Benjamin Sjoberg's concept art of 'The Primordial' from Halo

Here's graphic artist Benjamin Sjoberg's chilling piece of concept art of 'The Primordial', an ancient being that can be found in the Forerunner books written by Greg Bear (see Halo: Cryptum, I thought it was a great read). 

Benjamin said of his work "The looming menace featured in the Forerunner trilogy by Greg bear - the Primordial, a.k.a. The Timeless One, The Captive, The Prisoner of Charum Hakkor. Did my best to live up to the epicness inherent to its many names."

Check out his tumblr for more Halo Forerunner design goodness.

A quick patsy interview by 343 with Greg Bear

Any interview where the IP owner interviews the author of a work they have commissioned (Silentium) is going to be a ‘patsy’ interview – that said Mr Bear appears to be very sincere!

BS Angel from 343 Industries: Thanks for joining us today, Greg. Your trilogy provides incredible insight into the Forerunner race. Do you see their civilization as grand? Tragic? Admirable? Evil?

All civilizations, all extended cultural groupings, are predatory and self-involved. The Forerunners have had a very long run as the dominant race and dominant culture in our galaxy. But over that period of time, they’ve become both inner-directed and self-satisfied, something which irritates the Librarian no end. She understands the ebbs and flows of living history better than most Forerunners, and sees their larger-scale blindnesses as both unnecessary and counterproductive – and in the end, fatal.

What kinds of inspiration did you look to when you were imagining Forerunner society and their amazing technological and architectural abilities?

Looking at the Forerunner environments and designs gamers have experienced, it became obvious that Builder/contractors would be very important. And looking at the destructive power of the Halos and the history of the Flood, it was equally obvious that we are dealing with a warrior civilization near the end of its history and power. The contrast between the warrior Didact and the gentler Librarian, savior of humanity and other species, gave me the remaining clues I needed to begin filling in their social structure and relationship. Science fiction pioneers such as Edward E. "Doc" Smith and his Lensman series, Olaf Stapledon’s vast future histories, Arthur C. Clarke’s expansive City and the Stars and Childhood’s End, and the extraordinary works of Asimov and Heinlein, as well as the wonderful technologies and aliens imagined by Larry Niven and Iain Banks, helped shape my own fictional universes over the last forty years, and no doubt helped me imagine the Forerunners as well.

Can you describe your process for conceptualizing amazing worlds like Charum Hakkor or the Capital on paper?

It’s a kind of waking dream, I think, wherein I mix and match archaeology, technology, cutting-edge science, extreme architecture – and the requirements of the story. Nothing the Forerunners come up with can really surprise me anymore! But there were many moments in Halo 4 that knocked my socks off. It’s one thing to imagine and describe in words, quite another to see those visions come roaring to vibrant life.

How do you feel about the way the Didact is portrayed between book and game?

The fierceness of the original Didact is absolutely appropriate to Halo 4. Halo: Silentium documents the reasons both historical and immediate for his transformation.

Halo Silentium cover is revealed and release date set

Greg Bear's Silentium has a fancy cover ...

From a press release:

Tor and 343 Industries to offer bonus material in the latest book in the Halo Forerunner Saga

New York, NY – February 11, 2013 – Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC – the largest publisher of science fiction in the world – and 343 Industries are excited to announce a new initiative to coincide with the release of Halo: Silentium by acclaimed science fiction author Greg Bear.

Leading up to the release of Halo: Silentium (March 19, 2013), Tor and 343 Industries will be sending out encrypted communications via halowaypoint.com bulletins and forums, which will allow Halo fans to unlock additional content. There will also be embedded data in the text of the Halo: Silentium paperback and e-book editions.

These communications will begin now, and continue on halowaypoint.com leading up to the March 19th release of Halo: Silentium.

We think the audiobook of Mortal Engines is pretty handy as well.

JJ Reviews: Primordium by Greg Bear

You might have read how much I loved Greg Bear's Halo: Cryptum and that within a short while of reading the last page I had ordered the second in the saga, Primordium. I'm gonna assume you've read Cryptum too as I review it. So do I need to say spoilers?

JJ Reviews: Primordium by Greg Bear

Opening with a very quick recap of the events of Cryptum, it's immeadiately clear that this story is a retelling of an adventure that happened to one of the characters from that novel, Chakas. The twist is that he appears to not be himself any more. Is he a collection of thoughts on a disk drive? Has he turned into another being? All, I'm sure is to be revealed.

Chakas finds himself crash landed on a Halo and perhaps almost too quickly falls in love (of a kind) with a local 'inhabitant'. From memory, the Halo games have never shown us as having intelligent life (other than plants and the odd bird) so this sets up an interesting premise.

But it's a premise that takes a little time to really get into gear. As a hero and his two new best friends seek out the abandoned city where Riser might be found, we basically learn nothing except that there are rabbits on the Halo.

But once we are passed that minor hurdle Greg Bear settles into the narrative, drop nice little hints and references along the way about the Librarian, geas and the unspoken plan to keep the reader interested. Which is the point of a book right? (You can tell Jimmy Jangles doesn't have a career in book reviewing ahead of him - Ed.)

