The Cole Protocol (Halo)

The Cole Protocol (Halo)
by Tobias S. Buckell

The Cole Protocol (Halo)
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $5.99
You Save: $8.96 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Tobias S. Buckell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-25
ISBN: 076531570X
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Tor Books

Book Reviews of The Cole Protocol (Halo)

Book Review: promising, but flawed
Summary: 3 Stars

I looked forward to this book with great interest from the moment I found out that it would be handling a major Elite character's backstory. Sadly, I find myself underwhelmed with it. Writing-wise, it's about the level one would expect from a spinoff book of a video game. Essentially, it's not well written, not terribly well-characterized, and extremely poorly proofread ("cyrogenic" jumps out at you right on the first page-- not only should a proofreader have caught that, but a spellchecker should too). Needless to say, you need to be quite well-read in the Halo mythos for this book to make a whole lot of sense, as The Cole Protocol assumes an array of prior knowledge. What matters, then, is what it does for the canon as a whole.

I mainly read Halo novels for the worldbuilding, and the back history of characters we've come to know and love through the game. I don't expect each author to do equally well with all aspects of the Halo world, and this book is no exception. Captain (here, Lieutenant) Keyes gets a turn in the spotlight, and he's kept in-character, with a properly Keyesian, out-of-the-box maneuver at the end. There's a part played by Spartan Grey Team, and while I (only a mild fan of the Spartans) was satisfied with it, people who are focused on them will likely come away disappointed. Still, their interaction with other characters (ordinary humans and the Elites (Sangheili)) is interesting more for what it says about the other characters than what it illumines about the Spartans.

Where Cole Protocol shines is its depiction of ordinary humans. Nylund's books give a good military/UNSC perspective on the Human-Covenant war, but Buckell gives you a sense of what it's like to live there and be a civilian trying to make your way through a series of completely sensible, but still extremely onerous laws. You get a better sense of the Insurrectionist perspective here, and the Rubble (a ragtag civilization built by refugees, Innies, and miners behind enemy lines) is well depicted. Delgado, a civilian pilot caught in the middle, is an interesting character and a nice counterpoint to Keyes and the Helljumpers. Buckell also carries on the tradition of novels exploring AIs in the Haloverse-- Juliana, an AI on the verge of rampancy, has a small part that I wish were a bit larger, because it seems right on the edge of really exploring the ramifications of rampancy for people who depend on the AI (and for the AI herself), but skates away before dealing the subject much more than a glancing blow.

Which is the main flaw of the storytelling in this book, it tries to tell a few too many stories, and ends up giving short shrift to most of them. This is, sadly, especially apparent with what should be a selling point of the book, that it delves further into the culture of the Sangheili and tells the backstory of one of the most important Elites in the universe (Thel 'Vadamee-- who will be a bit more familiar to readers by story's end). The previous Halo novel, Contact Harvest, developed rather well the backstory of Halo's nefarious Prophet Hierarchs, and I had hoped for something similar for 'Vadamee and the Sangheili. Instead, Buckell bounces off every "warrior race" stereotype known to military SF and fantasy and settles nowhere in particular. 'Vadamee gets a lot of attention in the story, but is only thinly characterized-- though the one exception is that some good attention is paid to conflicting notions of "heresy" and showing the fault lines already present in the Covenant. Considerably better is the depiction of the Kig-Yar (Jackals). I'd even go so far as to say that a Kig-Yar leader named Reth somewhat steals the Covenant side of the story away from 'Vadamee, at least for being a bit more unexpected and interesting.

In sum, it's worth reading if you're a canon completist, but falls well short of its potential. I think the Haloverse is complex enough to support a much, much better book, and I continue to hope that one day we'll see that book. Until then, enjoy Cole Protocol for the things it manages to do well.

Summary of The Cole Protocol (Halo)

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes. Thrust back into action after being sidelined, Keyes is saddled with a top secret mission by ONI. One that will take him deep behind enemy lines, to a corner of the universe where nothing is as it seems. Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continues to glass the human occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling satellites into a tenuous, yet ingenious, settlement known as the Rubble--and have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar . . . yet somehow survived. News of this unlikely treaty has spread to the warring sides. Luckily for the UNSC, this uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad whose simple task is to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines in any way they see fit. But the Prophets have also sent their best---an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality . . . and who will do anything to secure his Ascendancy and walk the Path.

Action & Adventure Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Action & Adventure Books
Polar Shift ImagePolar Shift
by Paul Cussler Clive & Kemprecos
Penguin; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.30
The Call of the Wild (Children's Classics) ImageThe Call of the Wild (Children's Classics)
by Jack London
Penguin Audio; Published: 1997-08-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $11.00
Pelican Brief ImagePelican Brief
by John Grisham
Trafalgar Square; Published: 1993-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.19
Price in other shops: $9.75
Stardust ImageStardust
by Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops: $6.99
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) ImageQuicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
by Neal Stephenson
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2004-09-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops: $15.99
Sandstorm ImageSandstorm
by James Rollins
Harper; Published: 2005-04-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops: $7.99
No Man's Land ImageNo Man's Land
by G.M. Ford
William Morrow; Published: 2005-06-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.50
Price in other shops: $16.95
Forever Odd - Signed Proof ImageForever Odd - Signed Proof
by Dean Koontz
Bantam; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Prey ImagePrey
by Michael Crichton
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2003-08-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.95
Sharpe's Waterloo (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #20) ImageSharpe's Waterloo (Richard Sharpe's Adventure Series #20)
by Bernard Cornwell
Harpercollins; Published: 1998-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Similar Books and other products
Ghosts of Onyx (Halo) ImageGhosts of Onyx (Halo)
by Eric Nylund
Tor Books; Published: 2006-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops: $12.95
Halo: The Fall of Reach ImageHalo: The Fall of Reach
by Eric Nylund
Tor Books; Published: 2010-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops: $14.99
Halo: Cryptum: Book One of the Forerunner Saga ImageHalo: Cryptum: Book One of the Forerunner Saga
by Greg Bear
Tor Books; Published: 2011-01-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops: $24.99
Halo: Evolutions Volume II: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe ImageHalo: Evolutions Volume II: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
by Various Authors
Tor Books; Published: 2010-11-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.85
Price in other shops: $6.99
Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (Halo (Tor Paperback)) ImageHalo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (Halo (Tor Paperback))
by Tobias S. Buckell, B.K. Evenson, Jonathan Goff, Kevin Grace, Tessa Kum, Robt McLees, Frank O'Connor, Eric Raab, Karen Traviss, Jeff VanderMeer, Fred Van Lente, Eric Nylund
Tor Books; Published: 2009-11-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.09
Price in other shops: $14.99
Ghosts of Onyx (Halo) ImageGhosts of Onyx (Halo)
by Eric Nylund
Tor Books; Published: 2007-04-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.47
Price in other shops: $7.99
Contact Harvest (Halo) ImageContact Harvest (Halo)
by Joseph Staten
Tor Books; Published: 2007-10-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.08
Price in other shops: $14.95
Halo: The Flood ImageHalo: The Flood
by William C. Dietz
Tor Books; Published: 2010-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: $14.99
Halo: The Fall of Reach ImageHalo: The Fall of Reach
by Eric Nylund
Tor Books; Published: 2011-06-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops: $7.99
Halo: First Strike ImageHalo: First Strike
by Eric Nylund
Tor Books; Published: 2010-12-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.70
Price in other shops: $14.99