: I've been working at a local independent book store this last year, and with
: Infinite's release I was able to convince the owner to get *some* Halo
: books in (mostly Bungie-era, Nylund stuff). But in approaching the task of
: introducing the series to fans of the sci-fi genre who haven't played the
: games , I've been trying to compile a timeline of the "Halo
: narrative" that works without the important beats from the games.

: It's tough. Since 343 took over, they've seemed more interested in
: diversifying the number of Halo stories in print, rather than maintaining
: a single, monolithic narrative like other series. Instead, it's easier to
: look at the story as leaning into certain motifs/trends from one period to
: the next. Before, I used to approach the Halo universe as broken into: -
: Pre-Covenant War
: - Covenant War
: - Post-War

: But since GEN3 was introduced to the universe, I've realized that the three
: generations of MJOLNIR armor map pretty directly onto the different
: art/narrative directions of each "phase" of Halo storytelling. I
: suspect that this breakdown of MJOLNIR generations is an in-universe
: representation of the intentions of the developers as they shift and pivot
: in response to fan feedback and industry trends.

: I've since put together a "Halo story guide" for my coworkers at
: the bookstore to assist customers wanting to follow the most consistent
: through-line in the story, and I've used the MJOLNIR GEN designations as a
: way to compartmentalize the storytelling, so that it makes sense without a
: consistent narrative from book to book. In this way, the Halo story looks
: as follows: - GEN1 (Bungie-era)
: - GEN2 (Post-War, 343's reimagined art style)
: - GEN3 (Created Conflict, return to roots)

: Not sure if anyone else cares about this, but I thought it was interesting,
: and more approachable than the breakdown on this page

Yeah, it's kind of tough to answer the question of how someone can approach the franchise when it's so sprawling. I think it's really as simple as "whatever grabs you", but it's tough to blindly introduce someone because there's so many different approaches—what introduces the most of the universe, what thematically is most similar to the rest of it, what has the most story resonance to the ongoing narrative. 343 is obviously trying to figure that out too—Outpost Discovery, MC in Fortnite, and especially the (apparently abandoned) YA novels are clearly them trying to hook the younger kids who didn't grow up with Halo as an omnipresent gaming juggernaut.

I noticed in the last one or two novels they've reorganized and slightly rebranded the various series, so I think part of their plan is if someone reads on Denning Ferret Team book, get them to get the rest of that series, rather than "hey you liked that story of some scrappy special ops guys, now would you like a book about licking rocks and traveling across inscrutable alien landscapes?"