Frank O'Connor has mentioned that the story is "closer to the ground" than that of Cryptum, [2] and that it will have "resonant connections" to Halo 4. [3] Greg Bear has hinted at a connection between John-117 and one of the novel's human characters. He also confirmed that the novel will explore the Precursors' plan, and that it may cover events that occurred up to three billion years before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. [3] Appearances [ ] Characters [ ] I Know Your True Name: Spoken verbatim by the Didact when he arrives at Installation 07 and uses Mendicant Bias' "true name" as a shutdown code. Curiously, the same name worked only momentarily in Cryptum. The Didact's party are captured and imprisoned by Forerunner Builders, under the command of Faber, the Master Builder. Bornstellar is returned to the care of his father because of his family's status and power. Bornstellar learns his father was one of the chief builders of the Halos—massive ringworld weapons. The Didact opposed the Builders' decision to construct such weapons, leading to his exile. Bornstellar is called to the Forerunner Capital to testify against the Master Builder, who has been put on trial; he stands accused of crimes against The Mantle, a Forerunner philosophy that values the preservation of life over all else. Just as the trial is about to begin, the Forerunner artificial intelligence Mendicant Bias betrays the Forerunners and attempts to assume control of the Halos and use them against the Capital. The novel is dedicated to Claude Errera, a long-time Bungie and Halo fan as well as the founder of halo.bungie.org.

It's going to be a trilogy. A connected universe that will remain faithful to the scale and mysteries, while exploring the detail and challenges of a VERY powerful culture. This won't be some skirt-raising exercise in Forerunner populist-ism. Folks know way more about Forerunners than you think, but we're definitely going to respect that strange sense of wonder and awe that Bungie infused from day one. It will be BIG Greg Bear fiction in a faintly familiar place, but one that's full of surprises. Think Eon." — Frank O'Connor Similar to Halo: Cryptum, the story is told as a first-person narrative, from the perspective of Chakas, one of the two humans who accompanied Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting during the events of Cryptum. The novel is set primarily on Installation 07, a Halo ring under control of the rampant Mendicant Bias. [4] After crash-landing on the ring during Mendicant Bias' assault on the Capital, Chakas is joined by two local humans, Vinnevra and Gamelpar, in an odyssey to find his companion Riser. As they attempt to survive on the war-torn Halo, they face several obstacles, including the ancient being known as the Primordial, the Flood, and Mendicant Bias. [5] Having lived much of his life fending off for himself with his personal interests in mind, Chakas was not a particularly social person. He regarded Riser as his closest friend and the more social counterpart. [31] The two often used the Florian language to communicate with one another, something the cha manush rarely did outside of their own kind. [32] After being separated from Riser on Installation 07, he came to realize just how much he had come to depend on him. He was apprehensive of forming new attachments and despised responsibilities placed upon himself, such as Gamelpar having him promise to take care of his granddaughter. [33] However, over time, he also found himself caring for her, although he attempted to deny this even to himself; Forthencho's imprint dryly commented on the immaturity of this. [34] The Precursors originated outside the Milky Way and arrived in the galaxy billions of years ago. [8] They were an incredibly advanced race of beings who explored many galaxies and seeded them with life over the course of many billions of years as part of a grand experiment. [8] As transsentient beings, they existed on a level beyond that of conventionally sapient biological organisms; they were described as "dreamers and makers whose minds transcended many realms and having infinite forms, many voices, and singular purpose". [9] The Precursors were not tied to any particular physical form, assuming any shape as they saw fit; they would allow themselves to die away and be evolved anew over and over again, taking on numerous incarnations both physical and immaterial. They lived through different stages of technological and cultural development countless times, being at times hyper-advanced and spacefaring and at others living primitively and remaining confined to their worlds. [10] The Precursors based their existence around the philosophical concepts of the Mantle, Living Time, and a meta-technological mechanism known as neural physics, which en The second novel of the Forerunner Saga trilogy by science fiction legend Greg Bear—set in the Halo universe and based on the New York Times bestselling video game series!Chakas' relationship with the Forerunners was complex and conflicted. For much of his early life, like most humans of the time, he viewed the Forerunners as gods who controlled human lives from far away. [35] During the journey on Installation 07, he came to resent the Forerunners' meddling and their often incomprehensible acts of cruelty. He even became somewhat disillusioned with the Librarian after realizing she was not the all-powerful deity he had come to view her as. [27] [36] Despite this, he eventually decided against cooperating with his ancestors' essences in Mendicant Bias's ploy and chose to help the Forerunners instead. [37] Millions of years ago, the Precursors placed geas on the Librarian's ancestors. These geas led the Librarian to discover seeds of Precursors during the Audacity 's expedition to Path Kethona to uncover the origin of the Flood. The Librarian brought these Precursor seeds to Bastion. [27] Trivia [ edit ] Humans of this era had an understanding of Precursor technology which was sufficient enough to enable them to create a device that could selectively and temporarily open access to a Precursor stasis capsule from outside allowing communication between those outside and the Primordial imprisoned inside it. The device was smooth, oval shaped with three notches in its side. [60] Sphere of influence [ edit ] Main article: Human colonies The group is captured by Mendicant Bias, and their human imprints extracted; Mendicant Bias promises them revenge on the Forerunners, and kills those who oppose him. A fleet led by the Didact appears and the Didact purges Mendicant Bias from Installation 07. Chakas assists the Didact with moving the Halo and preventing its destruction.

