Horror novelist Tim Lebbon has taken his turn in one of science fiction's biggest shared universes. Halo: Parasite's Wake, his new novel set in the Halo franchise, is now on shelves from Gallery Books, and it is pitched as a straight-up horror story set on an ancient alien ringworld.
The release was confirmed by the official Halo account yesterday (October 20th).
Prisoners On An Alien World
The novel is set in 2552, during a dark chapter of the series' long war between humanity and the alien alliance known as the Covenant. Humanity's great military stronghold, the planet Reach, has fallen, and a lone ship called the Pillar of Autumn has escaped through slipspace to a massive, mysterious ring-shaped construct known as Halo.
With human forces scattered across the ring, Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto is tasked with leading a group of fellow crewmates back to the Autumn's crash site. Every one of them came out of the ship's brig. The official synopsis notes that "Desertion, drunk and disorderly, and murder are only a few of the charges that Mobuto's squad carries," which makes the squad a dangerous bunch even before the enemy enters the picture.
The Covenant soldiers on the ring believe they have found the gateway to paradise, and they are not giving it up quietly. But they turn out to be the lesser threat. Deep beneath the ring's surface, something far worse is unleashed, and it "transforms this conflict into a desperate battle of survival for UNSC and Covenant alike."
The story runs alongside the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, the 2001 game that launched the series. That game followed the Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super soldier, but Parasite's Wake stays with the regular Marines on the ground. That shift in perspective should make the danger feel far more personal, since these characters have no power armor to hide behind.
Why The Flood Suits A Horror Writer
For those who have not played the games, that threat is the Flood, a parasitic lifeform that infects and reanimates its hosts. It is essentially a cosmic zombie plague, and it has long been the most frightening part of the Halo setting. Handing it to a horror specialist makes a lot of sense.
Lebbon has written dozens of novels and won several genre awards over his career. His novel The Silence, about a world overrun by blind predators that hunt by sound, was adapted into a 2019 film. He has also worked in other franchises before, including the Alien universe with Out of the Shadows, so stranding a group of soldiers alongside a monstrous alien organism is familiar ground for him.
Part Of A Long Line Of Halo Fiction
Halo has built one of the larger tie-in fiction libraries in science fiction. It started with Eric Nylund's Halo: The Fall of Reach in 2001, and Simon and Schuster lists Parasite's Wake as book number 35 in the line. Mobuto himself is not brand new, since he first appeared in a small role in William C. Dietz's 2003 novel Halo: The Flood.
The book runs 400 pages and is available in trade paperback at a list price of $19, as well as in ebook and unabridged audiobook formats. The audiobook features a cast of narrators, including Michael Crouch, Lisa Flanagan, Kevin R. Free, Joshua Riley, and Tim Dadabo, who voices the ring's AI caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark, in the games. The cover art comes from Rythaze, an artist well known in the Halo fan community.
For readers who enjoy military sci-fi with real teeth, a story about disgraced soldiers trying to survive an alien plague sounds like a strong pitch, whether or not they have ever picked up a controller.
Will you be reading Tim Lebbon's take on the Halo universe?
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