Halo: Silent Storm

By: Troy Denning

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

An original full-length novel set in the Halo universe and based on the New York Times best-selling video game series. 

It's 2526. It has been almost a year since humanity engaged in its destructive first contact with a theocratic military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. Now, the hostilities have led to open war, and the United Nations Space Command understands virtually nothing about its new enemy. There are only two certainties - the Covenant is determined to eradicate humanity, and they have the superior technology to do just that. The UNSC’s only hope lies with the Spartans: enhanced super-soldiers trained from childhood via a clandestine black-ops project to be living weapons. Their designated commander, Petty Officer John-117, has been assigned to lead the Spartans on a desperate counterattack designed to rock the Covenant back on its heels and to buy humanity the time it needs to gather intelligence and prepare its defenses. 

But not everyone wants the Spartans to succeed. A coalition of human rebel leaders believes an alliance with the Covenant to be its best hope of finally winning independence from the Unified Earth Government. To further their plans, the insurrectionists have dispatched a sleeper agent to sabotage the UNSC counterattack - and ensure that John-117 and the Spartans never return from battle....

©2018 Troy Denning (P)2018 Simon & Schuster

A rare gem

Halo is back.

Those are weighty words coming from me, after over ten years frustration, disappointment and occasional anger with the quality of Halo fiction since the departure of Eric Nylund and Joseph Staten. Despite the occasional decent entry every now and then, the Halo franchise has been overtaken more and more by mediocrity, laziness and half measures.

What I enjoy most with this novel, and Troy Denning's writing in general, is the sheer respect, care and enthusiasm shown for the source material. It never feels like he is writing just to cash in a paycheck, but that he actually respects this universe and characters, a respect that can really be felt all the way down in the "bones" of the story and how grounded it is in the mythology of Halo going all the way back to The Fall of Reach. Never does it feel like plot points are handwaved away; everything is given appropriate thought and a logical reason.

The characters have real motivations and drives and play of each other believably. Smart characters are actually written as smart. Military personnel actually act like military personnel. We took these things for granted in the early days of Halo, but over the years they've fallen to the wayside with a much more cartoonish, "anything goes" mentality becoming the norm.

The Master Chief is characterized perfectly as a still-inexperienced teenager, as he rightly should be. It's refreshing to see this character who's become almost as unto a god to some people both in-universe and out as one who still needs to learn and grow into his role. I especially appreciate the emphasis on teamwork, which calls back to Nylund, and how he really isn't this lone-wolf juggernaut many people see him as.

I generally enjoyed Blue Team and their mix of friendly banter and stone-cold professionalism, but I do wish the other members had gotten more to do in terms of their specialties and character traits; Kelly in particular seemed particularly underused in that regard, and I felt Fred came off as too "jokey" at times especially now that we didn't get to see his own POV. I did like how established Spartans from different media, like Daisy and Malcolm, were featured instead of creating new S-IIs to swell up their already bloated numbers.

The supporting cast was also excellent, and like Last Light and Retribution, Denning gives a lot of page time for non-Spartans as well. There's a considerable emphasis on Special Warfare politicking and the chain of command, which was enjoyable. Sergeant Johnson also has a surprise role, which is something I'm a bit conflicted about. I think he was characterized excellently, and making him into a mentor of sorts to John at this point in his life gives more weight to their relationship in Halo 2 and 3, but on the other hand it doesn't quite gel with how their relationship is depicted in The Fall of Reach and First Strike.

Some familiar faces from Last Light and Retribution also make appearances, which I think did get a bit excessive at times; while in general, references and callbacks are to be expected in a shared universe, having too many of the same characters in one place or one story can make the universe feel smaller. Fortunately, as in Retribution, this was somewhat offset by the number of new things and characters.

The Covenant antagonists, while not exactly revolutionary in terms of characterization, are still reasonably competent and distinct in their own right, and the little glimpses into the Covenant side of things added, for the most part, an interesting element to the book especially in comparison to the classic Nylund novels. The human insurrectionists' motivation, however, did seem more questionable in light of the context, and if there's one other complaint I have about the antagonists, the Covenant in general didn't feel quite as threatening as they probably should've at this point in the war, especially in regards to the conclusion.

