Halo: Contact Harvest

Contact Harvest is the first (in chronological order) with humans involved. First contact is made on the human world of Harvest, a planet with rich soil that is used exclusively for agriculture and supplies many of the human worlds in the system.

We also get to meet Avery and peer into his background. At the time he's been assigned to special ops working to put down insurrectionists who want out of the UNSC (United Nations Space Command) which controls all of the inhabited worlds in human space.

After an op goes way south when Avery doesn't have the time to line up a shot without shooting a kid and insurrectionist has taken as a human shield, most of his team and a lot of civilians get killed, he chooses reassignment.

He ends up on Harvest to train the newly minted militia. Along with Byrne, the only marine from his unit to survive. He's pissed, they fight, their new CO puts an end to it. An ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) co-opts the two of them for a mission. Believing insurrectionists have been looting containers from Harvest she sends out a distress message only to find it's the Covenant that's been doing the looting. That's the real first contact, Avery and Byrne kill the aliens, but their were two who escaped in a pod.

They report back to High Charity about thousands of Forerunner relics on Harvest and a ship is dispatched. When they arrive the Covenant, through the use of a highly detailed drawing, tell the humans they want the planet and the battle for Harvest begins.

I enjoyed this book very much. The pacing is great, and the development of Avery and the other characters is well done.

Halo: Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten is video game prequel tie-in novel based of the Halo video game franchise.

Halo: Contact Harvest follows the story of humanities first contact with The alien alliance known as the Covenant. Set on an agricultural Harvest world that believes it is being targetted by insurrectionists, it explores the reasons why The Covenant are bent on the destruction of the human race. Throughout the book, we spend a lot of time with Sargent Avery Johnson. Johnson played an important role in the original Halo games and the novelisation The Flood. And while his character in that story is fun, he was never fleshed out or given any space to develop. That isn’t the case in Contact Harvest as this is his story and we see him go through highs and lows and become the character we recognize.

One of my favourite aspects of any Halo novel is the time spent with The Covenant and one of its many alien species. In Contact Harvest we see a relationship between an Unggoy and a Huragok. This storyline runs parallel to everything and is one of the most touching relationships in a Halo novel. We get to see them slowly become friends, learn to communicate and share their cultures. Not only does this provide interest insight into the structure and hierarchy of The Covenant, but it also succeeds in having you care about beings that are later only there as target practice for the Master Chief and his pals. We also get to see the inner workings of Jiralhanae (Brute) culture as they interact with humans for the first time.

We also get to see some different AI’s in the vein of Cortana. And unfortunately, this is one of the weaker areas of the characterisation. I understand that they are designed as a caricature of specific personalities but Mac’s ‘old western farmer’ personality comes off as sexually aggressive towards his female AI counterpart. It’s weird and unnecessary. There’s also a moment where he saves the other AI and she then seems to ‘fall’ for him which serves to justify his behaviour. If this was the outcome they were heading for, it should have been handled differently.

One of the most important parts of this book is the revelation about why The Covenant want to destroy humanity in the first place. With so many different races and cultures absorbed into them, I’ve long been confused why they didn’t do the same with humans. And while I won’t spoil the reasons, as its interesting and tragic, I will say it gives you another new perspective on this war.

Halo: Contact Harvest is probably my new ‘first Halo book’ recommendation. It doesn’t get bogged down in trying to humanise the Spartans and while it does toe the ‘humanity are the best and nothing they do is wrong except those pesky insurrectionists line’, it provides some insight into the cause of this conflict and characters who play important roles in later stories. And for people who are fascinated by The Covenant, Contact Harvest provides further insight into this strange conglomeration of species. If you are interested in the Halo universe and find Spartans a bit boring, then this is the book for you.

To me, it was hard to get through the first 4-5 chapters (maybe I just wasnt in the mood.) Despite the book taking time to lay down the setting of the story, the entire rest of the book is very enjoyable at every moment. I went from chapter 6- chptr 28 in 2 days.. If youve read fall of reach then this book favors that in its own way. It really lays down the frame work for the aliens and humans first contact with each other, not to mention the direct aspects that correlate with the games. Buy the book.

The condition of the book was great when I received it in the mail. The book is also entertaining and a fun read. Fun to get some history on Avery, a personal beloved character from the halo franchise!

Reading in chronological order. Great start to the human story of Halo.

Contact Harvest is the 6th Halo book that I've read and it's between this and Ghosts of Onyx.
The book was delivered in great condition.

Found this on my bookshelf and then remembered it was the one with the blatant tacked on adult scene. It was the worst when reading out loud in the car. (Pre-audiobook as you can see from the 2009 date in my photo.) It tanked my faith in that Halo author.

Excellent book. Great insight on ssgt Johnson and pvt jenkins, along with a well written backstory on both.

One of my favorite Halo books

Good for sci-fi stories, good for past time reading.