Halo: Divine Wind

Halo: Divine Wind: by Troy Denning is a video game tiein novel based on the Halo video game franchise, and the third book of the “Ferret Team” trilogy.

Set in October 2559, a year after the rouge AI Cortana betrayed the Master Chief and the UNSC, and used the Forerunner constructs known as Guardians to impose a marital law on key interstellar civilizations across the Galaxy. During this chaotic time a new threat has quieted emerged the fanatical Keepers Of the One Freedom.

For the last two years ONI undercover agent Veta Lopis and her Spartan-III ‘Ferret’ team have been in deep undercover as followers in the Keepers of the One Freedom a religious ex-Covenant faction led by the fanatical Brute Chieftain Castor. When their undercover mission leads them to the mysterious Forerunner installation known as the Ark. Veta and the Spartans of Ferret team will face their greatest challenge yet: preventing the Halo Array from being fired by the unexpected alliance between Brute Chieftain Castor, a remnant of old Covenant led by a San’Shyuum Prelate Dhas Bhasvod, and a Forerunner AI Intrepid Eye, but Veta and the Spartans of Ferret Team with not be alone in this fight as they will find an unexpected ally on the Ark. Captain Cutter and the crew of lost UNSC warship Spirit Of Fire. It will be up to Veta and her new allies to save the galaxy from a Extinction level event.

I have to admit to feeling some trepidation upon initially reading the summary for this book when it was revealed. We’ve done the story of going to the Ark to stop the Halo rings from being fired twice, in Halo 3 (2007) and Hunters in the Dark (2015)…
I don’t personally hold a lot of fondness for either of those entries’ narratives, so it came as a very welcome surprise to me that Divine Wind ended up telling the very best version of that kind of story.

The key to Denning’s magic here is character.
In the years since Denning’s debut with Last Light (2015), his own corner of the universe has been populated with a lot of its own mythology: Veta, the Ferrets, Castor, the Keepers of the One Freedom, Intrepid Eye, and more…
If any of these things are at all familiar to your Halo lexicon, you’re going to get a lot out of Divine Wind.

If they’re not, this book does a good job of catching you up on the highlights to keep you in the loop, but I would say that this story demands you get the full depth of what’s been going on in its predecessors.
While I have enjoyed the foray into the early years of the Covenant war that we got with Silent Storm (2018) and Oblivion (2019), there is a degree to which they felt like a bit of a ‘detour’ for me because it’s Denning’s post-war stories and characters that I have found most gripping.

I hold Veta Lopis in the esteem of being among the Great Halo Protagonists, standing alongside the likes of Thel ‘Vadam and Bornstellar. Her journey from criminal inspector to the parent and squad leader of a trio of teenage supersoldiers as a deep cover ONI agent has been amazing. It’s fair to say that both Veta and Rion Forge have become the ‘face’ for what many consider to be the post-war era’s very best stories.
As a result, I found that Divine Wind was a welcome return to a lot of things that made Troy Denning the fan-favourite name he very quickly became from his debut.

But that roster of great characters has only expanded over the years. As the cover of the novel depicts, we’ve got Castor and the much-beloved Inslaan ‘Gadogai — introduced in last year’s Shadows of Reach as Castor’s advisor, would-be assassin, and loyal frenemy.
Their dynamic is endlessly fascinating and continues to be a highlight of this book as we learn more about ‘Gadogai’s backstory and the source of the devotion he now shows Castor.

As we’re heading to the Ark, you can certainly make the logical deduction that some characters from Halo Wars 2 — both UNSC and Banished — make some kind of substantial appearance here.
And then there’s the San’Shyuum Prelate (the Prophets’ analog to Spartans), Dhas Bhasvod, who proves to be a fascinating new addition not just for this story, but for the next ‘phase’ of Halo stories to come.

If that sounds like a lot to juggle (it is), then one of the highest compliments I can pay to Troy Denning as a writer is that he makes the act of doing so look easy.
That’s really what sets Divine Wind apart from our previous outings to the Ark to stop the Halos from being fired. The complex, interweaving motivations of these characters drives the story to so many interesting and unexpected places.
Zealotry is a key theme in Divine Wind, and Denning pushes these characters well beyond their limits in exploring their devotion through their relationship with faith and loyalty.

Castor is besieged from all sides. His closest friend is a cynical atheist who constantly questions him; he puts great trust in Veta and the Ferrets, not knowing they have infiltrated his faction for two years (and we see how they are affected by maintaining such deep cover for so long); Dhas Bhasvod is not quite the ally he was expecting, and Intrepid Eye — the ‘oracle’ he worships — has her own goals she is using him for.

This interplay between characters, the grand masquerade of verbal sparring and strategic theatre, is what I love most about Denning’s writing. That’s here in abundance, and there comes a turning point where we get more of the militaristic side of Silent Storm, Oblivion, and Shadows of Reach as well.
In many ways, Divine Wind is a tour de force of Denning’s style that demonstrates the kind of mastery you hope to see in what almost feels like the end of a series. At no point does it take its eye off the ball, constantly making the most interesting advances for its character writing.
That’s why it hits the mark so strongly for me, and it’s the key area in which I feel Halo 3 and Hunters in the Dark didn’t succeed.

To conclude, my overall assessment of Divine Wind is that it’s a melting pot of many of the best things from Troy Denning’s previous work.
Like with Kelly Gay’s books, 343 has been using recent media to open new doors for future stories. There are some long-hanging threads that are primed for a huge return, and one of them actually manages to make sense of the Prophet of Truth’s characterisation shift in Halo 3.
(Yeah, that got your attention!)
I feel like I’ve been on a Great Journey with these characters that I’ve come to love over the last six years. The expanded universe of Halo has been greatly enriched by Veta Lopis and the stories and characters surrounding her, and a solid case can be made for Divine Wind being their finest hour.

As the last Halo story to release before we dive into Halo: Infinite, a key impression that Divine Wind left on me was how intrigued and excited I am for what’s coming next as 343’s narrative plan for the future takes shape.

Troy Denning has done a good job with the series starting with his first novel of Last Light. This story continues the plotline of Veta Lopez, the ferrets (some of the remaining S3s), and some of the Halo Wars 2 characters (Pavium and Decimus). Castor is on the cover, with Veta, as well as Gadogan and the Prelate... don't know who any of these characters are? Well it seems that you need to read 1-2 books to catch yourself up before reading this one.

A certain trio of Spartan 2s from Halo Wars appear in the last 20-30 pages and there is a highly tragic death of a Spartan 3, but he fought until his very last breath, literally. It sucks that Denning completely changed the characterization of the HW S2's, but still, somehow, managed to continue how the S3's of Ferret Team were originally portrayed in Ghosts of Onyx (though this might be easier considering they didn't talk much, back then, and especially since one was a mute, who now talks).

Again, he's no Eric Nylund, but he's as close as we're going to get in 2022.

It's such an interesting group; A surrogate mother figure leading super soldiers on dangerous missions. Unfortunately, I don't see how they can continue their adventure from here but I'll leave that to brighter minds than my own.