I'm a worldbuilding freak myself, so you can imagine my delight with the fully-realized, well-textured universe-crafting of this book. The setting isn't just there for background flavor, it actually influences how the characters think and act, and how the events progress, which is the way it should be in a grounded science fiction narrative. The sense of scale is excellent; planets, for example, actually feel like big places, and even star systems and sectors of space seem to exist in clear relation to one another, which adds to the sense of place.

Furthermore, getting details on things like orbital mechanics, communication or deployment protocols, chains of command, or FTL travel may be dismissed as fluff by some but it really means a lot to fans like me who were originally drawn into Halo because of that attention to detail. I could go on and on about the subtleties I wouldn't have even thought of, which is what I always appreciate in a book, especially a Halo book in an era where bland non-specificity has become the norm.

Overall, Silent Storm is the kind of war-era story I've been expecting for the better part of ten years now: No lazy conflict over contrived Forerunner MacGuffins, using established S-II characters instead of making up new ones just to be killed, just a story about one mission in a war. I was at first wary with how this story retread old ground with its characters and setting, but having read the book it only serves to complement The Fall of Reach and actually adds a lot to the universe and characters. The cover promises a Master Chief story and this is pretty much at the peak of what you can do with that setup. Denning even manages to give John an arc here, despite the confines of the prequel setting (which I thought would make it impossible to do anything interesting with his character).

Are there some areas that could've been improved on? Definitely. However, Silent Storm is still leagues ahead of most other Halo material released these days, and fits right in with the classic novels.

As always, Scott Brick's narration is serviceable. His articulation is clear and his voice is pleasant enough to listen to. However, having had a taste of Steve Downes' narration in a promotional excerpt, I can only imagine how much the book would've benefited from his voice all the way through.

A return to form

I have been disappointed with the recent direction of the Halo novels. Silent Storm is a return to what made me fall in love with the series. Complex characters, and good old military sci-fi. Great read.

Decent story rough performance

Scott Brick really needs to stop being the go-to for Halo books. You either get him and a monotone drone (new blood) or sounding like he is on the verge of crying for an entire book (hunters in the dark). That being said of all of the Halo books he has done this one is probably the best. It seems like he is trying a little for once. Please, if anyone from the publishing company is reading this, give some new folks a chance to get involved with the franchise and bring some variety to the people that enjoy listening to these books... That or bring back some of the folks that have given really good performances in the past like Todd McLaren, Jonathan Davis, Euan Mortan, Timothy Dadabo, Jennifer Taylor, Holter Graham, etc.

Back to Basics

Being a long time fan of the Halo Franchise, owning most of the books and playing all of the games, I have been somewhat disappointed by the later books that have been released. While they are all excellent in their own right, I had always wanted to read more about the early years of the war and with Silent Storm my wishes were answered.
Truly an interesting story that drops the reader back into the action with the Spartans.

Top of my list for Halo books

I felt a little lost in the huge library of Halo novels, since I haven't read many since the original series. "Silent Storm" jumps right into John 117's origin, and brings along some great characters as well. Well-written action, and I also love Scott Brick's narration throughout.

Another fantastic entry to the series

Spoiler free....If you liked any of the chief centric books you'll like this. Great narration by scott brick. Gives some background to the chiefs past without being boring as it is a prequel. Great action, multiple points of view from human and covenant. My only regret is that they dont make games or DLCs out of these stories as they would be a hoot! I am a legacy halo fan having read every single book. With book 2 of the forerunner saga being my least favorite and of course fall of reach being my favorite. Hopefully we will get more snippets into the chiefs past with future books.

