Halo: Epitaph (32) Paperback – February 27, 2024

Highly recommend for any fan of Halo. This is a fitting end and follow up to Greg Bear's Forerunner Trilogy, though this book is also written as if it is the reader's first Halo novel.Important events are recapped and summarized, and it provides much more context for Halo 4, 5, and even a bit of Infinite.Great storytelling, the Didact is the most compelling character in all of Halo, and Kelly Gay did a fantastic job fleshing him out in this amazing book!

So much to say and so much that I don’t want to spoil. This book is a great addition to the forerunner saga. I even would consider it book #4 instead of it being a standalone for obvious author reasons. This book brings a lot of forerunner plot lines to a completion that were otherwise left in the air. In mimicry of Greg bear, there is plenty left to be enigmatic and to speculate on. This book also brings a satisfying expalaination and “bandaid” in my opinion to the events that transpire in and between halo 4 & 5 specifically. With maybe a nod or two at infinite :) have fun

This review has some spoilers around Halo lore.As at least one other review notes, this book takes awhile to get to any sort of action, and the action that it does include is more of a virtual conflict as they are in the Domain. I had hoped that this book would reveal the origins of the species in Halo Infinite, but it does not.This book tries to tie up a lot of the AI war that they triggered before Halo Infinite, and are seemingly trying to undo, but its most important pieces were providing redemption for the [original] Didact, loosely explaining what happened to the IsoDidact (from the Forerunner Saga), connecting ancient humanity to the Domain, and explaining a bit more about what the Domain is. The best part of this book is the explanation of the Domain and the explanation of a few tangential pieces to the Forerunner Sago books, thereby answering some more questions about the Forerunners and even ancient humanity.Like any long-running story and lore, this story struggles a little bit with the plot holes introduced in other stories, like how the Guardians are planet-policing machines that never got used in the original war against the Flood. It also does not touch on the point that, almost implicitly, the Precursors may still exist in other galaxies due to the nature of the Domain (and the recent book series involving Guilty Spark ending with Halo: Point of Light, also written by Kelly Gay), and so may the IsoDidact and therefore other Forerunners.Largest spoiler: I removed one star because this book focuses on the Didact the Domain, but it ultimately removes both from relevance in the Halo universe even though it takes a lot of pains to say that the Domain needs to be opened to more minds in order to heal.

I’ve enjoyed Kelly’s other works in the Halo canon, but nothing so much as this. She had an incredibly difficult task here, weaving together so many different threads across so many different books and games. But she did it - and she did it wonderfully. She gave us insight, and therefore closure, with two of the most important characters in the Halo Universe - especially in regard to Cortana. This is the missing thread that would have made both Halo 5 and the events immediately preceding Halo: Infinite so much clearer.Thank you, Kelly. We’re lucky to have you.

Good

Years ago, my first Halo game was Halo 3... GASP! How dare I skip the first two games! Yeah, I know, and well... This is also the first Halo Book I've read...*INTENSE ANGRY CROWD NOISES...*Ok! Hold on! Hear me out on this one, I've been curious to know to what happened to the Didact after Halo 4 and other incursions related to this character, after all... Didact was such a criminally underrated character/villain that had so much potential. Anywho, this book really does deliver the premise of the story about what happened to Didact afterwards.Respectfully not going to spoil anything, but I will say this: Science Fiction aside, it had Dante's Inferno vibes all over it! Didact's Great Journey has already begun...Definitely an interesting book to read! Enjoy!

Kelly Gay does an excellent portrayal of the sacrifices families make for their loved ones as well as their betrayals, reunions, and trials they go through for personal growth.This book does the halo lore justice in general too. Read on for more details and possible spoilers.If you want to know what happen to the Didact during his lifetime and his "afterlife", then this is the book for you! If also explains more about the ancient Humans, Flood, Forerunners, and Precursors.You will be pleased with the last appearance of Cortana.Lastly, this book helps tie in factors between the video games HALO 5 and HALO 6. Unless you were a HALO lore nerd by the end of HALO 3, you might not have realized some of the deeper implications the flood conflict had on all types of life and technology. It completely answers what has been presented in the story so far.

This is not a stand alone book nor an action book. Reader should have read the forerunner series at least. Interesting read on the life of the Didact. Felt like book four of the Forerunner series.

Como una fiel persona seguidora de la saga, puedo decir que la historia de redención y de redescubrimiento del Didacta concluye de una manera perfecta para lo que representa el personaje.343 está atando algunos de los cabos que quedaron sueltos durante la Saga del Reclamador, resolviendo algunas dudas, pero también planteando algunas cuentas.Me encanta la forma en que la autora trata a este personaje, explorando algunas de sus emociones y pensamientos luego de ser compuesto, así mismo, esta novela nos da información sobre el origen y las acciones tomadas por algunos personajes a los que no puedo mencionar porque arruinaría la experiencia de leerlo y descubrirlo por cuenta propia.Solo me queda decir que el viaje del Didacta no ha terminado y que seguro hay algo planeado a futuro para este personaje, la figura de lo que alguna vez fue el Forerunner más importante e influyente en su tiempo.

Great recap of Forunner story.

Amazing book well worth the wait after pre ordering

Lovely book really good story