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Eric Nylund
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Ghosts of Onyx (Halo) Paperback – 31 Oct. 2006

by Eric Nylund (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,280 ratings
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An action-packed novel based on the award-winning video games Halor and Halor 2 chronicles humankind's continuing battle with the Covenant, ruthless alien factions bent on the total destruction of all human life. Original. 150,000 first printing.
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  1. Book 4 of 4
    Halo: The Original Series
  2. Print length
    383 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Tor Books
  5. Publication date
    31 Oct. 2006
  6. Dimensions
    13.34 x 2.44 x 21.59 cm
  7. ISBN-10
    0765315688
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0765315687
  9. See all details
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Product description

About the Author

Eric Nylund’s novels include thrillers, contemporary fantasy, science fiction, and epic mythology, as well as several Halo novels including The Fall of Reach and First Strike.

Jonathan Davis has narrated audiobooks in a variety of genres, receiving Audie Award nominations for Michael Gruber's Night of the Jaguar and Charles Wheelan’s Naked Statistics. His work includes The Stranger, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Battlestar Galactica, and Atherton. He has also narrated over thirty Star Wars titles.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (31 Oct. 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765315688
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765315687
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 2.44 x 21.59 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,280 ratings

About the author

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Eric Nylund

Eric Nylund

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Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Eric Nylund is a New York Times bestselling and World Fantasy Award nominated author of sixteen novels including HALO: THE FALL OF REACH and the LitRPG novel, HERO OF THERA.

For 15 years, Nylund's day job was making video games. He attended the 1994 Clarion West Writer's Workshop and has a Bachelor's degree in chemistry and a Master's degree in theoretical chemical physics. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family on a rain-drenched mountain.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
2,280 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book awesome, fantastic, and worth picking up if you are a fan of the Halo series. They appreciate the great storyline, suspense, and epic moments. Readers describe the author as highly talented and the best. They say the book adds to the enjoyment of reading and is one of their favorite books.

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ReadabilityStory qualityAuthorEnjoymentHalo content
24 customers mention ‘Readability’24 positive0 negative

Customers find the book awesome, fantastic, and worth picking up if you are a fan of the Halo series. They say it reads well, is engaging, and intriguing.

"...Reads well but padding out detracts from the plot." Read more

"...But overall I found this to be a great book." Read more

"Really enjoyed this book. It’s an intriguing read, allowing you to read more into the Spartan 3s and also some Spartan 2s...." Read more

"...flipping back and forth checking the times/locations/characters, very engaging." Read more

15 customers mention ‘Story quality’15 positive0 negative

Customers find the storyline great, suspenseful, and epic. They say it gives them more depth to the overall plot of the series and lays some hints in the direction of the next book. Readers also mention the book has lots of action and a buildup to the end.

"Eric nylund continues to paint the halo universe with perfectly choreographed action and characters you can believe in...." Read more

"...Much of the action feels contemporary rather than 26th century. For example, at one point a team of Spartans infiltrate a rebel base...." Read more

"...This is a story about people...." Read more

"...will not let you down with tension and epic moments with a typical halo explosive ending perfectly leading the reader through to the ultimate climax..." Read more

4 customers mention ‘Author’4 positive0 negative

Customers find the author highly talented and well-written. They say he's the best author of Halo.

"...A highly talented author that can keep you gripped." Read more

"...This volume is written by Eric Nyland, who wrote the first and third novels in the series so can be counted on to get the continuity right in terms..." Read more

"Great story, well written. Part of a great series of books" Read more

"...best books in the Halo saga, Eric Nylund is in my opinion the best author of Halo, this is the 4th one I have read and is still really interesting. :)" Read more

3 customers mention ‘Enjoyment’3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable. They say it adds to the enjoyment of reading and is one of their favorite books.

"...It really adds to the enjoyment of reading." Read more

"A good Halo yarn to enjoy and while away the time." Read more

"One of my favourite books..." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Halo content’3 positive0 negative

Customers find the content nice, perfect, and an expansion of the Halo universe.

