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Paperback:
528 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition edition (Nov 24 2009)
Language: English
Authors: Tobias S. Buckell, B.K. Evenson, Jonathan Goff,
Kevin Grace, Tessa Kum and Jeff Vandermeer, Robt McLees, Eric
Nylund, Frank O'Connor, Eric Raab, Karen Traviss, Fred Van Lente
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Halo Evolutions
Halo Evolutions is touted as a compilation
of stories that provides a look some of the unsung heroes of the human /
Covenant conflict and give them a "chance to become legend." Welp, not
really because I'm hard pressed to remember any but two or three
characters (outside of Cortana and Master Chief) from the entire book.
The opening stories all seem to end with some kind of massive explosion
or everyone dieing. I can't wag an admonishing finger though because I
used to end all my stories -- not Halo or even game related -- with
something I labelled "suicidal magnetism." I'd get to a point in my
story where I didn't know what should happen next so I'd just have all
the main characters explode or throw themselves off a cliff.
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is a strong enough writer to actually write
a story that's almost entirely a battle of wits, taking place almost
exclusively in Cortana's mind. It's also informative because it takes a
look at what happens to an AI as it goes "rampant." If you're a Halo
fan you know all about rampancy. It's the state that all AI's fall into
thanks to a major bug in their code. Basically it's insanity. Slowly
descending into that from Cortana's view is one that the games just
couldn't even attempt.
The other real stand out story is Erik Nylund which looks at Preston
Cole, of the Cole Protocol fame. The story would have benefited from a
more interactive medium, because it explores this particular character
with personal letters, video descriptions, official reports, and court
documents with simple text on the page. It's almost like a screenplay
for a documentary. Within the constraints of a book (with actual paper
pages!) the character is still fully realized to the point that if
there's another Halo strategy game, you'd hope Preston Cole would be the
central character.
Jeff Vandermeer and Tessa Kum's lengthy story titled "Mona Lisa" is
maybe the most predictable of the stories, at least for people that have
played any of the Halo games (or even Dead Space for that matter). It
involves a Flood-infested prison ship that reads a little like every
killer-things-in-space sci-fi movie and/or TV special. It's only missing
a "dum, dum, duuuuuum!" soundtrack. You know exactly what I mean. The
answer to what's happening is staring the characters in the face and
they don't get it until it's too late. That really sounds like a knock
against the story but I kind of like the fact I knew what was going to
happen with the handful of marines sent to the ship. I even managed to
guess the traitor in the group!
The last story, "The Return" by Kevin Grace is the only one I remember
that ends with things very much unresolved. The story transitions from a
Covenant Elite finding a dig site of some kind on a dead planet to an
official report from the Xenoarchaeological Studies Department noting
Forerunner technology and possible access to the Ark (which constructs
the Halos). It's a suitable opening for a much lengthier story.
I think Halo fans will find a lot to like here but I'm hoping that the
next batch of short stories go even further afield. Acknowledge the
human / Covenant war but jump into what's happening with the hard boiled
PI on Earth, the farmer on some backwater colony that digs up a piece of
Forerunner technology, the ship full of green recruits that winds up way
off course and stranded thanks to an unexpected slipspace storm (a la
Gilligan's Island), or how about that TV anchorman dealing with ONI
demands for propaganda dissemination? Go ahead and end that story with
an explosion if you must, but at least we'd get to see what else is
happening.
- Aaron Simmer
(January 19, 2010)
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