Canon Fodder

Fiction

Alex Wakeford

Issue 171

Canon Fodder: Heart and Soell

Book Preview

We recently announced that the next novel by acclaimed author Troy Denning is coming in early 2027, titled <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-Fireteam-Noble/Troy-Denning/Halo/9781668208397" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Halo: Fireteam Noble</a>.



We are thrilled to reveal at last the incredible cover art illustrated by Garrett Post, showcasing Jun-A266 along with the members of his new fireteam.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-Fireteam-Noble/Troy-Denning/Halo/9781668208397"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2160" height="1600" src="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover.jpg" alt="Full Halo: Fireteam Noble cover art depicting Jun-A266, Rosenda-A344, Hieu Dinh, Sigrid Eklund, and Atis 'Moramai with a Banished dreadnought in the background and dogfighting among alien vessels" class="wp-image-172811" srcset="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover.jpg 2160w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover-300x222.jpg 300w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover-1024x759.jpg 1024w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover-768x569.jpg 768w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover-1536x1138.jpg 1536w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover-2048x1517.jpg 2048w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_FullCover-1568x1161.jpg 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 2160px) 100vw, 2160px" /></a></figure>



Jun is joined by Rosenda-A344, formerly a member of Noble Team before she was reassigned in December 2551 and her spot as Noble Four was replaced by Emile-A239 in the fateful year of 2552.



Introduced in Halo Infinite‘s seasonal multiplayer story which followed the events that took place at the Avery J. Johnson Academy on Nysa, Spartans Sigrid Eklund and Hieu Dinh have been recruited for a new mission.



And rounding out the team roster is a Sangheili serving aboard Anvil Station named Atis ‘Moramai. You’ll learn more about her when the book releases of course, but for now it is clear that she’s wielding a rather unique variant of energy sword.



Halo: Fireteam Noble is due to release in early 2027 and will be available in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.



<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-Fireteam-Noble/Troy-Denning/Halo/9781668208397" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PRE-ORDER HALO: FIRETEAM NOBLE</a>



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2560. The galaxy remains fractured in the devastating wake of Cortana’s rise and the Created menace, while the Banished war machine relentlessly consolidates power across former Covenant space. To help counter these ongoing and emerging threats to humanity, Spartan Jun-A266—the last surviving member of Noble Team—struggles to forge a new generation of warriors on the hidden UNSC base Anvil Station, even as he battles the ghosts of his own past.



But when a renowned xenoarcheologist is brazenly abducted by a Banished strike team, Jun is pulled back into active operations alongside both old and new allies for a dangerous rescue mission, leading them all deep into hostile territory. Now Jun must confront the burden of survival and decide what it truly means to carry Noble Team’s legacy into a new era of conflict, as this desperate mission may hold dire consequences far beyond a single missing civilian…



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Garrett Post is an accomplished artist and long-time Halo fan who has contributed illustrations to Halo: Evolutions, Halo: Fractures, and the 2022 Halo Encyclopedia. <a href="https://garrettpost.artstation.com/">You can check out more of his fantastic work on ArtStation.</a>



Troy Denning is the New York Times bestselling author of more than forty novels, including Halo: Outcasts, Halo: Divine Wind, Halo: Shadows of Reach, Halo: Oblivion, Halo: Silent Storm, Halo: Retribution, and Halo: Last Light. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Troy-Denning/484724420">Find his beloved novels on the official Simon & Schuster website.</a>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-Fireteam-Noble/Troy-Denning/Halo/9781668208397"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1080" height="1668" src="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_BookCover.jpg" alt="Halo: Fireteam Noble cover art depicting Jun-A266, Rosenda-A344, Hieu Dinh, Sigrid Eklund, and Atis 'Moramai with a Banished dreadnought in the background" class="wp-image-172797" srcset="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_BookCover.jpg 1080w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_BookCover-194x300.jpg 194w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_BookCover-663x1024.jpg 663w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_BookCover-768x1186.jpg 768w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2026/08/FireteamNoble_BookCover-995x1536.jpg 995w" sizes="(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" /></a></figure>

Halo: Fireteam Noble | Cover Reveal

Issue 170

Canon Fodder: Lore de Force

Issue 169

Canon Fodder: Midnight Oil

Issue 168

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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