Reviews

Halo: The Cole Protocol by Tobias S. Buckell

Only show reviews with written explanations

fieldofhats's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Unlike most other military-focused Halo novels, Tobias S. Buckell gives us a glimpse at of both sides of the UNSC-Insurrectionist war, with the looming shadow of the Covenant in the background. We see both parties devastate each other in equal, personal, measures, making each of them sympathetic and reasonable. The insurrectionists have given the refugees of Madrigal a home and helped them, and all they want is to be free.

Campbell only fires on Keyes’ bridge crew for the protection and freedom of the Rubble — we feel for Keyes, but our greater sympathies lay with the people of the Rubble.

And at the end of the day, both the Insurrectionists (or, Delgado at least) and the UNSC (Gray Team and Keyes’ crew) have the same mission — to keep the nav data from falling into Covenant hands. Delgado wants to save the Rubble, and the UNSC wants to keep the Covenant from reaching Earth. They work together toward a common goal, and essentially save the Rubble in the process.

Now I want to talk about the characters, because that’s what I think Buckell does best. I love Watanabe’s character because he shows a very distinct and reasonable relationship with the UNSC. Unlike Keyes (or any other officer we see), who simply signed up for whatever reason, and the Spartans, who were conscripted and brainwashed since they were little children to love the UNSC, Watanabe was saved by the UNSC. He owes the UNSC his life. Not only does it make sense for him to dedicate his life to the military, but it also gives him a damn good reason to hate the insurrectionists. In a story that’s heavy on the insurrectionist point of view, this character foil is great to see.

However, this is the reason he had to die — it was important to set up this dichotomy in the beginning of the story, but as the novel progresses we see a more cooperative attitude being pushed. Watanabe had to die so that Keyes’ could go through his arc.

Likewise, Zheng’s attitude toward the Covenant serves a similar pro-UNSC purpose that mirrors Thel’s storyline very well.

His death also seems to serve Keyes’ arc.

Speaking of Keyes’, he was a great addition to the cast of characters. We see his creative strategic mind at work, and get glimpses of his soft side. He also goes through an important arc in this book; he witnesses the death of fellow officers and friends at the hands of insurrectionists, which strengthens his resolve in the UNSC.

He didn’t have much love for Watanabe when he died, but he knew that the spook had good intentions and seeing him die right after Jeffries sent him over the edge. This is only strengthened when Campbell shoots his entire bridge crew and kills Zheng, who he actually respected.

I like this because it gives Keyes a solid and clear reason for his loyalty to the UNSC, which is essential when they are the last hope in fighting the Covenant, which is why I think this is a great prequel to The Fall of Reach.

Keyes’ UNSC loyalty, while unwavering, does not diminish his compassion, however.

Despite all the deaths he’s witnessed at the hands of insurrectionists, he still decides to help save them when they need his help. He learns that the insurrectionists are just as human as the UNSC, and they’re all have the same enemy.

Thel’s arc is subtle, but vitally important to the wider world of Halo. He learns of the hierarch’s conflicting instructions for him and the Kig-Yar, which opens the latch for questioning the Prophets. He also berates one of his own soldiers for insisting that the prophet’s did not give them contradictory orders. This foreshadows his arc in Halo 2; he realizes the horrible reality of the Prophets and the Covenant, and then must integrate that truth into his worldview, leading him to side against the Covenant. His arc in this book provides a beautiful prelude to that arc.

Speaking of the Sangheili, we get to learn so much about their culture in this book. Almost every chapter with Thel mentions a tidbit of information about his culture. We learn about how they view honor and how it’s different from humans’ sense of honor, and we see that affect them in battle scenarios which wouldn’t apply to humans. Insisting on not being medically treated, for example, is so foreign to us.

For all of the amazing characters, though, there’s only one significant insurrectionist character — Delgado. He’s a very sympathetic character, and goes through a subtle arc of learning to cooperate with those you dislike for the purpose of the greater good.

He even joins the military in the end, reluctantly, so he can fight the Covenant.

It’s a good arc and he’s a great character, but I wish we had just one other insurrectionist perspective.

Lastly, Gray Team was pretty cool. Buckell is really good at quick characterization, so within Gray Team’s first real chapter, when their backstory is explained, I felt like I had a very good grasp on who these three characters were. They didn’t get much development, but they were really quite cool; a small team of wildcards tasked with doing risky missions is very compelling. I also liked that they never really questioned the Rubble, they kept their focus on the threat of the Covenant.

The actual prose of the novel was both good and bad. On one hand, it’s very easy to read, and Buckell’s style makes the story easy to follow. I was hardly ever confused about what was happening, which is a huge plus for a Halo book. I also LOVE short chapters, it adds to the readability and generally makes the book much more approachable.

On the other hand, Buckell often repeats specific phrases multiple times in a chapter, and sometimes the exposition is just clunky. For example, in chapter 12 when Watanabe is explaining the monopoly of the mining city of Scyllion and how a rival company attempted to shake things up, Buckell writes, “So the new company funded dissatisfied and trapped workers back in ’25, hoping to shake things up politically a bit, and Scyllion’s police shot a few of them during a protest march. Since then, Insurrectionists have been a huge problem here. Scyllion’s corporate masters are now spending more money on trying to get everything they can off planet and back to colonies closer to Earth to protect their assets.” So, the police (ran by the original company) shot those who were protesting them, I think. But where does the insurrection come into play here? This is the first time they’re mentioned. Are they aligned with the second company? Do they just show up whenever an evil corporation is oppressing the masses like rebel superheroes? Overall, this novel could have gone through another round of editing. I feel like this novel is a nearly-completed piece of work, but it needed that one last glance-over.

Overall, though, this book was fantastic! Easily one of the best Halo novels out there.