What you need to know
- Halo developer 343 Industries announced Halo: Shadows of Reach, an upcoming Halo novel.
- The book will follow Master Chief and Blue Team as they deploy to the glassed surface of Reach to find important assets.
- The story is set a year after the events of Halo 5: Guardians.
- The book is being written by Troy Denning, and will come out on September 22, prior to Halo Infinite.
Halo developer 343 Industries has announced in a blog post that author Troy Denning is penning a brand new Halo novel titled Halo: Shadows of Reach. The book is set in 2559, one year after the events of Halo 5: Guardians, and will follow Master Chief and Blue Team as they attempt to retrieve important assets from the glassed wreckage of CASTLE Base. The book is slated to release on September 22, 2020, prior to the release of Halo Infinite later in the holiday season.
The official description of the novel is as follows:
October 2559. It has been a year since the renegade artificial intelligence Cortana issued a galaxy-wide ultimatum, subjecting many worlds to martial law under the indomitable grip of her Forerunner weapons. Outside her view, the members of Blue Team—John-117, the Master Chief; Fred-104; Kelly-087; and Linda-058—are assigned from the UNSC Infinity to make a covert insertion onto the ravaged planet Reach. Their former home and training ground—and the site of humanity's most cataclysmic military defeat near the end of the Covenant War—Reach still hides myriad secrets after all these years. Blue Team's mission is to penetrate the rubble-filled depths of CASTLE Base and recover top-secret assets locked away in Dr. Catherine Halsey's abandoned laboratory—assets which may prove to be humanity's last hope against Cortana. But Reach has been invaded by a powerful and ruthless alien faction, who have their own reasons for being there. Establishing themselves as a vicious occupying force on the devastated planet, this enemy will soon transform Blue Team's simple retrieval operation into a full-blown crisis. And with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, mission failure is not an option….
What do you think of Halo: Shadows of Reach based on what we know? Personally, I'm pretty curious to see what the book is like since I think there's some awesome storytelling potential here. Plus, it will be interesting to see if the story ties into Halo Infinite as well.
While you're waiting for the book to release, we recommend checking out Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The game has been making an excellent comeback as of late, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary just recently made its way to the PC platform too.
Experience the entirety of Halo history
The Master Chief Collection is a collection of every Halo shooter from the pre-Xbox One era, offering incredible value at an incredible price.
Remastering the original
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary is an extensive remaster of the original game, including modernized visuals and access to classic multiplayer experiences.
