: 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

As it turns out, I just moved. In moving and taking down and reshelving my book collection, I finally found a good way to organize the Halo novels. You have to disregard the timeline for the most part and consider author, franchise team, characters and publishing date. For the most part we are grouping authors and characters together so each bunch of novels forms a complete (or mostly so) character arc.

Arc One is the novels that were published under Bungie, and largely under the original franchise team. Because 343i wasn't around yet, these have a very different creative vision than what came afterward:

Fall of Reach
The Flood
First Strike
Ghosts of Onyx
Contact Harvest

Contact Harvest should come last, because it contains the answers to the animating mysteries of Halo. Remember when your tenth grade English teacher told you that every story has conflict? Every story has a theme? This is what made the original Halo trilogy so good. There were three overarching mysteries:
-How do we defeat the Covenant, and what started the war in the first place?
-Who are the Forerunner, and what is our mysterious connection with them?
-What is Cortana's relationship with Cortana? Is she loyal?

Arc One touches on all three mysteries. Contact Harvest resolves mystery one and two, and Ghost of Onyx takes a stab at answering the first one. First Strike leaves mystery three open-ended, but that is no great loss.
Overall, the first five novels do a damned fine job of telling a coherent story, and it's no wonder that 343i struggled to tellma story after Halo 3. With all of those themes wrapped up, any continuation would have struggled to be more than a zombie. You can't just swap in another villain and call it good.

The Continuation Arc would be the Karen Traviss Novels. While these continue from Ghosts of Onyx, they are so tonally dissonant from the Nylund books that I hate to recommend them at all. Ultimately, they have so little continuity with what came after that there is no point in reading them after Blue Team gets pulled out of Onyx. Karen Traviss dropped some contractually-obligated hints toward Halo 4, but otherwise did her thing.

The Forerunner Arc would be the Forerunner Trilogy plus the Kelly Gay novels. IMO, I strongly preferred her novels before Forerunner stuff hijacked the plot, but those are the books that wrapped up 343 Guilty Spark's subplot from Primordium.

I don't mean to be snooty, I'm just starved for ordinary stories about civilian life in the Halo Universe.

The Lower Decks Arc is basically the unconnected stories that 343i got into around Halo 5. Start off with Evolutions and tales From The Universe, and then The Cole Protocol and Envoy form a duet due to the presence of Grey Team, followed by Hunters In The Dark. Then comes Broken Circle, which is easily the biggest missed opportunity in Halo.

Finally, we have the Blue Team Arc. These are the books that came far after the First Arc, and they are tonally dissonant enough to warrant their own separate category. And they are pretty much the Troy Denning novels in order of publication. And that is it...

F--k! I forgot the... whatshisname... Matt Forbeck! Wow.
OK, so I never read any of his novels. Uh, Legacy of Onyx should go in the Lower Decks arc because it is so dissonant with the K5 trilogy and Ghosts of Onyx, and then the Alpha Nine novels form... I guess they form their own short arc.