Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC – the largest publisher of science fiction in the world – and Microsoft are excited to announce the on-sale availability of HALO: GLASSLANDS by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss. This is the first novel in an all-new Halo trilogy based on the acclaimed Xbox and Xbox 360 Halo videogame series. Traviss, who has penned number one bestselling novels in the Star Wars universe, as well as bestselling novels for the Gears of War franchise, will explore the events following "Halo 3" in a novel continuing the story begun in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.
Halo novels published by Tor have sold over a million combined copies to date, and on January 3, 2012 Tor will also publish Halo: Primordium, the second novel in the Forerunner Saga by science fiction icon Greg Bear. The highly-anticipated Xbox 360 video game "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary" will release in November 2011, with the recently announced "Halo 4" scheduled for fall 2012.
In HALO: GLASSLANDS, The Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and her colonies. For the first time in decades, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting’s stopped, the war is far from over: it’s just gone underground. The UNSC’s feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five, a team of ODSTs, a Spartan, and an eccentric AI to accelerate the Sangheili insurrection. Meanwhile, the Arbiter, the defector turned leader of a broken Covenant, struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people.
Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died on Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartans, and now she’s broken some more to save them. Marooned with Chief Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, she finds that the shield world has been guarding an ancient secret – a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind.
As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity’s violent past begins to catch up with all of them as disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth, and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone’s loyalty to the limit.
"We’re excited to share Glasslands with the Halo audience, mostly because it’s a really incredible read, but also because for the first time, we’re using the Halo novels to take the game fiction forward in time, rather than exploring historical moments," said Frank O’Connor, Franchise Development Director at 343 Industries. "These are the foundational elements for the next Halo game trilogy and Karen has captured and created them masterfully."
#1 New York Times best-selling novelist , comics author and games writer Karen Traviss has received critical acclaim and award nominations for her Wess’har series, as well as regularly hitting the bestseller lists with her Star Wars and Gears of War novels. She was also the writer of the blockbuster Xbox 360 game "Gears of War 3." A former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, she lives in Wiltshire, England.
"Halo’s got some interesting moral dilemmas for me to explore," says Traviss. "It’s also an opportunity for me to examine the UNSC personnel who don’t get all the limelight that the Spartans do, like the ODSTs, and of course the ones who’d run a mile from the spotlight anyway – the Office of Naval Intelligence. But you do get to see a side of the Spartans you haven’t seen before."
The Halo franchise is an award-winning collection of properties that have grown into a global entertainment phenomenon. Beginning with the original "Halo: Combat Evolved" for Xbox in 2001, the rich fiction of the franchise has since inspired a series of blockbuster Xbox and Xbox 360 video games, New York Times best-selling novels, comic books, action figures, apparel and more. To date, sales in the Halo franchise have eclipsed $1.7 billion. The newest game in the franchise, "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary," will re-introduce the iconic title that started it all, re-mastered in 3D for the Xbox 360. The highly-anticipated next installment in the franchise, "Halo 4," was recently announced for a fall 2012 release. With a fully fleshed-out universe of heroes, villains and epic scenarios, the novels expand the universe to give fans a grander view of the game environments and characters they encounter.