Halo: Primordium: Book Two of the Forerunner Saga Paperback – October 30, 2012

Wow, what a surprise this book has been. I came in expecting it to be the darker middle entry in a trilogy that would ultimately have a tragic-but-hopeful ending. This book is not that. It is dark to be sure, but in many ways, this hardly feels in any way like a sequel to  Cryptum . The only thing that even reminds me that this is related to that book is that some characters reappear, and that it takes place on a Halo, but that's about it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there's no doubt this book suffers a bit more than the first, despite its strengths.This book takes place starting at an event roughly two-thirds of the way through Cryptum, when everyone has been captured by the Master Builder. Somehow, Chakas and Riser have been misplaced in a chaotic situation and end up on a rogue Halo installation, now under the control of the mysterious Primordial and the rampant AI Mendicant Bias. The story is told through Chakas' viewpoint, and chronicles his journey alongside companions new and old across the surface of this great ringworld, in excruciating detail. It's a VERY interesting story and quite compelling at times. There are tons of genuinely fascinating concepts, ideas, events, and characters dotting the landscape of this story. The actual events and revelations are truly great and some are even moving. It's not perfect though. Characters' moods and emotions will sometimes change on a dime for seemingly no reason, and it feels at times like there's little genuine character development, which is a shame after Cryptum did such a good job at that.Much like Cryptum, Bear really captures the essence of the main character, and his viewpoint of the world becomes our own in the story. Because of that though, I find that the story in Primordium has almost no structure. The perspective is firmly focused on Chakas, what happens to him, and what he thinks about everything happening, but the narrative of the book never has any structure that really tells you what is happening in the overall "Forerunner Trilogy" big picture. You have to figure it out yourself in many parts. The characters have no destination in mind, are confused for most of the book as to what to do or where to go, and trust me, you'll share those feelings of confusion and uncertainty. I'm not sure if that was a purposeful narrative decision by Greg Bear, and I'm also not certain of whether or not it's a good thing. When you add in the ancestral imprints by the Librarian, who are practically characters unto themselves, and you've got another layer of complication. Another side-effect of seeing the world through Chakas' eyes is that, because pretty much everything outside of Earth is foreign and mysterious to Chakas, descriptions of almost everything are really confusing and nonsensical. Bornstellar at least understood what Forerunner tech was and how it worked and so did we as readers, even if we didn't understand all of its inner-workings, we at could at least understand what function it had and what it did. Chakas has no clue as to even that, so encounters with, for example, Forerunner cities or transport trains on Halo, are confusing to even figure out how to imagine what it looks like in our minds.I find that this book suffers from the issues that Cryptum had, but much, much more so. Many of the important revelations in the story are buried and almost lost in tons and tons of exposition that focuses on minute and completely unimportant details. It's no exaggeration to say that for every page of genuinely compelling development in the overall narrative, there's anywhere from 7-10 pages of, for narrative purposes, useless information that merely extends the story's mass. Tons of effort went into describing minute details of every landscape they came across, the smallest details of landmarks such as a tree or a structure, and things like that. Then, huge moments, such as encounters with the Primordial or Mendicant Bias, flash by in just a few pages. Thankfully, all of the exposition is still focused on fascinating things, such as the Halo's landscape and innerworkings, as well as the countless people all inhabiting the Halo. Even if it is "fluff," it's still pretty interesting to take in. Personally, I don't mind more pensive, meandering novels (I loved  Xenocide , which was much the same way) and so I liked most of Primordium myself despite all the "fluff." I can't deny that this book definitely has a ton of build-ups without enough pay-off to justify it though, and sometimes the overall narrative gets buried by all the fluff. Really, all of the pivotal information could be condensed into a short-story ranging anywhere from 100-180 pages and still be good. Who knows?This book is genuinely compelling, its overall story is quite interesting if not confusing to patch together at times, and has a lot of interesting revelations at a pivotal, but small event in the Forerunner-Flood war.Personally, I found it hard to put the book down a lot of the time, but after finishing it, I recognize its flaws and some can be glaring. There's a lot of mind-blowing revelations in this book, and some of the pay-offs, while not given nearly as much page-space as the build ups, are truly spectacular. I just find that this book is not as good as Cryptum. I understand that Bear was given strict instructions by 343 Industries about what details to include to give us tantalizing hints at what's to come in Halo 4, but also plenty of details to exclude, so as to keep Halo 4 surprising and compelling when we finally play it. I understand that, but sometimes in the name of keeping on this strict narrative schedule, this book suffered a bit.  Silentium  seems poised to answer all questions that the first two books left unanswered (released a couple months after Halo 4 of course. Gotta keep that schedule. :P). It was hard for me to rate this book, but despite its problems, I enjoyed it. If you are a massive Halo fan like I am, then this is a good book to get, but it will also take some effort to get into and understand, not to mention patience to keep up with it. I hope that helps. Thank you and good day. :)

