Ghosts of Onyx: Ink and Paper Halo

I never would have thought a game could suck you in so much you be interested in books that fill in back story and side stories. I guess it's what all of those Star Wars books have business in taking up a huge section of my bookstore.

Ghosts of Onyx takes place while Halo 2 is ending, but only references the main story lines. Reading The Flood and The Fall of Reach made it disappointing that there aren't other Spartans running along side you in the game, but at the same time it made your lone journey make sense. A little paper/console yin and yang if you will.

But I love the idea that the Spartans all grew up being super kids together in training and really getting into the meat of what a Spartan is. This new book introduces the idea of the next level of Spartans, IIIs, and while it might seem like a cheap trick, it's done very well by making them not totally perfect. A rush genetic job.

I wouldn't be suprised if all the IIIs end up dying in the book and concrete the awesomeness of the current games' generation of our Spartan IIs, like the Master Chief John-117.

But man I would really like play as Kurt, Fred or Lucy. Or Mendez, that badass. And all these A.I.s we never get to see like Deep Winter and Endless Summer.