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My Sangheili-obsessed opinion on every Halo novel
5 months ago
Keep in mind that my opinion of Halo is mostly negative, so this might seem like a rant
The Fall of Reach – read it as a childling and enjoyed it in my ignorant childish ways
The Flood – didn’t really like this one as a kid, writing style was bad IMO
First Strike – pretty shit as all it is is MC killing poor innocent Elites over and over again and has a horrible ending with entire Covenant fleet being destroyed (almost every book will end like this). But I enjoyed it as a kid, as I was zealously into Halo at the time
Ghosts of Onyx – as a childling I was pretty excited that we got a proper Sangheili POV, looking back at this it sucked because all the Elites were cliché villains who were all evil and ruthless and ended up dying at the end as always
Contact Harvest – sucked, not because it had some pretty decent writing (Joe Staten seems to be the best of the Halo writers), but because it had so much Covenant POV without Sangheili in it
The Cole Protocol – I really hate this author’s really shitty portrayal of Sangheili. And he came up with the shittiest worldbuilding ever: Sangheili obsession with honour, the whole not knowing their fathers thing, hating getting medical treatment for some reason, and losing blood being dishonourable
The Forerunner Trilogy – didn’t read any of it but it’s bad because there are no Sangheili in it and it retconned Bungie’s original plan of revealing Forerunner = Humans (which probably would have made Halo 4’s story not possible (if only))
Kilo 5 Trilogy – read them all and enjoyed first two books as an ignorant teenager. I actually cried at the end of Thursday War when Jul learned of his wife's death. But later as an adult I would come to realise how dumb the author wrote the Sangheili and how fricking racist the human characters were, including the xeno scientist guy who is supposed to like Sangheili. We need a book about how Sangheili characters get revenge on ONI and go around killing humans (will never happen)
Rebirth – didn’t read
Broken Circle – finally a Sangheili book without humans in it, but content wise it’s nothing special. There is a nice little Sangheili romance going on in the first half. Nothing too exciting in this book
Hunters in the Dark – the first book which would be about humans alongside Sangheili. Their interactions are a bit cute, but looking back now I hate how much they push the whole ‘Sangheili having no sense of humour and are extremely honourable and blah blah blah’. Its writing is pretty alright.
Shadow of Intent - very cute interactions between little childling Sangheili and his hot sister. Unfortunately it was too short and they should only be allowed to do the whole 'bad guy becomes good' if it's a Sangheili (they have to kill every Sangheili instead). The plot seemed a bit bland, especially for Joe Staten
Last Light – no Sangheili in it so didn’t read
New Blood – no Sangheili in it so didn’t read
Saint’s Testimony – no Sangheili in it so didn’t read
Smoke and Shadow – didn’t read, was probably shit
Envoy – a book so shit, I couldn’t get past the first three chapters. Admittedly I was pretty hyped for this book to come out, as I thought it was going to focus more on the political sides of human-Sangheili relations, kind of like Game of Thrones. But no, straight away there’s war and action and there’s this human civilian on a Sangheili ship outsmarting all the Sangheili. And then there’s Spartans. And this is the same guy who writes Sangheili so bad that he makes their ruthlessness and honour so extreme it makes them pretty much brain-dead
Legacy of Onyx – I applaud this book for going in a different direction other than Spartans killing Elites for the entire book. I love Kasha ‘Hilot and I need her. The whole ‘enemies become friends’ thing was predictable, but I kind of liked this book. Skipped the action scenes at the end and was disappointed the Sp*rtan survived. Unfortunately for me there will probably never be a sequel because for all those Halo fans there was not enough Master Chief and action and killing hordes of enemies and blowing up Covenant fleets.
Retribution – didn’t read
Bad Blood – didn’t read
Silent Storm – only read the Sangheili parts, nothing special, ends with Covenant fleet blown up as always
Battle Born – ew, a human only POV? Get outta here.
Meridian Divide – ew, a human only POV? Get outta here.
