: Silentium is a good book. If it had come out BEFORE Halo 4, Halo 4 would have
: made A LOT more sense to the first time through. When I replayed the
: campaign after reading the book, I noticed so many more things that made
: sense or suddenly fit. It is a shame though that you pretty much NEED the
: book to understand them, and the average player won't do that.

While I've enjoyed your post, and to interject for a moment, the novel does nothing for Halo 4. Halo 4 is still a complete mess of writing and, when standing alone in this video game universe or when standing as a sequel to the prior video games, completely misses the mark and does not provide any of the detail you uncover from the novel. 343 wants their universe intertwined yet did nothing to actually intertwine the games. Yes, things make a hell of a lot more sense in H4 after Silentium is read, but that doesn't change the fact that H4's story and writing is a complete and utter mess even with the novel's enlightenments. And that's with or without being the average player.

You're not even getting it right on how the Chief survived the Composer, and that was explained to you in-game by the Librarian. It's that much of a mess.