Finally (and I really do mean finally as it's a bit of a slog) there's a real sinister turn taken where we realise that the Precursor that was revealed to be alive on the last page of Cryptum is alive and well on Halo and seemingly in charge of the bloody thing. Talk about a bad turn... At least  Chakas has found Riser and they start a great journey, the end of which signals the climax of the plot arc.

Things come to a head. Our hero is confronted with saving the Halo so that it can be used against the Foreunners but does he want that?

The ending largely wraps up well, an adventure here, a near death (?) experince there, souls long dead revived through geas to give us context there, an old warrior servant wreaking havoc there and we're done.

The twist, if you could call it that, was obvious and I'd wondered if that was it a few chapters into the main story but fitted in nicely to traditional Halo lore, so I'll give big ups to Greg Bear for that.

Was I satisfied with Primordium? Not really. I found the journey to get the climax long and ponderous. Some of the detail in describing things was so vague as to not be helpful and the climax itself was a convoluted array of ghosts, monitors and walking corpses. That said, it was ultimately a good ending, perhaps just not as exciting as that of Cryptum.

I did feel however that Cryptum and Primordium were both written at same time as the same book, just split in two. I would bet Greg Bear and his 'Halo team' had the trilogy's essential elements well plotted before the writing began (thus meaning a a huge epic novel could have been written - but where's the money in that?!).

Thus the scene is set for the third novel in the The Forerunners Saga. Or is it? The third, as yet not named book, is going to only be released after Halo 4.... which you might recall Frankie having said the novels feed directly into that game. It will thus be interesting to see how Halo 4's plot will influence or echo that third novel.

JJ Reviews: Halo Cryptum by Greg Bear

JJ Reviews: Halo Cryptum by Greg Bear

Sometimes a story has been told to death. Think any James Bond, Freddy Kruger or Jack Reacher series - all done to death and often not highly original - they become past their use by date.

Eventually someone (a right's holder looking at diminishing returns) realizes the story is stale and reboot or retelling is necessary. Or else some dark secret that was merely hinted at is explored by way of a prequel.

Queue the Halo franchise - 5 Halo games in, a series of animations, cartoons and novels have followed. Some might argue that the Halo story is reaching or has reached its use by date.

Whatever you think,  the story is now being split in two directions - 343 Industries think they have a new story for Halo 4 and Greg Bear has been given the task of telling a prequel story but a prequel perhaps unlike any other in that it's set 100,000 years before the age in which most people know the Halo universe. 

Halo Cryptum is the first of a trilogy known as The Forerunner Saga. Pitched as being "the first deep exploration into the time of the Forerunners, the creators and builders of the Halos. Almost nothing is known for sure about this ancient race.

Worshipped by the Covenant as gods, their engineering relics pepper the galaxy, and their connection to humanity remains unanswered. "

Well frankly, Cryptum  raises more questions than it answers but that's OK as the plot gives a facinating glimpse into the origins of the Flood, an truly deep insight into the Forerunners and their struggles with what the presence of the Flood means for the 3 million planets that have sentient life.

If you've seen Halo: Origins, that story puts Cryptum in context - this book is an exploration of the tales suggested in that story.

Thankfully, writer Greg Bear is no Alan Dean Foster of the Halo universe simply churning out the movie tie-in, his writing is tightly wound to the fabric of the Halo universe but he's been given the chance to add some real meat to the bones of the Forerunner's story which till now has only really been hinted at by the games.

He takes our antagonist 'Born Stellar' on a wonderful journey across the galaxy. Perhaps as a pawn of unseen masters, this 'manipular' interrupts the deep sleep of the Didact, a Forerunner whose knowledge of the universe could either save or perhaps destroy the galaxy.

It's epic in concept but framed just right so that through the eyes of Born Stellar we see the ties of  his family and the secrets within it gradually being revealed to show that the treasure he seeks is not the treasure he'll find. 

A key point of plot, and spoiler alert here, is that it's revealed humans have been around much longer than the previous Halo canon has suggested - humans were once a thriving space travelling species that had fought a battle with the Flood, long before the Forerunners knew of its existence...

Cryptum also has carnivorous singing flowers which is always amusing in a science fiction novel. I named them 'Daughters of Audrey'.

As a piece of fiction, Halo: Cryptum isn't going to win the Booker Prize anytime soon, it has a slow pace in parts (save for an excellent finish involving court rooms and epic space battles), one could argue it's characters have little depth and that it's sometimes light on detail, such as lack of explanation of how some technology works.

I think that above gripes can be ignored if you just want to get inside the Halo universe a bit more deeply that you might have otherwise tread by playing the games.

It gives an extraordinary insight into why the Halo games are the way they are (albeit they were written first!). That said, if you've never even heard of Halo before, you should still be able to follow Born Stellar's ride quite well.

I enjoyed Cryptum an immense deal and the moment I finished it, I grabbed my laptop and ordered the second book, Primordium. I can't hardly wait for it to arrive!

Extra for Experts: Trainspotters might note that the cover of Cryptum was also used in the Halo 4 Concept Art trailer.

If you're interest in science fiction novels, have a look at Mortal Engines, they are turning it into a movie.