TES IV: Oblivion – read the Sangheili parts only, I was waiting the whole time for Nizat and Tam to have gay sex. Obviously the Elites don’t win in the end. Fuck, imagine if they did? 343i could never have that
Renegades – probably bad, didn’t read
Shadows of Reach – had this Elite dressed as a hobo for some reason (343i cannot comprehend that Sangheili would have fashion sense, as they do with armour). Read only Sangheili parts and didn’t really go anywhere
Divine Wind – read the Sangheili parts only and this poor Sangheili had to deal with these really bitchy, mean humans the whole time (they were the protagonists and they were insufferable). I am interested by this Sangheili character though, Inslaan ‘Gadogai I believe his name is. He needs to be reunited with his girlfriend, but he will probably die like 50% of all Sangheili characters
Point of Light – did not reed
The Rubicon Protocol – did not reed
Outkast – was hyped for this book too but it ended up being this whole big stupid macguffin plotline that has been done some many times in Halo, sprinkled with Spartans which made everything worse. There is a fatty Sangheili character which is great, but all Sangheili characters are so one-dimensional and all have the same personality so it doesn’t really mean much. Inslaan’s girlfriend shows up in this book for some reason (in fiction, characters have to coincidentally show up everywhere even though there’s a bajillion new Sangheili to make up). Was very disappointed how they made Nizat and Tam. I really hate the existence of the Banished in Halo. They suck and now they're everywhere
The book with Anakin, I mean the Didact on the front cover – didn’t read
Empty Throne – read Sangheili parts only and got only halfway before giving up. There’s this Sangheili chick who goes around killing people with an energy lance instead of a gun (I hate this trope) and she even deflects incoming Spiker projectiles like a fricking Jedi. The dialogue was pretty Marvel-esque. The best part of the book is when she drops the n-word (nishum) in front of all these pro-human Sangheili higher ups during a meeting, and then gets pulled aside by her daddy, Half-Jaw, and gets told off. Super cute. Ruined by the Spartans showing up and then the author was like ‘Sangheili are incapable of sarcasm or humour’ even though that’s complete bullshit and has been proven wrong multiple times throughout all of Halo, including in this exact same book.
I really need to stop interacting with Halo stuff…
The Fall of Reach – read it as a childling and enjoyed it in my ignorant childish ways
The Flood – didn’t really like this one as a kid, writing style was bad IMO
First Strike – pretty shit as all it is is MC killing poor innocent Elites over and over again and has a horrible ending with entire Covenant fleet being destroyed (almost every book will end like this). But I enjoyed it as a kid, as I was zealously into Halo at the time
Ghosts of Onyx – as a childling I was pretty excited that we got a proper Sangheili POV, looking back at this it sucked because all the Elites were cliché villains who were all evil and ruthless and ended up dying at the end as always
Contact Harvest – sucked, not because it had some pretty decent writing (Joe Staten seems to be the best of the Halo writers), but because it had so much Covenant POV without Sangheili in it
The Cole Protocol – I really hate this author’s really shitty portrayal of Sangheili. And he came up with the shittiest worldbuilding ever: Sangheili obsession with honour, the whole not knowing their fathers thing, hating getting medical treatment for some reason, and losing blood being dishonourable
The Forerunner Trilogy – didn’t read any of it but it’s bad because there are no Sangheili in it and it retconned Bungie’s original plan of revealing Forerunner = Humans (which probably would have made Halo 4’s story not possible (if only))
Kilo 5 Trilogy – read them all and enjoyed first two books as an ignorant teenager. I actually cried at the end of Thursday War when Jul learned of his wife's death. But later as an adult I would come to realise how dumb the author wrote the Sangheili and how fricking racist the human characters were, including the xeno scientist guy who is supposed to like Sangheili. We need a book about how Sangheili characters get revenge on ONI and go around killing humans (will never happen)
Rebirth – didn’t read
Broken Circle – finally a Sangheili book without humans in it, but content wise it’s nothing special. There is a nice little Sangheili romance going on in the first half. Nothing too exciting in this book
Hunters in the Dark – the first book which would be about humans alongside Sangheili. Their interactions are a bit cute, but looking back now I hate how much they push the whole ‘Sangheili having no sense of humour and are extremely honourable and blah blah blah’. Its writing is pretty alright.
