I’m now 5 books deep into my “Halo” deep-dive. Of the 5 novels I’ve read thus far, 3 of them were written by Eric Nylund, while the other 2 were not…and I think I’m at the point now that I can pretty safely admit that I WAY prefer Nylund’s approach to this universe over pretty much anyone else. Neither Joseph Staten’s “Contact Harvest” nor Tobias S. Buckell’s “The Cole Protocol” worked 100% for me – both books, although well-written, feel less like fully formed stories and more novel-length pitc...

I have always been a big fan of the Halo franchise. I used to play the games growing up all of the time. Halo to me always had some of the best stories out of all the games I played. After recent changes to developers making games for the franchise the story seemed to have gone somewhat flat. They lacked the style that the originals games had, but the novels somewhat filled that void. This book is the third Halo novel I have read and I really enjoyed it.This book is about a group of Spartans. Fo...

It's a great book with a lot of adventure I recommend this book for halo fans who don't like to read and kids its amazing

Perhaps if I hadn’t just finished reading Halo: Contact Harvest I wouldn’t be rating Cole Protocol so harshly, but the latter dulls in comparison with the former. The pacing, the characters, the plot… there are several things I had an issue with while reading, though I’ll talk about what I liked first.The setting was kind of cool – asteroids all linked together.I also liked that the focus on the Covenant was consistent as with the previous novel – the races acted similarly as to how they did in

Plot: In the book Halo: The Cole Protocol, Jacob Keyes of the UNSC is assigned to combat space rebels in the wake of recent attacks. He is given a ship, a small force of commandoes, and a choice to stay or go. The alien warrior known as Thel Vadamee has been tasked with tracking down the source of black market alien technology. The notorious assassin is grouped with a team of zealots, the deadliest of his kin. Unbeknownst to both factions is the Rubble, a collection of asteroids harboring the su...

As a Halo fan I have read most of the other volumes in the series and this has to be by far the worst. It was dead boring and took me far longer to get through merely because I could not stay interested. But, I battled through and as it is Halo it got one more star than it was worth. Endurable, but not noteworthy.

A perfect show of the inserructionists in the Halo universe as well as developing thel vadam. Does perfect making you feel for the 5 different parties at play

I was originally going to give this book 4 stars because I do not enjoy how the Spartans have been written here, however, the final two acts of the book were good enough for me to feel unsatisfied with giving it anything under five. This book was good stuff. It didn't blow my mind like some other Halo books, but it was certainly a quality story.Back to the Spartans for a moment. These soldiers have been trained from the age of six to kill people (later Covenant). They cannot comprehend the ways

Update as of May 2020: I still strongly dislike this book for entirely subjective reasons. However, since I've discussed the book with another user recently, I'll be fair here: it's not the weakest book in the series anymore. I'd give that to Halo: Last Light, which was bad enough that I finally quit reading the series. Shame.For some fairly obvious reasons, there has been a taboo about videogame-inspired literature that is in essence the same as the taboo about videogame-inspired cinema. The sh...

"The Cole Protocol" is simply...Bad. Bucknell is a terrible, terrible writer. This book reads like a screenplay to a D-grade action movie; something even Segal and Norris would pass up. Characters are cliche' and without depth; I never came close to caring about any of them. Countless times Bucknell would repeat nouns or verbs within a sentance or two of each other, like he couldn't come up with any other way to convey meaning. "Keyes watched his people being herded toward gates...From the cargo...

This book is about a lieutenant in the Navy, Jacob Keyes who has been functioning as an instructor because of injuries and he has spent time in a cryogenic pod and is now to be tested to see if he is fit for another mission. He is a part of a group who has received intense body enhancements that make them considerably stronger and he is sent on a secret mission. This book is based on the Halo video game and fits into the science fiction category of fantasy. Jacob Keyes is the protagonist and he

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its inner colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the uni...

to say this book is action packed is an understatement. i enjoyed every bit of it mostly the whole cast of characters and their wittiness.

Preface: I’m doing the delightful task of listening to every single Halo audiobook because I want to Of the first 6 books I’ve *experienced* (idk if I should say “read” or “listened to”), this one is weirdly the hardest one to rate. I guess let’s pretend I have it 3.5 stars instead of just 3.I feel like Ingatio Delgado and Gray Team have a great storyline and are all excellent characters but the story of Keyes and the ODSTs kinda sucks?! All the best characters kinda die off early or just disapp...

A solid entry to the Halo series and an interesting look at a unique story early in the Covenant war. Ultimately, it doesn't reach top-tier status due to some poor writing and flat characters.

While the premise of the book was an interesting one and the story worked hard to maintain the same breakneck pace that the games hold, the constant jumping back and forth between three or four different groups all doing their own, but related, things every couple pages for the latter half was rather jarring and at times tiresome to keep up with. That said, the book does follow the normal formula for entries in the Halo universe, with Spartans, ODSTs and AIs on the verge of rampancy galore, as w...

Halo: The Cole Protocol by Tobias Buckell is a video game tie-in novel based on the HALO video game franchise, and the first book of the Grey Team Trilogy. The basic idea of HALO is the war set between the aliens of The Covenant and Humanity as defended by the UNSC or United Nations Space Command. The Cole Protocol is set in the early years of the Human – Covenant War although we are not told exactly when. The Cole Protocol has been set up by the UNSC to safeguard Earth and The Inner Colonies fr...

Why do I do this

Halo: The Cole Protocol expanded the Halo universe a bit. The writing style and quality, the characters, the dialogue, and the settings are below average. This is a quick and easy read that has some decent action scenes but not much else. The basic premise could have been the starting point for a very exciting, well developed science fiction novel, yet somewhere the author fumbled the ball.

The real problem with the Halo universe is that so little of it was ever explored in the games. With the emphasis upon the Covenant War few background details were ever given focus. Everything from humanity’s origins, the reaction of the colonies to the UNSC, the UNSC’s policies to reasons for the SPARTAN project; all were rarely explored. While fans might have learned about them through secondary sources, they were rarely ever gone into in full. Even the few times they did look into them such a...