Teaser

There is a killer loose on the streets of Gao. Something inhumanly strong. Could it be that a Spartan has gone rogue? Or could the true killer be tied to the Forerunner ruins beneath the city . . ?

Review

Coming off the back to strong Master Chief novels, I was excited to read more by Troy Denning. So much so that I went against my initial plan of waiting a few weeks and dived straight into Last Light. A couple of things you should know about the book are that it was Denning’s first Halo novel, written before but set after Silent Storm and Oblivion. Far from a debut novel, but you could be forgiven for expecting something less refined. The other thing to know is that it doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its back cover. From the sound of it, I expected a detective novel set within the Halo universe, perhaps not too dissimilar to the recent Warhammer Crime novels. A book that expands the setting in terms of genre, rather than playing it straight. Well, that didn’t happen. This is pretty much as purely military SF as Denning’s other Halo novels, and that led to a bit of disappointment on my end.

Last Light does the military side of things very well, as I’ve come to expect from previous novels. We actually spend time with familiar characters from those earlier Denning novels. Blue Team – John-117’s former squad – are in play here, and we spend a lot of time in the mind of Fred, our new Spartan protagonist. Part of me does wonder what these Spartans were doing while poor Master Chief was left alone to blast his way through alien hordes in the games that started all of this, but the familiar faces are put to good use. Anchoring the reader in the well-worn clothes of military SF. Fred is also a nice counterpoint to Veta Lopis, the regular human investigating the murders. The tension and suspicion between the two builds marvellously as the investigation progresses, and it’s an all-round strong pairing.

As the novel progresses, we also return to something that greatly intrigued me in Silent Storm. The idea of humans who are not part of the UNSC. Independence seekers and revolutionaries. In Last Light we see what becomes of them after the war, and there are some fascinating developments when the anti-UNSC humans ally with fanatical remnants of the Covenant. The post-War Halo galaxy is a rich setting, and ripe for exploration. At least until the next war comes along.

Unfortunately, all of this world-expanding comes at a cost. fascinating as it all is, it does overwhelm the procedural aspect of the investigation. Once the fighting breaks out (as it always must in these books) there’s a real sense that this is no longer a job suited for our protagonist. Even the direction the mystery takes before hand is more a means of tying the events into the deeper mythos of the setting than it is a satisfying answer to the posed puzzle. The military SF is good, and likely what draws most people in, but a less bombastic crim novel would have been a more interesting piece of fiction, not to mention a unique addition to the franchise.

Last Light is far from a bad book, but it did leave me underwhelmed. Thankfully, Denning has stepped up in leaps and bounds with his more recent work in the Halo universe.

Deeper Dive: Missing Pieces

One of the frustrations of my Halo readthrough is that I don’t have access to all of the books. It’s becoming apparent that the universe is well mapped-out, but that each book generally assumes you can fill in any gaps for yourself. In the Master Chief novels, this was not a problem, largely due to it’s earlier positioning in the timeline. In Last Light, those gaps in my knowledge became more apparent. The anti-UNSC rebels were not present in the games, yet here it seems as if I am expected to know the ins and outs of their affairs. Likewise, the post-Covenant alien factions are interesting, but the details are something I am seemingly expected to already be aware of. Some of this is easily remedied by reading more of the fiction. But I think the publishers have realised the error of their ways, as the later-published books are vastly more accessible than those only a few years older.

Book Stats

• A Ferrets Novel (#1)
• Takes place in June 2553
• Published by Titan
• First published in 2015
• Military SF
• 393 pages