: My disappointment in the latest novels has been overwhelming. Between glaring
: retcons, boring and pointless stories, and lack of knowledge of the source
: material, I told myself after Broken Circle that I wouldn't buy the next
: novel. It took me a bit, but I broke down and got Hunters because the
: Cover Art was fantastic and BLIND WOLVES! (After reading... That was
: LITERALLY JUST MARKETING! The title had NOTHING to do with the wolves OR
: novel!)

: Ok... on to my problems... I WANT discussion of lore below, so PLEASE,
: contribute your own problems or rip me apart for this. (In no particular
: order)

: 1) Um... FLOOD!? Where the eff is GRAVEMIND! ANYONE who's played the game
: knows that He is STILL ON THE ARK! and the FLOOD is ON THE ARK! Perhaps we
: assume the Halo killed him... POSSIBLE... except it would have killed
: EVERYTHING on the Ark, and the Halo doesn't effect Flood right? It just
: KILLS their FOOD and starves them... (Right?!)

I think Cortana's "It doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food" line was more to focus on the fact that it's not a weapon that kills with focused precision. As far back as Halo 3's terminals, the firing of the Halo's obliterated the Flood operated fleet's that Mendicant Bias commanded. The Flood are still sentient and are the Precursor's solution to create endless peace, AKA biological utopia.

: 2) Yeah... Didn't Half Jaw's fleet GLASS "half a continent" In
: Africa... Where the portal is... and people in this novel skadoodled
: around... and fought under trees and provided dirt to the retrievers... I
: understand glassing (technically since the future scene in Reach) has been
: less dramatic in present years, but COME ON!

I guess to some extent, but I'm not sure if the glassing was planetary destructive. They weren't going for "destroy planet" but "destroy life on planet." I mean, Reach's final scene showed a Reach filled with plant life only a couple decades later...

: 3) The portal takes weeks/months to get to The Ark. Gosh, I sure forgot the
: part in Halo 3 where everyone went into cryo to wait out the trip :-| Good
: thing we aren't dealing with an extinct race with TIME TRAVEL CRYSTALS!
: (Whew, would SUCK if the Didact knew about them sons of guns!) Let us not
: contemplate portal technology from other novels instantaneously moving
: Storm Covenant and the digitizing thing from Spec Op... er... Spartan
: Ops...

The trip from Earth to Delta Halo also took time. It wasn't clear in the game but it was outlined in Ghosts of Onyx, I believe.

: 4) LOVED seeing all the animals we met in Halo 3 while revisiting those
: locations... Wait... well... at least this had SOME hand wavery walls
: knocked down letting animals move from their habitats... and not be
: consumed by the flood that TOTALLY wasn't on the Ring, Ark, OR crashed
: High Charity we TOTALLY had described to us. (Imagine crazy flood
: creatures here... Missed opportunity!)

See above Flood explanation.

: 5) Forerunner tech just because? WE GOT IT! Because fake trees TOTALLY had an
: important role in the story...

Eh.

: 6) Warped Human consciousness that manifests as hard light skulls in giant
: suits of armor instead
: of actual AI?! Since we've established Forerunner ARE NOT Human and are TWICE
: as tall... Let's one up that with HUMAN SIZED ROBOTS that LOOK HUMAN!
: Because during a flood outbreak, there was NO need to bring these out on
: the Ark, or be mentioned by 343 Guilty incompetent... Right?

I mean, the AI did say that he's only now getting involved for the reasons given. And they sound like Promethians to me.

: 7) Teleportation requires a teleportation grid... Does the Ark have this? If
: so, we can assume 343 didn't have access to this as it was not HIS
: installation... if not... ARMIGERS CAN'T teleport! Also, it's HEAVILY
: implied that the Ark was for Forerunner control, NOT AI.

: 8) Why is there an Ark Monitor?! The installation was explored by Human,
: Covenant, Elites, 343, Flood, what have ya... Oh there was a Monitor
: SLEEPING the whole time without explanation...

: 9) No seriously, there was a Monitor on the Ark the whole time? and Monitors
: have 3d projection systems onboard now? (While possible to retcon... that
: SURE would have been handy for 2401 to escape)

I'm not sure exactly what you're complaining about with the above. The AI on the Ark spoke to Guilty Spark in a Terminal during the "The Ark" level. 343 did not have any permissions on The Ark. Compartmentalization. The Forerunners left AIs in charge of their installations in their stead. This is all stuff that has been given for some time.

: 10) Cortana can TOTALLY interface with Forerunner tech and fits on a chip...
: but a Monitor has STACKS and STACKS of rooms of servers to operate? Then
: how the devil can 343 bounce around the galaxy all well and good? OH, they
: were the Ark systems? That The Huragok had control of... No wonder The
: Monitor stopped his assault on Earth to protect them?!?!?!

: 11) Spartan Whiniak! Seriously... Kodiak was SO whiny!... Where was the stoic
: death machine that Spartans are? I understand the dude-bro Spartans not
: being quite as awesome as the Originals, but... seriously... he was like a
: high school football pwayer dat wost a game to a wival school. (Unamused)

I think that was the point...the Spartan IV's are not the Spartan II's and they have massive personal flaws that II's did not. They are more socially well adjusted, more human, but that also makes them more prone to error.

: 12) Kodiak's brother... Where was the buildup?... What was the point? It
: wasn't really emotional... It showed Kodiak SUCKED at being a soldier...
: just... why?

Eh.

: 13) Cyborg person thing... So... is this a thing now? Technoflood? Halo lore
: technology definitely permits this... but... really? We're going there? I
: mean... it opens it up for a horror sub-genre... but WHY would a Monitor
: use HIM to have death battle?... and if he ONLY needs a human hand... then
: create snakelike things and make two per person.... and use their feet and
: other skin to create other "hands"...

Eh?

: 14) The blind wolves were the SELLING Point... and had no purpose in the
: book. They killed some redshirts and created a small skirmish to lose a
: character...

I dunno, it wasn't a selling point for me.

: 15) Wouldn't Huragoks be defaulted to Monitor input within range? If not...
: Remember how Engineers are compelled to FIX things... like... the entire
: installation!?

I guess the Huragok figured that this monitor would just destroy everything rather than fix things? Kind of picking nits here.

: 16) Since they need SO many raw materials from Earth to repair the Ark...
: it's a good thing Scarab metal isn't useful or we wouldn't have had that
: call back to the game! (Neat callback, but... if they needed resources...
: )

: 17) So... the Portal can be opened to anywhere? Even though it needs pylons
: on BOTH sides to operate?... Oh... I get it... Earth wasn't special... The
: Goa'uld build many Stargates with which to gather and trade resou....
: wait...

I don't remember what you're referring to here.

: 18) Have we found all Halos or not? I mean... ON a Halo, the control room
: shows the location of all Halos... So... Delta Halo COULD be used to find
: them... except... did they? Is there nothing interesting on THEM?! In a
: series NAMED Halo... are we just never going to visit the other 5? (Well
: 4, as we did see one new one here... that had little importance... What
: was IT like?!)

They've found a few more than we've visited in games, just not all of them.

: 19) What was up with constantly calling the Halo Array... Just Halo?

Brevity? Like, referring to all of US government as "the white house."