than Some were also great, among my favorite parts of the book.

My only complaints with it are fairly minor. First, the implied scope of the UNSC, less than twenty worlds, doesn't really jibe with other materials, which suggest an empire in the range of hundreds of worlds.

Eh? What's this? I've never seen anything to suggest any numbers at all. In fact, they seemed rather more worried about losing colonies than I think they would have been if they had hundreds of them.

I'm quite certain there was at least one reference to the UNSC having "hundreds" of colony worlds, although I don't recall where exactly. It may have been flavor in one of the Halo 2 game-guides, now that I think of it, but I'm by no means sure of that.

I suppose either figure could work, though. Still, if the UNSC did only have twenty or so colonies, it means that the 28-year Covenant-UNSC War consisted of perhaps two dozen battles, most of them concentrated in the last few years of the conflict (this considering the fact that there were only a handful of offensive UNSC actions throughout the course of the war, and that the Covenant usually glassed each human world they found promptly after discovering it). Such a progression is certainly possible, but it does mean that the Cole Protocol was impressively effective.

[Peptuck]

Contact Harvest was a fun read. I especially enjoyed the segments dealing with Covenant culture and history; the explanation of the war's cause was interesting, if somewhat abrupt, and it fits well with the later canon. The bits with the Deacon and Lighter than Some were also great, among my favorite parts of the book.

My only complaints with it are fairly minor. First, the implied scope of the UNSC, less than twenty worlds, doesn't really jibe with other materials, which suggest an empire in the range of hundreds of worlds.

Eh? What's this? I've never seen anything to suggest any numbers at all. In fact, they seemed rather more worried about losing colonies than I think they would have been if they had hundreds of them.

I'm quite certain there was at least one reference to the UNSC having "hundreds" of colony worlds, although I don't recall where exactly. It may have been flavor in one of the Halo 2 game-guides, now that I think of it, but I'm by no means sure of that.

I suppose either figure could work, though. Still, if the UNSC did only have twenty or so colonies, it means that the 28-year Covenant-UNSC War consisted of perhaps two dozen battles, most of them concentrated in the last few years of the conflict (this considering the fact that there were only a handful of offensive UNSC actions throughout the course of the war, and that the Covenant usually glassed each human world they found promptly after discovering it). Such a progression is certainly possible, but it does mean that the Cole Protocol was impressively effective.

It would also mean that the UNSC didn't lose many battles, as Fall of Reach specifically states that the Covenant had to bypass a dozen colonies to get to Reach.

[Duckie]

Personally, I thought this book was even worse than Halo: The Flood.

Which, if you've read that book, you'd know is a pretty damning condemnation.

Also, the lultacular "Oh, and then Sergeant Johnson (whom we call Avery here even though nobody knows him as that) got laid. The End" ending was pretty dumb.

Also, the fact that like 20 bajillion people escaped from Harvest even though it was a hush-hush secret thing, that Brutes were seen before Elites but Avery never told anybody about it so apparantly it was still surprising in First Contact, that the UNSC was funding its own futile-secessionist Rebels to manufacture civil strife (heavily implied at times) and clamp down on dissent (this actually would be awesome if it were explored more and the UNSC shown as the psuedo-fascist dictatorship it has been alluded to being, but it's given only one line and isn't though out that well), that the Brute vehicles are converted farming implements, Pointless cameo of Tartarus and the prophets, Covenant Privateers (raiding what exactly? Are ancient relics that common?), the Oracle blowing the reveal of Halo 1-3 in its gibberings, the AI characters were poorly done, the Hunters are now biologically insustainable and retardedly designed.

It was all so poorly done that I'm forgetting a few. The plot was so slow and meandering that it got precisely nowhere in the first half, then the scene with the Oracle went insane and grabbed the plot and rammed it forward into the end.

Most unsatisfying. Personally, I'm just declaring this book never happened except for a few minor details that I'm choosing to remember.

*sigh*. Halo is a series with such potential to be not-mediocre and Bungie seems dedicated to ruining it as best as possible?

Oh, and what's up with the "Oh no I didn't make the shot" cliché? Didn't anyone tell Staten (who isn't an author but a game designer anyhow) that we kind of already have heard that one before and it isn't that compelling?

[Molyneux]

The HGN discreetly implies that Johnson is in his seventies at the time of Halo. I guess the word "spry" applies...

[Ma Deuce]

The HGN discreetly implies that Johnson is in his seventies at the time of Halo. I guess the word "spry" applies...

Well, this is 500 years in the future; better medical science and all that. Another common explanation is that Johnson may have spent alot of time in cryosleep during his travels, and thus would be physically younger than his chronological age would suggest.

[Sarevok]

Is Johnson even a baseline human anymore ?

[Vehrec]

The answer to that question is 'almost certainly not'. Johnson is heavily implied in at least one instance to be a Spartan 1 and is in service with a military that routinely cyborgs people, at least with basic equipment. Baseline may not be the best descriptive of any marine in the Halo-verse.

In terms of badassery, Johnson is so hardcore that he was cloned 7 times by the Corp, but then he had to kill all the surving clones on Halo 1 so that he could regain his invincible badassery. The evidence for this is seen in the opening video for Halo when a warthog driven by Johnson drives by Johnson giving the speach.

[Tanasinn]

The warthog crashes, too: you can hear it.

So does the second one, for that matter.

[Peptuck]

In terms of badassery, Johnson is so hardcore that he was cloned 7 times by the Corp, but then he had to kill all the surving clones on Halo 1 so that he could regain his invincible badassery. The evidence for this is seen in the opening video for Halo when a warthog driven by Johnson drives by Johnson giving the speach.

Wait, Johnson is Yu Law?