As a story, “Halo: New Blood” is – admittedly – a pretty middle-of-the-road offering: the writing by Matt Forbeck is solid, if unspectacular, the characters are compelling, if a bit thinly sketched (okay – a LOT thinly sketched), and the narrative itself is less a “narrative” as it is a series of tangentially connected events, strung together by a loose “Here-is-my-life-so-far” recollection from Halo 3: ODST hero Edward Buck. So yeah - as a piece of fiction, there’s truthfully not a lot to “New

I was going to go with 4 stars but I loved the ending too much. I have not read a whole lot of military sci fi but this is some of the best I have read. As a former marine, I must say that Matt Forbeck has done his research.

The plot itself is fine: fast paced, full of action and good enough characters. The problem stems from the narrator’s voice for me—it was far too “I’m a jaded military man drawling to you my life story while I smoke a cigar.” Ever seen the movie Tropic Thunder? Nick Nolte’s character, the guy the movie is supposedly based on? Our narrator is that guy.

Halo: New Blood by Matt Forbeck is a video game tie-in short novella based on the Halo game “Halo 3: ODST”. Halo: New Blood is a fantastic novel that serves as a formidable sequel to Halo 3: ODST and as a prelude to Halo 5: Guardians. it tells the story of Sargent Buck and his squad of ODSTs troopers (as well as Veronica Dare from ONI) and what transpired in New Mombasa, after New Mombasa and the Covenant war, and also how Buck and his squad of ODSTs all became Spartan 4s. Not only that, it re-i...

Humanity has been at war with aliens for decades and now that the war has ended are fighting among themselves. Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck gives a debrief of his career as he is given the opportunity to become an enhanced elite warrior. The work is based on the Halo game series.

A surprisingly great science fiction book, written as if the primary character, Buck, was talking directly to you. This is definitely a novella and a quick read at just under 200 pages, but it's still thoroughly engaging. The only thing I can criticize is that during his narration, Buck tends to jump around the timeline quite a bit, going from current events to past at the drop of a hat. Easy to get a little lost.

Spartan Buck!Was super excited to find they'd written a book detailing what became of the characters from ODST. I loved that game and the characters a lot, so to read about their adventures after said game and as Spartan IVs was extremely entertaining. It also gives a good glimpse of what makes up the new breed of Spartans in a way that hasn't really been given in either Spartan Ops or the comics. The jumping timeline was a bit odd at times, and it would be nice to know exactly who Buck is addre...

Wow, this is an incredible book. For context's sake, I have never played any of the Halo games, except a 20 minutes splitscreen thing with a friend a few years ago, so I knew absolutely nothing about the games, the worldbuilding, or the characters. So jumping into this book blind was a big leap for me.And it was worth it, because this book is fantastic!At only 200 pages, this book is really fast paced and really utilizes the pages present. This book is primarily the backstory of the point of vie...

Overall? Entertaining, but flawed. As I always pretentiously say when I review these novels, I'm assessing it under the lens of what it is - a video game spin-off novel (so I cut it some slack). What I appreciated about the Forerunner saga, in contrast, was how it was less about the action and more about the prose. This novel was the complete opposite, as it was definitely about the action and the prose was just there to tell the story. Now, it wasn't a bad novel at all. In fact, in a fight it w...

The best Halo novel since Ghosts of Onyx. It might just be the best one overall.What makes New Blood so special, you ask? Humanity. It's got so much human flaw in it. Flaws that don't come of as preachy as in so many Halo novels before.It's been a while since I have written up a review, so bear with me if you will.Buck our main protagonist is a ODST, if you have no clue what that means you really need to start the Halo series from scratch and catch up. Though now that I think about it, New Blood...

Really liked it! It's completely different from a narrative point of view then the other Halo books, but tells a very good story the whole time!

I'm truly surprised by the depth in this, really awesome writing too. I picked it up purely because I liked halo ODST. I would definitely read further instalments written by Forbeck.

*Spoilers*Surprisingly great for such a short book. It's less than 200 pages and yet has a few moments that have changed the fandom forever. That's really impressive. These two events are:1. The death of Rookie2. The betrayal of MickeyThe first one I was spoiled for, so I knew it was coming. The second one, however, really caught me off guard. I did not see that coming at all. ODST came out in 2009 and much of my teenage experience was spent playing it with friends. I genuinely felt like I was t...

I listened to this book on Audible.If Halo 3: ODST was a day in the life of Buck and his Alpha-Nine fireteam, New Blood is their life story. We get to learn all the details from what came before the Invasion of Earth and what came after, including how Buck made it into the Spartan 4 program and what happened to the Rookie.As a framed narrative, the story jumps around a bit, telling bits and pieces from several key encounters from over the course of Buck's career and his relationship with the UNS...

Halo: New Blood by Matt Forbeck is an interesting novel following the life of Ex-ODST, now SPARTAN IV Edward Buck. The story is narrated from Buck's perspective, and covers in small moments the soldier's life from childhood to enlistment to the mission he was currently on. The different events in the book lead into the video game Halo 5:Guardians well, explaining as to why Buck was only a member of his team in the game, despite previous appearances as a commanding officer. Halo: New Blood is a g...

It's been a while since I read any book in Halo universe!New Blood told you about an interesting story about the (then-ODST) Alpha Nine SPARTAN IV Team under Spartan Edward Buck. The events told in this book are spanning from before Halo 3 ODST and just before Halo 5 timeline. You could say that this book is both the novelization prequel and sequel of Halo 3 ODST featuring Spartan Edward Buck as the main characters.The story is quite good with a good surprise toward the end. I have to say that i...

Halo New Blood was exciting and action packed. I think, since I played the game a little bit, a while back, I was able to visualize things better. Forbeck does a decent job of trying to describe the Halo world to his audience but for a new recruit to the UNSC or The Spartans, I'd say play the video games or look up some Halo stuff online, then attack this title.

It is a rare book which kills you, the reader. I don't recall any book where I've been killed before, actually. However, I die in HALO: NEW BLOOD. It's a rather interesting experience. Specifically, my character, "Rookie", is killed within the pages of this novel about halfway through. I played Rookie extensively in HALO: ODST which I really enjoyed. I bonded with the characters and was briefly a part of the HALO universe. This is technically the second time I've died in the Halo universe but I

This was good. Give it 3 thumbs out of 5

Fast, but great read for the Halo junkie. Am I the only one who read this with Nathan Fillion's voice in their head? LOL, I Loved Buck from Halo: ODST and I really enjoyed finding out how he came to be there, and eventually become a Spartan IV.