"Nice addition to the Halo world. Had me I'm tears several times!" Read more

"Love the halo franchise. Very pleased with the book, another great story along the halo journey. Can't really go wrong with Eric Nyland" Read more

"Perfect expansion of the Halo universe..." Read more

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

Matt Sales
5.0 out of 5 stars Good reaad
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 September 2024
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A+
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Mr Nicholas Lloyd
5.0 out of 5 stars expanding the halo lore with excitement and hope for humanity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2024
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Eric nylund continues to paint the halo universe with perfectly choreographed action and characters you can believe in. A highly talented author that can keep you gripped.
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D. C. Norman
4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2013
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This is a bit slow to get going and after a few chapters its pretty obvious where this is heading. Reads well but padding out detracts from the plot.
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I. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Spartans victorious - but at a terrible cost
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2023
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This is the fourth novel in the Halo series and it overlaps with the first three volumes. This volume is written by Eric Nyland, who wrote the first and third novels in the series so can be counted on to get the continuity right in terms of plot and character.
Like the previous volumes, this novel is firmly focused on rapid, violent action with little in the way of character development. However, we do get some background. For example, we learn about Colonel Ackerson’s secret programme to develop a new generation of Spartans, making use of the veteran trainer, CPO Mendez, and one of Dr Halsey’s Spartans, Kurt, who is posted as missing in action. In fact, he and Mendez spent twenty years on the obscure planet Onyx training the Spartan-III generation. They are similar to the original Spartans but Ackerson sees them more as suicide squads rather than as special forces. In their development they’ve been dosed up with a new cocktail of drugs that make them more like berserkers when the chips are down. They also have different armour from the original Spartans: camouflaged but physically much less robust than the MJOLNIR variety.
This novel was first published in 2006 and you can’t help thinking that the author was influenced by was happening at the time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus we have starships that can jump through space faster than the speed of light. We have AI beings that can process information millions of times faster than a human being. But we also have twentieth-century style guns that fire bullets and vehicles that sound like tanks and armoured cars. Much of the action feels contemporary rather than 26th century. For example, at one point a team of Spartans infiltrate a rebel base. Kurt switches on a monitor and notices that the password needed to log in to the base’s surveillance system is on a post-it stuck to the monitor! That kind of sloppy practice might have been common in 2006 but by 2023 we are so attuned to cybercrime and hacking that only a complete fool would leave put their password on a post-it stuck to their device. Yet we are to believe that this action takes place in 500 years’ time!
In theory, the technology is there to run this war as a proxy war with AI directing drones and robots against the Covenant while the human beings hide out in a bunker somewhere. But that would mean the humans wouldn’t be able to display their guts and determination and the action scenes would all be fairly sterile with no human lives at stake.
I will continue reading the Halo series for escapist reasons, but so far it is not in the same league as my benchmark, The Expanse. It’s exciting though.
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*-[ROB]-*
5.0 out of 5 stars Just when you think you have a handle on this writer....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2007
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If you've read my First Strike review, you'll know that I've rated Eric Nylund for taking the Halo franchise and making it his own. As he raises the bar yet again in this novel, I can only imagine that the game designers at Bungie are now awaiting his next instruction with sycophantic adoration.

It is a very different story to Last Strike and the Fall of Reach. Where as these two previous novels aim to flesh out the exiting Halo mythology whilst splicing the Halo game plots into a coherent, character-rich space opera, Ghosts of Onyx back tracks the story to a parallel plot line concerning the shadowy exploits of an ONI splinter cell and the emotional hardships spawned by the horrors of their actions on the Spartan commissioned to lead their cause. This is a story about people.

Only at the very end, the time-line somewhere shortly after the plot of Halo 2, does the story reach out to give the reader a glimpse at the shape of things to come in Halo 3.

Some people may be disappointed that this book doesn't reveal all the secrets of the Forerunner legacy within it. Personally, I think the point is that this should only be revealed when the final game is released, and not a moment earlier.

Of course, if you have played both games and read all the books published so far, you may well respond the conclusion of the forthcoming Halo 3 game with a knowing, smug little grin.

