Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Best and Worst Halo: Evolutions Stories
  • Subject: Best and Worst Halo: Evolutions Stories
Subject: Best and Worst Halo: Evolutions Stories

Halo: Heretic or Hero---An Elite's Story
Choose your own destiny

FanFicFactor
Forged in the Flames of Passion, go forth and represent!

I am currently reading through Halo: Evolutions and enjoying it very much. So far, I've only read Pariah, Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss and part of MIHM.

While I was not at all impressed with Heels of a Fuss, I found that Pariah more than made up for it--Soren's story is one of the most heart-wrenching tales in the Halo Universe, in my opinion.

But then, I still have another 80% of the book to read.

So, anyway, what did you guys think was the best story in Evolutions? The worst? Why?

  • 02.26.2011 6:42 PM PDT

Well Sorens story was very good but like many it has wanting more like what happend to him during the fight for Reach? I need more. but they only feed you a little.

  • 02.26.2011 7:02 PM PDT

Best to worst and why:

1) Human Weakness. Terrific insight into the characters of Cortana and the Gravemind. Keeps your interest the whole time and not a single sentence is an action scene. Really conveys how utterly demonic and twisted--yet horrifyingly intelligent--the Gravemind is and how comparitively frial and insignificant Cortana--and by extension, the human race she's based off of--really is.

2) The Return. Again, great insight into the post-Halo 3 situation and the post-War Elite mind set and problems. Very well written with descriptive scenarios. Not overtly action heavy, but the one action scene it does have is awesome. Also gives great clues as to what the future of Halo brings. Only reason its not numer 1 is that I can have only one #1.

3) Both Pariah and The Impossible Life are interesting because of who's being studied. You've read Pariah but the Impossible Life is a great new way to turn a series of official documents and reports into a gripping character study of Admiral Preston Cole. See, Eric Nylund, its author, never struck me as being very good at portraying emotions and characters on a level we can connect with, but he is good a posing moral questions and having emotions implied. So he took that and did something brilliant: rather then creating a standard narrorative, he crafted a literal psychoanalysis of Prestion Cole to uncover who he was as a man mixed with great space battle scenes and one of the single most brilliant moves I've seen in science-fiction combat history (for those who read the story: the star)

3) Dirt was an epic recounting of a soldiers life in the corp and asks questions like greed vs humanity. Its fourth only because I had more to say about Impossible Life, but really they're tied.

4)Palace Hotel. I'm one of the only people who liked it, but I liked it because it explained who the Chief is as a person and how he thinks when faced with regular humans. Also gave us a possibility that he may have been "in love" with someone from his past. Good thing is, is that it's not overdone the way some geeky, sweaty fan-fic writer might do it.

5) Mona Lisa was good to portray the horror of the Flood, but for me it was just far to long for what ultimately ammounted to a slasher movie. I think the motion comic of it will be
good since horror is best left as a visual medium though.

6) Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss was interesting I guess, but you already read it. Never struck me as anything "new" though. We already read all about the Brutes in Contact Harvest.

7) Midnight of the Midlothian I found to be pretty "meh." I can tell O'Connor's a good writer, but I couldn't help but get the feeling I was reading the walkthrough for a videogame (especialy when he "died" and "respawned" about half way through).

8) Blunt Instruments and Head Hunters I found to be boring. Headhunters was actualy the second story I started to read after Human Weakness (Karen Traviss' brilliant work on the Gears of War novels made me read her's first) but it was also the last one I finished.

Both of them just failed to make a connection, with one of them the characters not even having real names, just numbers.

From the Office technically isn't a story, but its probably the most insightful of the lot. It sets up some pretty interesting mysteries for the future of Halo...

[Edited on 02.26.2011 7:09 PM PST]

  • 02.26.2011 7:07 PM PDT

In my opinion, Dirt, Human Weakness, and The Impossible Life are the best. The Mona Lisa also really struck a nice chord for me.

Although, if any of the stories are to be considered lame, that story would have to be Headhunters.

  • 02.26.2011 7:24 PM PDT

http://www.halo-forum.com

Personal Favourites:

Headhunters- Love Spartan IIIs
Mona Lisa- Love The Flood
The Life and Death of Preston Cole- Love Cole
Dirt- What's not to like?

Really, I liked all of the stories. To be honest the only one I wouldn't read very often is human weakness. Don't know why because its still awesome.

