I finished reading Halo: Cryptum the other day, and it is my opinion that it is the best Halo novel thus far. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I’m already looking forward to seeing what the next two installments add to the canon.
I was pleasantly gratified to find, as well, (without getting too spoilery here, for those of you who haven’t read it yet) that one of the major plot points in the Reclaimer series was more or less confirmed in Cryptum. It was a guess that I made about Halo canon way back when, something that I thought would be a very interesting twist, if not for the Halo backstory, then at least for the Reclaimer story. So I was thrilled to find that my thinking was so closely in line with what Bungie had come up with. If you’ve already read Cryptum, you probably know what I’m talking about (and no spoilers in the comment thread below, please; such comments will be heavily moderated). If you haven’t, then make sure you read the book and see if you can spot it.
On a similar note, Cryptum filled in one small gap in the Reclaimer backstory I hadn’t yet had a chance to fill in—that being the exact mechanism by which Ferial has been able to stay one step (or more) ahead of everyone all this time. We already know that he uses a tool/device he calls the River, but until now I hadn’t really given much thought to how the River works or from where it derives its data input. The moment the concept of world-lines was introduced in Cryptum, I knew I had my solution and felt that this would be a good time to work it into the Reclaimer storyline.
So, I hope you enjoy this installment and don’t mind my rambling a few moments on some of the design process that goes into making the Reclaimer series.
Also, I should give a big, hearty welcome to all my new readers who have come over from Bungie.net in the last couple of days. This has been a big week for Reclaimer, with Wednesday’s number of page views (26,880) blowing my previous record (~24K) out of the water. Thanks for coming and reading, and I hope you stick around! Feel free to say hello and introduce yourselves in the comment thread below.