Spartan II’s? More like Spartan IV’s

Let me start by saying this is a good book, I really enjoyed it and the plot line is very compelling, it ties up some nice loose ends and connects some characters. It also really gives a great detailed look at John and Avery Johnson’s relationship. However these are NOT the Spartan II’s we know, we are told over and over in the books that the Spartan II’s are the quiet professionals, they rarely speak and operate as a team without talking and little outside communication through gestures. That is completely thrown out the window in this book, multiple times in this book Spartans are seen openly reacting to others not just to themselves or teammates but openly. They snort and board line have outbursts, at a few points John is actually openly bothered by others talking about him or referring to him as “son”. The are supposed to be about 15 in this book and some will say the just haven’t learned their professionalism at this point however there are countless other books where they are younger and they don’t act like this. This book took silent professional Spartan II’s and portrayed them as loud mouth teenagers, I’m sorry to say but the attitude portrayed in these Spartans in this book does not match up with pre established cannon. To conclude the plot was great, the reader performance was great but the character writing does not fit into the franchises Spartan cannon.

Most mediocre and forgettable Halo story yet

The performance was excellent as always but the writing really seemed to me as though the team phoned this one in. It's my opinion that an insufficient amount of effort went into maintaining John's character fidelity to the rest of the books, which is a shame since there's not much of any character development outside of just that one. As such, this book felt... procedural and superficial to deliver action volume on par with the rest of the books but with a fraction of the substance, development, and finesse.
Nothing interesting happened, 2/5, I regret my purchase.

Karen Traviss is the worst author in Halo, Denning, Bucknell and Nylund are the best

Great back story and one of my favorite books. Excellent novel about the beginnings of how the John-117 went from a young Ensign to the Master Chief. How John and the Spartans eventually won the complete respect of the ODSTs, Avery Johnson and the Covenant

If Karen Travis and her Glasslands , Kilo 5 stories are the worst in Halo, than Eric Nylund, Troy Denning and Tobias Bucknell are easily the best.

Ruined

John 117 was trained to follow and observe orders and would not argue with a superior. If he didn’t like the orders he’d do what he felt was right and take the hit for it later.

Troy tried to capture him in his formative years, but disregards his stoic nature. Their hormones have been suppressed, so all of these teenage misgivings just serve to form a new garbage narrative.

Eric Nylund set the president and Troy is ruining it. Also Troy’s grasp of technology, physics, and basic principles of science seem to be lackluster at best.

Not even mentioning the storyline is boring. Garbage not worth a listen.

Scott Brick is still a good narrator.

Brilliant

Brilliant story which many halo fans will love and want to know.

recommend this book to all halo fans, old and new

Masterpiece!

Action, suspense, emotion, it has everything! Truly a masterpiece, and honestly it's probably better than a lot of what is aired on todays television.

Excellent read, very gripping

An excellent read that I would highly recommend to those who want to learn about the science fiction universe of HALO

One of the best Halo audio books I have

An audiobook with a story that is engaging and as action packed as the games.

silent storm love this book

ever halo fan need to listen to this book its amazing love it so much

Best halo novel since first strike

Fast paced and brilliant. Great to see chief as a teenager learning his trade.

Quite good

The Story was pretty interesting with a pretty well fleshed out character line up which made me want to keep listening.

The narrator was quite good but I struggled to follow which characters we’re supposed to be speaking at some parts as the narrator tried to give them each different accents but wouldn’t say it pulled me away from it.

My only real problem with this is that it can be difficult to follow what’s going on at times, this is mainly due to the fast pace of the battle scenes.

mediocre at best

as a candid fan of all things halo I can't help but be disappointed by this story which felt like a simple shoe in to pay for the misery that was halo 5. wouldn't recommend instead go for a classic halo story if you haven't already!

It’s a decent halo novel

I’ve tried a few halo books but this is definitely one of the best ones I have listened to

I'm a halo fanboy, but this is a great book

A good book with a great story further divulging the personalities of Spartans, Sgt Johnson, UNSC, the Insurrection and the covenant.

Scott Brick does a good job narrating, and while he isn't the best, he is definitely very far from being the worst.