I enjoyed it as a light read.

I don't see the story as being "dark" or contrived, though (but if you got me started on the Power Rangers…) That would imply something to the effect of a gritty reboot, and there's none of that going on here. The war has changed its face a bit, but it's continued. And Mickey can't deal with that, so he sells them out. I understand and sympathize with him, even if I wouldn't make that decision even with the extra knowledge I as a reader know about current events.

It was nice Dutch gets a happy ending with his wife. I thought that character's introduction was one of the best parts of Helljumper and glad to see it got followed up on.

I also disagree about your estimation of Musa. For one, he *is* right that Halsey found the age of the children to have benefits beyond the augmentation process. And while I'd disagree about the actual effectiveness of "soldiers" versus "humans", I understand where he's coming from—that he thinks the Spartan program he was a part of removed some of the humanity of its members, to the detriment of their effectiveness. As you say, that's coming from the perspective of a washout, so it's definitely influenced by his experience. As the Chief shows, there's plenty of humanity in him.

These rebels weren't very interesting, but we've seen a variety of them now, and as pointed out in the book, there's really no single front—you have people like them who frame it in very grand, good v. evil hegemony terms, and then people like those of Venezia who really just want to be left well enough alone. There's a spectrum of humanity out there, and I appreciate they aren't all the same. What I *did* wish we got (although it might have come off as Bond-villain exposition) is what the whole plan was with the captured Spartans. Was it solely a propaganda ploy?

:There were a few technical details that struck me as being out of place. How did a civilian building have energy shielding installed before the contact with the Covenant, and why is the Spartan-IVs' locator implant in the throat when the standard neural implant that everyone already has is at the back of the skull? Is it just so we could have a scene where someone's throat is torn off?

I chalked the energy shield just being a natural leakage of tech postwar; once energy shields were basically only on Spartans, now they're accessible to wider groups of people (and it certainly makes sense in the tense postwar era if you were a government you'd spring for that stuff.) It did seem odd Buck didn't seem to find it that surprising, though, if only to work the reader into the same headspace.