Tor Books will be publishing Halo: Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten as a trade paperback on 2 October 2007. Contact Harvest will be “the next novel in Tor’s New York Times bestselling series based on Microsoft and Bungie Studios’ Halo video games for the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system.”
Halo: Contact Harvest “reveals the state of the Halo universe leading up to humanity’s devastating first contact with the Covenant—a chance encounter that catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence. Readers will experience the start of the Human-Covenant war from the perspective of Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson, Master Chief’s legendary confidant and mentor. As readers follow the young Sergeant’s adventures, they will gain terrifying insights into both the Covenant’s genocidal fury and the vicious civil war that threatened to destroy humanity’s fledgling interstellar empire, even before the Covenant got their chance.”
Author Joseph Staten is a first-time novelist, but he’s “Bungie Studios’ lead writer and one of the original creators of the Halo game trilogy.” He served as a writer and designer for Oni (2001) as well as writer and cinematics director for Halo (2001) and Halo 2 (2004) and is currently working on the much-anticipated Halo 3.
“It goes without saying that Joseph has great, intimate knowledge of the Halo universe, so who better to tell the harrowing tale of humanity’s first contact with the Covenant?” said Tor Editor Eric Raab. “In the novel, Joseph not only reveals exciting nuances of known events and characters such as Sgt. Johnson. But he also breaks new ground—takes readers on an action-packed journey to a little-known but vital part of the Halo universe: the far-flung, ill-fated word of Harvest.”
The book will also appear as an unabridged CD from Audio Renaissance for $29.95.