Halo: Glasslands

By: Karen Traviss

Narrated by: Euan Morton

The first novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!

2553. The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war with humanity that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and its colonies. For the first time in thirty years, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting has stopped, the war is far from over: it’s just gone underground. The United Nations Space Command’s feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five—a clandestine team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a Spartan super-soldier, and a diabolical AI—to accelerate the insurrection within the Covenant’s warrior species, the Sangheili, even as their notable defector-turned-leader Thel ‘Vadam—the Arbiter—struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people.

Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died in the Covenant attack on the planet Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartan program, and now she’s broken some more rules to save them. Marooned with Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, Halsey finds that this place has been guarding an ancient secret—a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind. As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity’s violent past begins to catch up with all of them as the disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth…and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone’s loyalty to the limit.

Great book, but read it if you can

Great story and characters, but the narration is really hard to get into. Character voices don’t sound distinct, and it’s hard to tell the difference between character thoughts and dialogue. I ended up purchasing the ebook and read along when I could because it helped follow a lot better. I’ll probably read the other ones by this narrator as a result and save my creds for the Halo books after this trilogy.

Narrator and story excellent

The narrator is not monotone to my ears at all. I could discern a different accent and speech pattern for every character. Also: the narrator modulated his delivery to convey emotional states too.

The characters were drawn with depth and definition. I could identify with all of them. A feat no other novel has ever accomplished.

Euan Morton is an S Tier Narrator

It’s not enough that this book and series are phenomenal in their own right. But even more impressive is the narrator. The voices, the accents fit so well, and I enjoy reading through this series again and again because of him

More halo books featuring this narrator

Morton did a fantastic job voice acting every character and the best that I’ve heard for doing the elites. I read the forerunner trilogy just to hear him on the last book, and I’m rereading this trilogy to for both the story and his voice. I highly recommend the kilo five trilogy.

Surprisingly Great

It's been ages since I played any Halo game, but I was told this trilogy in particular was really well written, and the first book did not disappoint! Karen Traviss managed to inject a ton of nuance into the world and the well-written characters are just the cherry on top.

It isn't perfect, though. If don't know anything about the Halo universe, this will probably be a pretty confusing read, as several items, vehicles, and objects from the game are simply described as a given. Moreover, I wasn't a fan of Euan Morton's narration to begin with, but I actually grew to like it quite a bit over the course of the novel.