  • 02.26.2011 7:56 PM PDT

Signatures are for squares.

Loved:
Pariah
Impossible Life and Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
The Mona Lisa
Dirt

Liked:
Headhunters
Human Weakness
The Return

Disliked/meh:
Blunt Instruments
Stomping on the heels of a fuss

Hated:
Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss (I HATE BRUTE STORIES PERIOD.)
Palace Hotel (Wasn't as good as the Halo 2 levels on Earth.)

  • 02.26.2011 8:10 PM PDT

I am a monument to all your sins

best: Mona Lisa

worst: Palace Hotel

[Edited on 02.26.2011 8:14 PM PST]

  • 02.26.2011 8:14 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.

I liked:

Dirt - Very awesome to read about the ODST's and a good story overall.

Mona Lisa - Probably my favorite. Starts off a little slow, but picks up big time. The mystery, atmosphere, and story overall was just amazing.

Palace Hotel - An alright read. Some pretty interesing facts and pretty cool battles.

HeadHunters - A nice story about two Spartan-III's. I thought it was pretty interesting and had a touch of humor. The two Spartans were likable characters.

Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss - I'm suprised you didn't particularly like this story. It's one of my favorites. It really shows the brutality of the Brutes and their ferocity. It also makes you really hate them. lol.

The rest I thought were meh. Some outright boring. *cough*Human Weakness*cough* Pariah left a bad taste...liked the beginning then just got...I don't know how to describe it. Just left a really bad taste, I guess.

  • 02.26.2011 8:25 PM PDT
  • gamertag: Poy357
  • user homepage:

Dirt was a great and moving story story.

Stomping on the heels of a fuss was -blam!- stupid. We already have Mona Lisa for horror ,but Brute savagery makes me puke. And the ending delves into insanity.

Sorry for the spoilers.

  • 02.26.2011 11:49 PM PDT

I have been on Bungie.net for quite a while. I just made this profile because I wanted to change my B.net username.

In my opinion.

Best: Dirt
Worst: Tie between Stomping on the Heels and Headhunters

  • 02.27.2011 3:10 AM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

There are so many good stories in Evolutions:

- The Return is my favourite, a unique tale set in 2559 from the POV of a Sangheili Shipmaster who has returned to a colony he once glassed in order to try and find a purpose to his faith. I know you, Murph, you'll love it.

- The Mona Lisa was a story best read alone at night, it's damn creepy and really brings the true horrors of the Flood to light. You really feel for characters like Lopez and Burgundy. The ambiguous ending is a killer too.

- Human Weakness is a tale focused on emotion and the imminent aspect of death, Traviss pulled off the Gravemind and Cortana beautifully and really got me thinking about Halsey's darker side in the process. It actually made mke want to replay the mission Cortana, so that's saying something...

- Wages of Sin was another excellent short story from the POV of a San 'Shyuum as High Charity is taken over. He reflects on some rather important stuff that happened (I shan't spoil it) and builds some sympathy for the Covenant, I really enjoyed it.

- The Impossible Life and Possible Death of Preston J. Cole is a must read, I can't even sum up its awesomeness.

- Last (but certainly not least) is Dirt. Gage and the Rookie were written extremely well, it's quite a sad yet motivating tale which was definately one of my favourites.

My least favourite was Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian. Sorry Frankie, but I know you can do better than that...

  • 02.27.2011 6:19 AM PDT

People have covered my opinions pretty well already.

Dirt/Incredible Life and Death of Admiral Cole/Mona Lisa are clearly the best of the lot. I'd include the final piece with the Elite, but that was a mere handful of pages and beautifully set the idea of 'where do we go now?'.

Stomping on the Heels of a fuss was by far the weakest. Made more so by the stupid twist ending that they paragraphed too clearly. Which was a real shame, because I feel the elements were there for a decent piece.

The ones I'd most debate were Headhunter, and Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian. Both had a nice tinge of humour too them. The dialog between the Headhunters was I felt well done though I could see why people wouldn't like it.

Overall though, I really enjoyed Evolutions. Probably one of the top three Halo Books (alongside Reach, and Harvest), and am looking forward to them doing another collection. At the end of the day, there were only two realy weak stories, and more good then middling.

  • 02.27.2011 6:54 AM PDT