Tor Books will published Halo: Evolutions, an anthology subtitled “Essential Tales of the Halo Universe” this November as a trade paperback. Tor has already published three novels based on the hugely popular video game, and has more in the pipeline, with Greg Bear’s Halo trilogy debuting next year.
Halo: Evolutions will feature a wide variety of tales set across the span of the Halo universe. Contributors will include Halo novelists Eric Nylund and Tobias Buckell, Star Wars novelist Karen Traviss, other, as-yet-unnamed authors, and “original Halo contributor, Robt McLees of Bungie, LLC [the game’s publisher].”
Tor Editor Eric Raab said “There are so many interesting and exciting playgrounds that are spawning from every Halo offering. This is a great chance to watch writers have some fun with these areas and expand on some of the unexplored mythos and characters, while at the same time creating new ones as well. Think of the short story collection as a new litter of Halo stories, each excitingly unique.”
The books aren’t being published into a vacuum, but rather are part of a much larger multimedia push by the game. Microsoft recently announced two dynamic expansions in the Halo universe: Halo Legends, an original anime series in cooperation with legendary anime pioneer Shinji Aramaki (Ghost in the Shell) and Halo Waypoint, a Halo-exclusive channel to launch with Xbox LIVE this autumn. In September, the new game module Halo 3: ODST will let players experience events leading up to the story told in Halo 3 from the perspective of an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) as they search for clues behind the Covenant’s occupation of New Mombasa.
Related articles previously published by SFScope:
Award-winner Greg Bear to write video game tie-in trilogy (6 April 2009)
Tobias Buckell writing sixth Halo novel (19 June 2008)