Halo Studios published a new free short story on Halo Waypoint on November 9, Foehammer's Last Flight by Kemi Ashing-Giwa, which follows Pelican pilot Carol Rawley through the final minutes on Alpha Halo at the end of Halo: Combat Evolved. It is the latest entry in a fiction line that began with a novel in 2001 and now spans 40 published books, with 2 more due in 2027. Check out the official post down below:
Halo Studios' Official Book Guide
Halo Studios keeps an Official Halo Book Guide on Halo Waypoint that addresses the question of where to begin directly. Instead of 1 reading order, it sorts the books by the period or characters they follow: books tied to Halo Infinite, the original series, the Forerunner Saga, the Kilo-5 trilogy, the Master Chief and Blue Team, Rion Forge and the Ace of Spades, Alpha-Nine, Gray Team, the Ferrets, Battle Born, stand-alone stories and short story anthologies. The guide links each title to Simon & Schuster, the current publisher.
The novels began at Del Rey, moved to Tor Books with Ghosts of Onyx in 2006, and are now published through Simon & Schuster. Most recent releases come in trade paperback, ebook and unabridged audiobook formats.
The Original Series
The guide's original series covers the 4 novels released alongside the first 3 games. Eric Nylund wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach in 7 weeks, and it was released on October 30, 2001, ahead of Combat Evolved. It covers the origins of the Master Chief and the SPARTAN-II program and the fall of the UNSC stronghold Reach, ending where the first game begins. The book sold more than 1 million copies, and a revised edition followed in 2010 with continuity updates after the release of Halo: Reach.
William C. Dietz's Halo: The Flood, released on April 1, 2003, is a novelization of Combat Evolved that adds UNSC and Covenant perspectives the game does not show. Nylund's Halo: First Strike followed on December 2, 2003 and bridges Combat Evolved and Halo 2, as the Master Chief, Cortana, Avery Johnson and a group of survivors try to return to Earth. His Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, released on October 31, 2006, introduces the SPARTAN-III program led by Kurt-051, along with Dr. Halsey's gamble on the planet Onyx.
The Start Of The Covenant War
Joseph Staten, a Bungie writer who had shaped much of the games' story, wrote Halo: Contact Harvest, released on October 30, 2007. It follows Avery Johnson from his service against human insurrectionists to humanity's first contact with the Covenant on the farming colony Harvest in 2525, 27 years before Combat Evolved. Halo Studios files it as a stand-alone story.
Troy Denning's Master Chief and Blue Team books start in the same early years. Halo: Silent Storm, released on September 4, 2018, is set in the first year of the war, with the Master Chief, mentored by Johnson, leading a counterattack to buy time for the UNSC to learn about the Covenant. Halo: Oblivion followed on September 24, 2019 and sends Blue Team to recover Covenant data from a downed frigate on the world Netherop. Tobias Buckell's Halo: The Cole Protocol, released on November 25, 2008, follows the Spartans of Gray Team along with Jacob Keyes and Thel 'Vadamee, the future Arbiter, in a conflict over the protocol designed to keep human colony locations out of Covenant hands.
The Forerunner Saga
Greg Bear's Forerunner Saga is set 100,000 years before the games, during the rule of the Forerunners and the war with the Flood that ended with the firing of the Halo Array. Halo: Cryptum, released on January 4, 2011, follows the young Forerunner Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting, who goes looking for treasure on Erde-Tyrene, humanity's home, and awakens a Forerunner commander called the Didact. Halo: Primordium, released on January 3, 2012, follows the ancient human Chakas on Zeta Halo. Halo: Silentium, released on March 19, 2013, collects testimony from Bornstellar, the Librarian and the Didact as the origin of the Flood comes out.
Franchise director Frank O'Connor suggested Bear for the trilogy, and Silentium reached number 8 on The New York Times hardcover fiction list. The Didact's story continues in Kelly Gay's Halo: Epitaph, released on February 27, 2024, which follows him after his defeat by the Master Chief in Halo 4.
After Halo 3
Karen Traviss's Kilo-5 trilogy is set right after the Covenant War. Halo: Glasslands, released on October 25, 2011, follows an Office of Naval Intelligence black-ops team tasked with keeping the Sangheili locked in civil war while the UNSC rebuilds. Halo: The Thursday War followed on October 2, 2012, and Halo: Mortal Dictata on January 21, 2014.
Several shorter series cover the post-war years. Kelly Gay's Rion Forge books, Halo: Smoke and Shadow, Halo: Renegades and Halo: Point of Light, follow a salvager searching for her father, Sergeant John Forge of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, and later team her with the being once known as 343 Guilty Spark. Denning's Ferrets trilogy, Halo: Last Light, Halo: Retribution and Halo: Divine Wind, follows detective Veta Lopis and her Gamma Company Spartans. Matt Forbeck's Halo: New Blood and Halo: Bad Blood follow Edward Buck of Halo 3: ODST, and Cassandra Rose Clarke's Halo: Battle Born and Halo: Meridian Divide follow 4 teenagers on the colony Meridian during a Covenant invasion.
Books Connected To Halo Infinite
The newest Master Chief stories sit around Halo Infinite. Gay's Halo: The Rubicon Protocol, released on August 9, 2022, begins with the ambush of the UNSC Infinity and follows survivors on Zeta Halo while the Master Chief is absent. Jeremy Patenaude's Halo: Empty Throne, released on February 18, 2025, is set a year after Cortana seized the Domain and follows a parallel UNSC operation on a small human colony. Gay's Halo: Edge of Dawn, released on December 16, 2025, picks up right after the Infinite campaign, with the Master Chief, the AI now named Joyeuse, and pilot Fernando Esparza fighting the Banished on Zeta Halo, as covered when Halo: Edge of Dawn and the first Waypoint Chronicles print volume were announced.
Parasite's Wake And The Short Fiction
The newest book is Tim Lebbon's horror novel Halo: Parasite's Wake, released on October 20, 2026. It is set in 2552 on Alpha Halo during the events of Combat Evolved and follows Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto as he leads survivors from the Pillar of Autumn's brig, charged with crimes from desertion to murder, back toward the ship's crash site before the Flood breaks loose. The audiobook cast includes Tim Dadabo, the voice of 343 Guilty Spark. The novel's setup is detailed in this look at Halo: Parasite's Wake.
The short fiction is spread across 3 anthologies and Halo Waypoint. Halo: Evolutions, released on November 24, 2009, collects stories and poems from writers including Nylund, Buckell and Traviss. Halo: Fractures, released on September 20, 2016, includes stories from Christie Golden, Joseph Staten and Kelly Gay. Halo: Waypoint Chronicles - Volume One, edited by Jeff Easterling and Alexander Wakeford and released on May 26, 2026, collects 24 stories first published online and 10 new ones, plus lore items tied to Halo Infinite. Halo Waypoint continues to publish new Waypoint Chronicles online for free, including Patenaude's Elegy and Ashing-Giwa's Foehammer's Last Flight. The Digital Premium Edition of Halo: Campaign Evolved also includes Halo: Hungry Buzzards, a short story by Denning.
Coming In 2027
The book guide lists 2 novels for 2027. Denning's Halo: Fireteam Noble follows Jun-A266, the last surviving member of Halo: Reach's Noble Team, as he trains a new generation of Spartans on the hidden UNSC base Anvil Station. Kenneth Peters' Halo: Burn the Road Home follows Colonial Administration Authority Marshal Imani Havel on the planet Criterion more than 7 years after a Covenant invasion, as separatists steal equipment from a reconstruction convoy.
Which Halo book did you read first, and does it line up with any of the groupings in Halo Studios' official guide?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.