[lynksys]

I've read the books in the top row. They're very interesting and ad possibilities to the stirrings. Like Halo The Flood for example. It tells the events on the first halo ring from the view of the Marines, ODSTs, Ccovenant, and the Master achief and beautifully weaves them together. You see things in Halo CE that are there but unexplained, and Halo The Flood gives a possible explanation. When you find the helmet with JENKINS on it in the game, you don't know how it got there. The Flood tells the story of how Jenkins was selected with Cpt Keyes and Sgt Johnson to go on a mission. Then the Flood supposedly kill everyone. But in Halo 2, SGT Johnson is back without explanation, although he was engulfed by infection forms in the video in halo CE. However, Halo First Strike goes on to tell of how SGT Johnson managed to survive the incident. I view those novels as more of a patch to comedy and smooth the story between games. As for Cole Protocol and Contact Harvest, they deal with the first encounters against the Covenant and stories of events that take place before And during the Halo games. I haven't had a chance to read the others though.