Halo: Primordium is continuing on the new story telling style and tradition as the first book, Halo: Cryptum; which for the first time, represents the most influential society of the Halo universe in the reading style and grand scale as the Greek Epic. As a reader of every Halo book and an all around scifi fan, I found the series to be a refreshing change from the past books: successfully emphasizing the reach and divinity of the demi-gods known as the forerunners while satiating my desire for not only learning the 'what' of the Master Chief era of Halo, but the 'Why'. We learn the complete truth about the Flood and the Halo Installations, their amazing capabilities not only as a super-weapon but what the Forerunners known as the Master Builder and Librarian truly intended in their creation, while juxtaposing their greatness with how childlike they still are; especially when we learn of the 'Precursor'.Firstly, those expecting to pick up exactly where the Cryptum left off may be left disappointed. Instead, we join the Human Chakas who crashed on one of the halo installations with other 'different' humans. His adventures and the grand scale of the Halo are truly understood with Bear's epic style of applying the adventure and challenges of traveling through the largest (25,000 km in diameter) Halo installation we've seen yet. Despite how successful his writing style works, I feel as if it drove home the size of the halo (when merely walking from point A to B) a litte too much. As other's have said in their review: "We get it! The Halo is Frackin' Huge! Move on!".The origin story touches on otherwise minor details and characters in huge way. We learn also the truth of Guilty Spark 343, his creation and not only what but who the monitors really are. I thought Bear's writing style truly captured the essence and desperation of this being a lynchpin time in the universe, where the librarian not only placed the fate of the Forerunner civilization in Chakas, but the fate of the entire universe itself.Where I'm beginning to think Bear's style failed is in describing the details of Forerunner technology. He stretched out details about technology in a way for our own imagination filled in the blanks, which I love. Stories become a very personal experience when recounting details in such a way. But, the details he did describe left you unsure of exactly what he was trying to describe and sometimes, it's function. What one would believe as a simple thing such as a Forerunner equivalent of a monorail were really hard to visualize as a tangible object in the world that our characters were in. In a phrase; instead of a definitive 'thing', it they became concepts. I haven't decided though, if this was done because the characters don't quite understand the god-like engineering prowess of the forerunners' technology and if this is the case, I must give credit where it's due to Bear's cleverness. That'll have to be something the reader has to experience and understand.Going further into the story reveals events that grant our characters understanding to the forerunner technology (POTENTIAL SPOILER: think the matrix, learning kung-fu), but still you felt left out of the details. If you're looking for a beautifully detailed book that really describes the Forerunner civilization like I did, you will leave this book disappointed. Instead you will see the ghosts of the Forerunners, declining in their greatness and succumbing to their own hubris and vanity. Had we not seen these relics of the Forerunner Civilization in the Master Chief era, this would be an exciting and refreshing take on the mysterious race.Despite it's flaws......we do get an Illiad set in space. If the fact that the story thus far did not tie in the current timeline in Halo, you'll be pleasantly surprised as I was. I've read other reviews that said that you will see where the game Halo 4 will go, and you do. If the book is a strong indicator of the plot of Halo 4, I have to say that I will be excited for the game in a way that I have never been excited before. Finally, the old world and the new world will collide in a spectacular game. I enjoyed every moment of this book. I feel that being a halo fan without reading this book is like being a Guitarist and not knowing how to play 'Stairway to Heaven'. You simply HAVE to read this book.

This book is fantastic. I would say, definitely read Cryptum first and definitely read Silentium after. Greg Bear is one of the greatest things to happen to the Halo canon, he writes well and his work has implications running through Halo 3 and Halo 4 for the Xbox 360 as well as repurcussions for the human race overall - it answers a whole bunch of questions you had, but leaves you asking many others (which I will add are mostly answered in Silentium, to my stunned surprise as the answers were not what I was expecting!) Certainly a must-buy book!

The beginning of the book was slow, but I read on and was not dissapointed. Interesting nonhuman characters with flushed our development, some very interesting lore and an ending that leaves me asking questions for what will happen in the next book.I would recommend this read to halo lore fans, however for anyone else I'm not sure it will have the same impact.

The sequel to the first book, tries to go even further with its story-telling and like the first one, opens up doors to your mind which leaves you curious and wondering what is actually happening, it shows great plot and narrative which help built the structure of the forerunner saga

It might just be me but I found The Forerunner Saga to be unnecessarily complicated and boring at times. It will add to any Halo fans collection but it is not a series of books that I could get invested in at all, it feels like it adds little to the universe other than some background to characters that appear in later Halo games!

A hard read. Harder than Cryptum and much more obtuse than the other more traditional Halo books. Yet once the story picks up pace around halfway through, it reveals secrets we have sought since the Halo 1 video game. If you can drag yourself through the almost boring first half of Primordium you will find revelations and enjoyment. An essential book for anyone interested in the history and lore of the Halo universe.