Halo: The Rubicon Protocol

By: Kelly Gay

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

An original novel set in the Halo universe—based on the New York Times bestselling video game series!

A HALO INFINITE STORY

December 2559. Humanity has its back against the wall after the United Nations Space Command flagship Infinity drops out of slipspace into a devastating ambush launched by the Banished. As this fierce enemy alliance seeks to claim a mysterious object hidden within the ancient Forerunner construct known as Zeta Halo, the surviving UNSC corps finds itself compromised and its leadership out of reach—with remaining personnel forced to abandon ship and take their chances on the fractured, unpredictable surface of the Halo ring.

Now survival in this strange, alien environment—whether for Spartan super-soldiers or those who never thought they would see the battle up close—is measured day to day against a relentless and brutal adversary that always has the upper hand. Desperation grows, but the will to keep on fighting and enduring no matter the odds is never in doubt…even as the Banished seek to unleash a frightening new enemy that could doom them all…

©2021 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Halo, the Halo logo, Xbox, the Xbox logo, and 343 Industries are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Stick to Troy Denning

343 has little understanding of what made the Halo universe great. This is another empty, vapid attempt to make up for pathetic writing in Halo Infinite.

Amazing read

I definitely enjoyed this book and Scott Brick's narrating. The story was deep had plenty of action that held weight on its own without Chief. Definitely recommend and y'all gotta chill with the Scott Brick hate he really grows on you.

Good writing, but the story is lacking

Kelly Gay did a great job with the writing, as always. Though sadly her writing was wasted on what felt like a story being hamstrung by overall story direction from 343. It felt like every chapter had redacted information because 343 doesn't want to e.g. reveal the fate of certain characters. The end result was that not a lot happened in this book that was unique from the situations in the audio logs of Halo Infinite. This book probably should have been a tie in that released before the game, because it didn't tell us anything new other than that the team was able to send a message, and the last line of the book was written as if it was there to build hype for the game release.

That said, the author did a great job with what she was able to write about. The characters were all well written and no one had any obnoxious gimmicks — unlike most sci-fi characters these days. The events of the book are definitely more interesting than what happened in the campaign of Infinite. I kept thinking "wow this is so cool, I wish it had been in the game." Maybe she should be hired to write the campaign stories.

I'm glad she's moving back to the expanded universe with her next book because it feels like she was being stifled by 343's game writers and the overall dysfunction in Halo Infinite's story.

Scott Brick once again delivers

The overall concept of survival against hopeless odds will keep you on the edge of your seat as you listen. Scott Brick easily delivers the best narration for any story he reads and he does not disappoint with Halo: Rubicon Protocol.

Really hard hitting story.

Doesn't really continue the story of Infinite, but provides some details on the events happening in the 6 months unseen in the game. The suffering and anguish felt by those that survive is beautifully written and sheds light to the mentality of those that really push themselves through loss and hardship to find hope along with a better future. Another Kelly Gay great imho.

Good story

great writing. keeps your attention throughout and keep up the legend of the spartans and the halos. also adds to story of halo infinite the game.

👍

This book was intense.
I listened to it while I worked overnights and at one point listened to it for 6 hours straight.
very good story telling. narrator is great!

Pointless

This book does not add much to the overall Halo series and it is rather dull.

A darker Halo book.

The Rubicon Protocol is much darker and more intense than Halo books tend to be, but it‘s done right. The book is a fantastic story of camaraderie and hope. It also makes Halo: Infinite’s campaign much more impactful and emotional, as you recognize names from audio logs, etc.
Brick is an excellent narrator.

Phenomenal Book, Arguably the best one In the series

I was shocked at how good this book was as I wasn’t that impressed with Kellie Gays other Halo Books.

I personally have never found halos politics to be very interesting or believable…… When Authors or a useless a TV show , try to portray the UNSC as an evil authoritarian empire , the Spartans as only slightly tougher than an ODST, and they paint the narrative that humanity and the covenant can just Shake hands and forgive each other after the covenant slaughters 90 Billion humans over a 35+ year war, it borders on the asinine.