a b "Tor Books Unveils the Real Cover for Greg Bear's Halo: Silentium". Tor Books. December 5, 2012 . Retrieved April 14, 2013. The novel's cover illustration, as well as that of Halo: Cryptum, was created as concept art for Halo 4. Both images were illustrated by Nicolas "Sparth" Bouvier. [7] [8] Lifeworkers in the employ of Master Builder Faber initially studied the Primordial for some time, but their research as to its nature proved inconclusive; while some believed it was connected to the Flood, others dismissed this theory. The Master Builder soon withdrew the Lifeworker researchers and assigned Mendicant Bias to interrogate the creature. [10] The AI conversed with the Primordial, who in turn explained the nature of the Flood, the Mantle, and the eons-long plan of the Precursors. Mendicant Bias was eventually persuaded by the Primordial's arguments and deliberately succumbed to what the Forerunners referred to as the logic plague, which induced a state of rampancy in the AI. Bias then defected to the Flood, and referred to the Primordial as its master, demonstrating its denial of the Forerunners.Halo: Primordium is the second novel in The Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear and is the sequel to Halo: Cryptum. It was released on January 3, 2012, with an audio edition released simultaneously. [1] [2] The sequel to the novel, Halo: Silentium, was released on March 19, 2013. [3] The Primordial reveals that there is no cure to the Flood, and humanity seemed to cure it only because the Flood chose to retreat covertly. Yet in the Terminals of Halo: Anniversary, 343 Guilty Spark is still researching for the cure discovered by humanity even though he himself heard the Primordial say this cure was false. Since Silentium reveals much of his memory was wiped upon his assignment to Alpha Halo in the name of compartmentalization, it may be that Spark forgot this particular conversation along with most of his old life, only to somehow recover that information after his "destruction". Later, aboard Installation 07, the being was described as having a large number of legs which it held in a curled-up position similar to a spider. [26] The creature's torso was described as "grossly fat," and its skin was covered in a glassy, crystalline coating; a fine powder often fell from its body, perhaps Flood spores or the same powder responsible for the original Flood outbreak. As a Gravemind, the Primordial was capable of shifting its physical form to an extent, such as rearranging its limbs. [27] Production notes [ edit ] During her encounter with another personality imprint of the Librarian beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, Rion Forge felt love and loyalty towards the Forerunner but recognized them for what they were: a genetic disposition built into human DNA giving the Librarian a way to be heard, a way to inspire loyalty and a way to nudge her children to fulfil their potential. The Librarian was able to use this to briefly communicate with Rion and possibly the rest of the crew of the Ace of Spades and warned Rion of the trials ahead, the battles to come, the safe place and the things that needed healing and tending as well as a message to take care of 343 Guilty Spark who the Librarian stated was more fragile and important that Rion could ever know. [26]

Having swayed Mendicant Bias to its cause, the Primordial began to oversee and redirect activities on Installation 07. Through the use of Lifeworker beacons located across the Halo, it and Mendicant Bias broadcast signals that affected the geas of the ring's transplanted human population, causing them to migrate en masse to Flood research facilities on the installation. During this time, it used a large levitating platform to travel around the ring. [2] Destruction [ edit ] After their once highly advanced civilization had been shattered by the Forerunners, most humans lived within hunter-gatherer communities. The humans seen here are observing the portal to the Ark.

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Jason Hamilton. "Book Review: Halo: Cryptum (2011) by Greg Bear". Story Hobby. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013 . Retrieved March 20, 2013. Nigel Seel (February 7, 2011). "Book Review: 'Halo: Cryptum' By Greg Bear". Science Fiction.com . Retrieved March 20, 2013.