Shadow of Intent - very cute interactions between little childling Sangheili and his hot sister. Unfortunately it was too short and they should only be allowed to do the whole 'bad guy becomes good' if it's a Sangheili (they have to kill every Sangheili instead). The plot seemed a bit bland, especially for Joe Staten
Last Light – no Sangheili in it so didn’t read
New Blood – no Sangheili in it so didn’t read
Saint’s Testimony – no Sangheili in it so didn’t read
Smoke and Shadow – didn’t read, was probably shit
Envoy – a book so shit, I couldn’t get past the first three chapters. Admittedly I was pretty hyped for this book to come out, as I thought it was going to focus more on the political sides of human-Sangheili relations, kind of like Game of Thrones. But no, straight away there’s war and action and there’s this human civilian on a Sangheili ship outsmarting all the Sangheili. And then there’s Spartans. And this is the same guy who writes Sangheili so bad that he makes their ruthlessness and honour so extreme it makes them pretty much brain-dead
Legacy of Onyx – I applaud this book for going in a different direction other than Spartans killing Elites for the entire book. I love Kasha ‘Hilot and I need her. The whole ‘enemies become friends’ thing was predictable, but I kind of liked this book. Skipped the action scenes at the end and was disappointed the Sp*rtan survived. Unfortunately for me there will probably never be a sequel because for all those Halo fans there was not enough Master Chief and action and killing hordes of enemies and blowing up Covenant fleets.
Retribution – didn’t read
Bad Blood – didn’t read
Silent Storm – only read the Sangheili parts, nothing special, ends with Covenant fleet blown up as always
Battle Born – ew, a human only POV? Get outta here.
Meridian Divide – ew, a human only POV? Get outta here.
TES IV: Oblivion – read the Sangheili parts only, I was waiting the whole time for Nizat and Tam to have gay sex. Obviously the Elites don’t win in the end. Fuck, imagine if they did? 343i could never have that
Renegades – probably bad, didn’t read
Shadows of Reach – had this Elite dressed as a hobo for some reason (343i cannot comprehend that Sangheili would have fashion sense, as they do with armour). Read only Sangheili parts and didn’t really go anywhere
Divine Wind – read the Sangheili parts only and this poor Sangheili had to deal with these really bitchy, mean humans the whole time (they were the protagonists and they were insufferable). I am interested by this Sangheili character though, Inslaan ‘Gadogai I believe his name is. He needs to be reunited with his girlfriend, but he will probably die like 50% of all Sangheili characters
Point of Light – did not reed
The Rubicon Protocol – did not reed
Outkast – was hyped for this book too but it ended up being this whole big stupid macguffin plotline that has been done some many times in Halo, sprinkled with Spartans which made everything worse. There is a fatty Sangheili character which is great, but all Sangheili characters are so one-dimensional and all have the same personality so it doesn’t really mean much. Inslaan’s girlfriend shows up in this book for some reason (in fiction, characters have to coincidentally show up everywhere even though there’s a bajillion new Sangheili to make up). Was very disappointed how they made Nizat and Tam. I really hate the existence of the Banished in Halo. They suck and now they're everywhere
The book with Anakin, I mean the Didact on the front cover – didn’t read
Empty Throne – read Sangheili parts only and got only halfway before giving up. There’s this Sangheili chick who goes around killing people with an energy lance instead of a gun (I hate this trope) and she even deflects incoming Spiker projectiles like a fricking Jedi. The dialogue was pretty Marvel-esque. The best part of the book is when she drops the n-word (nishum) in front of all these pro-human Sangheili higher ups during a meeting, and then gets pulled aside by her daddy, Half-Jaw, and gets told off. Super cute. Ruined by the Spartans showing up and then the author was like ‘Sangheili are incapable of sarcasm or humour’ even though that’s complete bullshit and has been proven wrong multiple times throughout all of Halo, including in this exact same book.
I really need to stop interacting with Halo stuff…
Also I loved alot of the elite dialogue in infinite, and it's a shame that the development was as mishandled as it was. We were so close the the Swords of Sanghelios being protagonists for a whole campaign.