1.) The novel clearly states that the Halos only work on SENTIENT life. Presumably this included at least the Gravemind, possibly the whole Flood presence. The whole point of drawing the Flood to the Ark wasn't to trap them there, because even Guilty Spark thought that was just the first step to the Flood leapfrogging to the next galaxy. I don't like that it only works on intelligent life - the idea that ALL biospheres had to be eradicated, and that the Forerunners could restore them, both heightened the scale of the Flood menace and the abilities of the Forerunners.
2.) I always thought that was mostly Hood exaggerating. I think it's reasonable to say a significant area around Voi was glassed, but not the whole of East Africa. And even if it was, with humanity recolonising you'd think they'd prioritise repairing the damage to Earth first.
3.) Yeah, that part was needless. The Forerunners, even at such vast distances, should be able to traverse it as if it was nothing. I think part of the problem was the memorial at the end of Halo 3 - why did it take so long after November to hold the ceremony? The answer I would have picked was politics. The answer 343 have apparently picked is that they didn't get back until then.
4.) I liked the fauna too, especially the deleted animal from Halo Wars, though I wish they'd clarified whether their mammoth was an ACTUAL mammoth (possible, within the parameters of how the fauna-collection was defined) or Space Mammoths. Or maybe it did and I missed that? Didn't like the explanation of why the animals were there - because they had evolved to hunt sentient life. Felt a bit too After Earth "everything on this planet has evolved to kill humans" to me.
5.) I thought the trees were animals? Not Forerunner machines, but some plant-like species the Forerunners collected?
6.) Eh, they needed to introduce the Armigers before Halo 5, I can't begrudge them. And the Forerunners have a humanoid shape, so that too doesn't suspend disbelief.
7.) I assumed the same - 343 was clearly denied permissions to a LOT of the Ark's systems.
8.) The Ark had its own AI caretaker. We saw him talk with 343 in the Terminals. I just assumed that, as long as the UNSC, Elites and Covenant didn't actively damage its systems, it couldn't care less about them until Halo activated.
9.) We saw the 3d projection in Cryptum.
10.) I guessed it was either because Tragic Solitude was too hard-wired into the Ark by choice, or because he was routing through those processors to control the Retrievers.
11.) I didn't like Kodiak either. 343 has a bad habit of trying to make its Spartan-IVs XTREEM to make us believe them as supersoldiers. I much prefer the traditional stoic image.
12.) No disagreement there.
13.) Or there.
14.) It's hardly the most unrepresentative cover Halo's had. Cole Protocol had a Spartan, front and centre, when the story barely even featured them. I assumed it was just a cool image to get people to buy the book. I love the Blind Wolves, but an entire novel about THEM? Seems a bit much to expect.
15.) This is what happens when you create sentient tools. You get Lighter Than Some killing a Reclaimer with a pebble, and this.
16.)
17.) We knew there were plenty of Keyships that ferried life to the Ark and back, which would have needed a few portals - maybe not on every homeworld, but at certain nodal points in the galaxy for ease of access. I guess the Ark connects to those other portal generators. And the Stargate wasn't built by the Goa'uld, silly, it was made by the Forerunners! I mean the Forerunners. I mean the Forerunners. I mean the Ancients.
18.) 05, 07, and 03 before it vanished in the Escalation comics. No 04. Three of the remaining 6 isn't too bad, and we don't know if the Arbiter's Elites have found any themselves.
19.) Honestly, I prefer it. Halo Array sounds so...clinical. Remember that moment aboard the Truth and Reconciliation when Cortana said "they call it...Halo"? I played that a while ago, and it still sent shivers of awe up my spine. Awe is something sadly missing these days, starting with the demystification of the Forerunners. They handled the Flood a bit better, but boy did they squander the Forerunners sense of mystery and power.
20.) It wasn't the best-written book, but I've read worse. I disliked Glasslands, The Cole Protocol, the Universe comics and parts of The Flood a lot more. It's not going to be up there with The Fall of Reach, First Strike or Contact Harvest in terms of great Halo books, but I don't think it was bad either by any means. It was quite serviceable pulp sci-fi.

I've been a Halo fan since at least 2004, when a friend of mine leant me Combat Evolved because the swamp level looked cool and I got lost on his computer, and my brother and I rented an Xbox to play Halo 2. I've tried to consume as much Halo media as I can, but libraries don't often carry that kind of niche material in rural New Zealand, and I can't always afford to indulge my every whim. If I could, I'd buy the WETA Warthog.

I like that 343 has ambition, and that they want to tell interesting stories, and I think they've done a lot of good in that regard with the splintered Covenant and the resurgent Insurrection and the dynamic those produce. But they need to fix the Spartan-IVs, make them less action-heroey and more individually nuanced. Part of it, I think, is that they feel like cannon fodder now because of their sheer numbers, which they never should. They need to be a very small, very specialised force, and making them an entire BRANCH just baffles. I wouldn't care if they showed the Chief's face, but I so wish they hadn't show the Forerunners' faces, because that killed any interest in them I had. The most interesting questions don't need to be answered.