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Fiction

Alex Wakeford

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Canon Fodder: Casting Chronicles

Games

Halo: Campaign Evolved

This year, Halo celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. As we look back to where this great journey began, with Halo: Campaign Evolved releasing later this year, so too are we excited to delve back into the foundational fiction of the franchise with Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus.



Contained within this titanic tome are the first three novels that released from 2001-2003:



<ul>
<li>The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund</li>



<li>The Flood by William C. Dietz</li>



<li>First Strike by Eric Nylund</li>
</ul>



Today, we are thrilled to reveal the cover art and Halo ring-themed sprayed edge treatment of this special omnibus collection, illustrated by the legendary Isaac Hannaford to thematically represent all three stories.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-The-Master-Chief-Omnibus/Eric-Nylund/Halo/9781668241356"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="1620" src="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_HC_Cvr.jpg" alt="Image of the hardcover edition of Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus depicting the Master Chief, Cortana, Captain Keyes, Dr. Halsey, Reach, Alpha Halo, Flood infection forms, and the Halo ring-themed sprayed edges of the book." class="wp-image-163549" srcset="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_HC_Cvr.jpg 1080w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_HC_Cvr-200x300.jpg 200w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_HC_Cvr-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_HC_Cvr-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_HC_Cvr-1024x1536.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a></figure>



For series newcomers looking to explore the story that sets Halo: Campaign Evolved (and this science fiction universe!) into motion, and for long-time fans who want to revisit these foundational texts with updated corrections and edits, new adjunct stories, and a very pretty visual treatment for your shelves, this is the perfect way to return to where it all began as we celebrate a quarter century of Halo history.



Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus will be available on November 10.



<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-The-Master-Chief-Omnibus/Eric-Nylund/Halo/9781668241356">PRE-ORDER HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF OMNIBUS</a>



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THE FALL OF REACH The 26th century. Humanity has expanded beyond Earth to hundreds of interstellar colonies, but the Unified Earth Government is struggling to control this vast empire. Dr. Catherine Halsey offers a solution and it starts with seventy-five children—trained to become super-soldiers to deliver humanity from seething colonial insurrections that threaten to erupt into full-blown interplanetary civil war. But an even greater peril lurks among the stars: the Covenant. A theocratic alliance of alien species hellbent on cleansing humanity from the galaxy.



This is the electrifying origin story of Spartan John-117—the Master Chief—and his legendary heroism in leading the fight against humanity’s annihilation.



THE FLOOD Having barely escaped the final battle for Reach aboard the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, the crew of this lone ship—including the Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana—arrive at a place of untold mystery and peril: Halo. A massive artificial ringworld built one hundred thousand years ago by a long-lost civilization known as the Forerunners.



Forced to flee to the ring’s surface by a Covenant fleet that followed them from Reach, the Autumn’s crew find themselves in a desperate battle for survival while the Master Chief and Cortana uncover the Halo construct’s terrible purpose—even as a far more terrifying enemy than the Covenant is released and all sentient life in the galaxy is threatened.



This is the official novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved, the game that launched the Xbox console and began Halo‘s generational legacy.



FIRST STRIKE The Master Chief and Cortana regroup with a handful of survivors from the harrowing battle on Halo, including Sergeant Major Avery Johnson. Together, they take the fight to a gathering of Covenant warships as the United Nations Space Command’s worst nightmare has finally come true: Earth’s location is compromised, and the Covenant is massing a fleet to utterly destroy it.



Meanwhile, trapped on the glassed surface of Reach, the remaining Spartans—led by Fred-104 and Kelly-087—continue the fight for their home. Beneath this ruined world, Dr. Catherine Halsey has discovered an ancient secret…one that could alter the course of the war.



This tale bridges the events that take place in the game Halo: Combat Evolved (as novelized in The Flood) and its blockbuster follow-up, Halo 2.



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Whether you’re exploring Halo‘s fiction for the first time or returning to relive the story as it began in 2001—from the origins of the SPARTAN-II program and the Covenant invasion of Reach through the Master Chief’s journey to discover the truth about Halo and the immediate aftermath of those events—this is a great entry point to the universe.



Mark those calendars and secure your copy today!



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-The-Master-Chief-Omnibus/Eric-Nylund/Halo/9781668241356"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="1640" src="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_Ebook_Cvr.jpg" alt="Cover art of Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus depicting the Master Chief, Cortana, Captain Keyes, Dr. Halsey, Reach, Alpha Halo, and Flood infection forms." class="wp-image-163535" srcset="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_Ebook_Cvr.jpg 1080w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_Ebook_Cvr-198x300.jpg 198w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_Ebook_Cvr-674x1024.jpg 674w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_Ebook_Cvr-768x1166.jpg 768w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/02/Halo_Master_Chief_Omnibus_Ebook_Cvr-1012x1536.jpg 1012w" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a></figure>

Alex Wakeford

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