The end is near my friends.
17 people found this helpful
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Matthew
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2024
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Me like.
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Ben Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars Nearly perfect
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 August 2013
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I never got round to reading all other earlier Halo novels, but if you have played the games you will not need to do much guesswork and patching up between the author and bungies takes on the Spartan III project. This is overall a blistering brilliant and I would recommend it to any Halo fan. It follows the conceiving of S III and follows up to an attack on the Spartan training ground by a mysterious ancient force. The only problems I do have with this book is that it doesn't account for all of the Spartan III s on Halo: Reach and that energy shields don't seem to protect against gunfire as a single shot to the side side from a covenant plasma rifle can down a Spartan. But overall I found this to be a great book.
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Irvinus
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Amazing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2013
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This is exactly what i'd expect from a halo book. Lots of action but with a story that develops throughout. Lesser writers would have sections for the story and other sections for action. A skilled writer blends the two with the knowing wink of the manicurist. This book will not let you down with tension and epic moments with a typical halo explosive ending perfectly leading the reader through to the ultimate climax and ending with a cliffhanger that answers as many questions as it raises.
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Top reviews from other countries

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DeeDee
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like the Halo Universe, and enjoy reading...
Reviewed in Canada on 4 January 2023
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First and foremost, I will not spoil the contents of this book, other than that noting it's a really good read if you already enjoy Halo, Master Chief and his fellow Spartans.

The Halo game franchise has a great character driven story set in a massive backdrop, but only so much of that backstory can be told and explored through the game series. There is so much more to the Halo Universe worth exploring, and through books is the best medium to do it by.

The great thing about these series of books is:
1.) If you enjoy reading well crafted sci-fi genres, Halo's well worth the read on it's own, no gaming required
2.) Your not a gamer, or maybe a casual gamer where fast paced shooter style games isn't your forte
3.) Your a gamer, played through all the games main stories and want more Halo stories in the Halo universe
4.) The books have the advantage of covering the story in the game without needing to play the game
5.) Books are able to explore and expand further into the Halo universe beyond the games
6.) There's more to Halo than just the Master Chief alone, there's a diverse cast of characters and their stories, including other Spartans
7.) You get to experience the Halo universe through other characters and perspectives other than solely Master Chief's

Simply put: If you want more of the Halo story, these books are where to turn to. Give this book a read, you won't be disappointed.
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Esteban Oz Cordova Rodriguez
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy buena historia, es el mejor origen que los spartan III pudieron haber tenido.
Reviewed in Mexico on 4 August 2022
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Es una muy buena historia que explica donde está el equipo azul mientras sucede halo 2, y tambien el origen de los spartan III
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Gigi
5.0 out of 5 stars Nickel !!!
Reviewed in France on 11 December 2020
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Nickel !!!
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Mr Wolf
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book
Reviewed in India on 15 January 2018
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This book explains how doctor halsey becomes war criminal , this book continues the story of book halo first strike & pretty awesome book too
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JJCEO
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent story with Spartans fighting for their lives on a Forerunner shield world!
Reviewed in the United States on 14 February 2017
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I am a geek for Sci-Fi and Halo is one of my favorite series of stories. I have purchase the paperback version, the Kindle Version and the Audible version of this book and I have read it and listened to it multiple times. Eric Nylund is my favorite author in the series of Halo books. I like the storylines that he writes and the action is something I really enjoy. Military Sci-Fi is my favorite genre.

Eric's books are creative and I like the strategies that he writes into the space battles and the ground battles. This is one of the best Halo books and I found it to be entertaining. You get action that involves Spartan II warriors, Spartan III’s, Dr Halsey and CPO Mendez. The book focuses on the continued development of the Spartan III program and the second generation of the Spartan III’s creation and training.

Meanwhile the Covenant is still winning the war but several factions are developing that are causing trouble within the Covenant alliance. Onyx is found to have a secret Forerunner base while it is also the secret training ground for the Spartan III’s. Fighting breaks out between the Spartan III’s and Forerunner Sentinels guarding the ancient alien base. A full war breaks out between the UNSC and the Covenant force over the space above Onyx. They are all trying to survive or capture and use secret advanced Forerunner alien technology to help their side win the war….

This is a great story with a lot of action. I liked it a lot. I don't play the Halo game but I have read all of the books in the Halo series. This is a good book and if you are a Halo fan it is a must read.

I like the Halo books and this is one of my favorites.

This is an excellent story and it is a good book to have in your Halo Sci-Fi library.
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