This book , The Rubicon Protocol , gets back to what makes Halo great…. What made books like the Fall of Reach , and the video games like ODST and Halo : Reach great , the Covenant in this book are violently brutal, as a reader you literally hate and fear them as they brutally slaughter and butcher the human marines and Spartans and the Rubicon Protocol gets back to portraying the Spartans as the Demi-God Badasses that Eric Nylunds Fall of Reach and the Video Games portrayed them to be.

Damn good book, the action is violent, the enemy is terrifying, evil and hated and you almost cry and mourn as your heroes go down. Damn good book indeed and well done as this might be the best book in the series.

A better story than the game

This was another great entry in to the canon by Kelly with the usual top tier performance by Scott. Having played Halo Infinite before the Novel it was great to see how much effort had gone in to bonding the two together.

Very compelling characters

It’s a great character driven story that helps fill in a lot of the gaps of the game whilst also standing as a stand alone book

A great story!

As a fan of the franchise, this answered a lot of questions and filled in the 6 month opening for the main game.

Better story than Halo Infinite!

Fleshes out the back story of Zeta halo for the lack lustre this game accompanies

it's... fine I guess

Lacked overall pacing, story itself was fine for a halo book, fight scenes are terrible.

really enjoyed

narrator was amazing, story was really good can't wait for the next instalment could easily redo this as soon as it was finished

Another great narration

A great story that admittedly starts a little slow. Featuring some genuinely compelling characters and another fantastic narration by the very talented Scott brick. A perfect companion to halo infinite.

solid prequel to halo infinte

A good listen, solid storyline and builds characters you come across in the game its self

An excellent prequel to halo infinite

A brilliant primer for the event so if the Halo Infinite game telling the story of what happened to the crew of Infinity after their ambush above Zeta Halo. This melancholy story shows the true horror of the banished and gives us more insight into the Spartans we see murdered in Infinites campaign as well as more insight into the inner workings of Zeta Halo and the awakening of The Harbinger and in time The Endless.

The story is well paced at 1.5x speed and often hops between the perspectives of many split up parties keeping the story engaging and fresh.

Well worth a read whether planning to play Infinite or if it’s story left you wanting.

Directionless and shallow

Rubicon protocol was advertised as an answer to the missing six months of halo infinite: did it do it? Kind of, honestly there is little more substance here than from the audiologs in the game. Ultimately it felt as if the author had very little creative freedom resulting in characters and a narrative that felt forced, rushed and honestly not very interesting or enlightening. In terms of characters: the majority of character development takes place between time skips so we basically only see the beginning and aftermath of their change. In terms of questions answered: I can remember two ( the Reverie and stone) which were unsatisfactory and still left many more questions unanswered. The original narrative can be described simply as inconsequential: why should I care about these characters? Who is the harbinger and why should I care? What was Escherum's plan? Characters such as Jega and Gorian felt like cardboard cut outs, this was an opportunity to give more depth to the Blood stars and the Banished and it was missed. There is a trend among new halo content that I find extremely annoying: the Spartans are treated like gods among humans: yes they are humanity's best hope and yes they are very much superhuman but through out previous installments the Master Chief was only very Rarely treated in such a way and typically by civillans and those without hope whereas most other interactions were professional and grounded: this successfully illustrated the lack of hope humanity had as well as their determination to fight on. However this God card has become so overplayed that it has become annoying and makes it seem like humanity is tripping over itself to bow down to the Spartans making both the Spartans and normal humans unbearable, especially when new spartan characters have done nothing to earn such a reputation in the eyes of characters or readers: this can be seen with the Spartans in Rubicon protocol and the interactions between them and normal humans. Ultimately Rubicon Protocol left more questions than answers which seemed to be the opposite of its purpose.