DNF. There were less than 20 pages left to read and yet I couldn’t muster up any f*cks to see how it ended.

Better than I thought it was going to be after the first 50 pages. I originally felt this was going to be something of a slog to get through, but by the end I was very interested in where the story was going, and highly invested in the main character. Not sure if Greg Bear was the finest choice in the world, but his background helps him to create the massive scope that this kind of trilogy probably needed to land well, and I think he does a good job.

This is the start of a trilogy detailing the rise of the Forerunners in the Halo world. The first book is by Greg Bear as is the second.In this start to the Forerunner Saga we meet a very young Forerunner named Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting who just can’t sit still it appears. He is obsessed with the past and sneaks away to look for lost treasures. Contrary to his Dad’s instructions he strikes out for a planet called Erde-Tyrene where it is rumoured that ancient Forerunner and Precursor tech...

Halo: Cryptum ReviewPrequels tend to suck. That’s a fact that many a fan has had to deal with when reconciling unwelcome additions to their favorite franchises; the on-going chagrin for the Star Wars prequels is telling enough, but even more recent reactions to the Star Trek and Spider Man origin story rehashes (addendum: similar complaints are rumbling about The Man of Steel) remind us that, especially where highly elaborate fiction is involved, ignorance really can be bliss. Don’t take me wron...

I was blown away by how massive the story is. Huge expanses of time stretching millions of years. A race of aliens who have reached a lifespan and culture far outside the scope of anything imaginable. Character's who live hundreds of millennia and have planets for backyards. Technology that truly makes everything else I've read about in science fiction seem like small potatoes. Completely unimaginable, except still somehow envisioned and expressed by this author. Not just expressed, but somehow

For a book based on an action game, this had to be the one of the slowest least interesting Sci-Fi books I've ever read.

Well, at times I was caught up in the character's thoughts, most of the time I wasn't. The general gist was exciting, space opera-esque. Images in my mind were sparse though. Descriptions lacked in my opinion. My wet drive was populated with images from the Halo games rather than appearing spontaneously while reading. That's a pity. Also, what threw me off, was that the Forerunners, who started as super aliens, ended up to be more and more like humans: flawed, corrupt, emotional, ugly etc. Maybe...

Wow. Greg Bear is usually so much better than this.Okay, so, I picked this book up on recommendation from my brother. He really liked the trilogy, and thought I would too. It was okay, but there are some serious issues with it. Mostly in continuity with the lore presented in the games and what is being presented here. It's like no one was even paying attention at all. Either that or 343 just doesn't give a shit about what came before they took over the franchise and is just doing their own thing...

Halo: Cryptum by Greg Bear is a video game tie-in novel based on the Halo video game franchise, and first book of the Forerunner saga. Halo: Cryptum is essentially the prequel to the entire Halo story line. It takes place in a society of extremely ancient aliens, referred to as the forerunners, who predate all human history. In the story we see the forerunners at the height of their power. Cryptum follows the story of a young forerunner named Bornstellar- Makes-Eternal-Lasting, or Bornstellar fo...

“Halo: Cryptum” is a tough book to read, and an even harder book to review. The first in a trilogy, set hundreds of thousands of years before the events of the original “Halo” video game, “Cryptum” digs DEEP into the lore of the Forerunners, the Flood, and the origin of the Halo rings…and it does all of that without ever once even coming close to holding the reader’s hand. For my money, that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s a good thing, because writer Greg Bear clearly trusts that his

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS AGO, the galaxy was populated by a great variety of beings. But one species—eons beyond all the others in both technology and knowledge—achieved dominance. They ruled in peace but met opposition with quick and brutal effectiveness. They were the Forerunners—the keepers of the Mantle, the next stage of life in the Universe’s Living Time. And then they vanished.This is their story.” – from the back cover of Halo: CryptumThis book has started me on a great reading journey...

It was very bland. It felt like an intro to a series that I needed previous knowledge to get on the inside with. Much more do than previous Halo books--i just couldn't get into it, and then there wasn't much action. It finally got interesting about halfway through the book then fizzled again.

Halo: Cryptum is a hard book to review as there is a lot here to both praise and criticise. On the one hand it is well written, has a good pace, had likable characters and feels like the beginnings of a complex science fiction trilogy. On the other it introduces a lot of elements which serve little purpose in the overall universe, is utterly disconnected to the Covenant war and in all honesty seems like it’s Halo in name only.As you might have guessed from the cover, the book looks into the live...

I read this book YEARS ago and I remember loving it. I've been a big Halo fan since the early 2000s and to be honest, I still think this is the best sci-fi world I've experienced.For those who aren't aware (or aren't video game fans) Halo: Combat Evolved was a video game that was released in 2001 and is credited for modernizing the first person shooter genre. Robust lore was created for the game and the storytelling was awesome. Halo is definitely one of the entertainment pieces that most define...

Greg Bear completely destroyed my fond ideology of an advanced, peaceful and selfless alien society in this book by interpreting the Forerunners as a species more closely resembling modern day humans with an appetite for politics, control and war. Mindless techno babble dominates seemingly every page as if readers are engineer experts on this fictional technology. Lack of a antagonist makes for a boring read as well as the awkward historical revelations of humankind's war with the Forerunner's w...

I had the hardest time following this storyline. I love Halo and was particularly interested in the Forerunner Saga, but lord does this book have a high learning curve. There are times where I would get so frustrated with all these unexplained (and conveniently Alien named) objects that my imagination would be working overtime in order to create an image of what the author was trying to write about. The best I can say about this book is that it takes work to read, even for me and I have a fantas...

As many other reviews have stated, one of the most frustrating things about this book is all the Forerunner jargon you are assumed to be familiar with (scrip, dazzler, baffler, ancilla, manipular, contender, aya, chamnune, hamanune, Erde-Tyrene, etc). Next is how I struggled to relate to any character in a meaningful way. Born has a brief moment with his family on his home planet, but I feel like this book leaves a lot to be desired on how Forerunners think and feel and what a standard mutation

There is not one action scene in this entire book. Is that . . . even possible? I don't think I know of any sci-fi or fantasy book that doesn't have one fight or battle scene. This has genuinely blown my mind. The ending part is technically action, but not really. No shots fired, no punches thrown, no swords slashed. Absolutely nothing. This whole book is talking. That said, I still really liked it. The lore was awesome and the way it connects everything to the originals was fun. I can see why s...

I really enjoyed this book when I first started reading it, because it was different in tone and style from all the other Halo books I've been (devotedly) reading. The only problem was about halfway through when it started to get a little dry. I just found that Bornstellar wasn't the most engaging of characters. He was more interesting when he was confused, because he had emotions even if they weren't very deep ones (like curiosity or the need to rebel), and when he started to change and became

Wait wait wait, all of the lore and world building of the halo universe, with none of the shitty action scenes? Yessssssss count me in