Kaley CR's Reviews > Halo: Primordium

I think your enjoyment of this novel can seriously depend on whether you read it yourself or whether you listen to the audiobook version, because the narrator of the audiobook is none other than Tim Dadabo, the voice of 343 Guilty Spark himself - near the end he even uses the flanger effect that Guilty Spark has on his voice in the games. In general he is an excellent narrator, he speaks with the same inflection when voicing Guilty Spark which is fun, but he does voices for every character and they're all very good - almost too good, his old man voice for Gamelpar is downright eerie.

But this review is about the book, not the audiobook.

The Forerunner Trilogy is pretty well known for being ludicrously dense and ambitious for a video game tie-in novel, so obviously if you're expecting an action packed romp this trilogy isn't for you.

I think I prefer Primordium to Cryptum, all-in-all. Both novels are essentially a long odyssey, the journey of one character that eventually leads to a climactic conclusion that shapes the lore of the series dramatically.

This means that until the final couple of chapters not much "happens" - where Cryptum followed Bornstellar's journey through the galaxy to become the IsoDidact (which I still don't understand fully), Primordium follows Chakas as he travels the length of Installation 07. I can imagine that if you're reading this book and not listening to the audiobook version while doing something else, much of this book would be kind of boring. I didn't find that to be the case, but I was also painting miniatures and stuff while listening to I didn't really have to worry about being bored.

Chakas is a great narrator, and the characters introduced in this book were very unique. In general, the amount of detail Greg Bear goes into describing the way the group of humans on Installation 07 had evolved, as well as the introduction of the Primordial was very interesting. In fact, any mention of the Primordial was really where the book shined. Bear does a REALLY good job (in my opinion) of introducing this extremely outlandish being that answers questions about the universe while also raising even more for you to think about.

I think what the problem a lot of people might have with Greg Bear's trilogy (again, I've only read two so far), is that they are more "interesting" books than they are "compelling". There is a distinct level of emotional detachment for the most part, and often events just happen without you realizing. It's like some things aren't described in great detail while massive plot points end up being almost footnotes. It seems like a deliberate writing style, if you ask me, and so I appreciate what Bear is doing here. Also I appreciate the way he weaved so many disparate elements of the lore into his own unique creation.

As a whole, I quite liked this and I'm excited to see where Bear goes in Silentium, which I of course will be reading next.

Side note: this takes place on the same Halo (Zeta Halo) that Halo: Infinite takes place on, so obviously now I need to replay the Halo: Infinite campaign. Maybe I will wait until I have finished the rest of the novels to do that, just to be safe.