Halo: Primordium: Book Two of the Forerunner Saga: 9

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Similar to Halo: Cryptum, the story is told as a first-person narrative, from the perspective of Chakas, one of the two humans who accompanied Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting during the events of Cryptum. The novel is set primarily on Installation 07, a Halo ring under control of the rampant Mendicant Bias. [4] After crash-landing on the ring during Mendicant Bias' assault on the Capital, Chakas is joined by two local humans, Vinnevra and Gamelpar, in an odyssey to find his companion Riser. As they attempt to survive on the war-torn Halo, they face several obstacles, including the ancient being known as the Primordial, the Flood, and Mendicant Bias. [5] Greg Bear (November 5, 2010). "How Video Games Changed Our Science Fiction Fantasy". Kotaku . Retrieved March 22, 2013. Greg Bear (October 12, 2011). "News: Halo Primordium". Greg Bear.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013 . Retrieved April 15, 2013.

This, of course, is literal; much of the book is spent with the readers following one character’s geas, which “pulls” her in the right direction. Having nothing better to ride hopes on, and some experience with the infallibility of the Librarian’s strange geas, Chakas follows along with it. This is perhaps the one real point of criticism that I have with the novel; it does seem meandering and aimless, and often (this is the Two Towers Syndrome: overlong and aimless). It’s also another point that mirrors Ringworld and a common complaint about Niven’s novel, too. However, Bear smartly plays with the rules of the Librarian’s geas as a plot device, which allows for the introduction of some horror into the novel. Through Chakas’ eyes we see plenty of Flood-based nightmares, and we catch a glimpse of the bizarre, beetle-like Primordial for which the book takes its name. After crossing an ocean, the trio are found by a Lifeworker who accompanies them with several other humans and a giant ape named Mara. While sleeping at night in the refugee center, Chakas is greeted by Riser who warns him not to trust the Lifeworker; the others are revealed to be illusions run by Forerunner computers called monitors, who are there to extract their spirits and store them as monitors. Gamelpar dies due to old age. The imprints in Riser and Chakas converse and recall the discovery of the Primordial. It is made clear that after humans were defeated at Chatham Hakkur, the Lifeworkers kept their genetic code to pass down through generations as they knew how to defeat the flood, and forerunners may need that same information. Lord of Admirals, Forthenko, was placed in Chakas. Yprin, who lives in Riser, was a rival of Forthenko and first discovered, revived, imprisoned and interrogated the primordial to find its secrets. It began leaking extraordinary answers. Yprin helped prepare human forces for the advanced forerunners. The composer is what made this possible. Chakas and Riser get a hold of themselves and continue with Vinnevra and Mara along Halo. Wow, what a surprise this book has been. I came in expecting it to be the darker middle entry in a trilogy that would ultimately have a tragic-but-hopeful ending. This book is not that. It is dark to be sure, but in many ways, this hardly feels in any way like a sequel to Cryptum . The only thing that even reminds me that this is related to that book is that some characters reappear, and that it takes place on a Halo, but that's about it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but there's no doubt this book suffers a bit more than the first, despite its strengths.In the company of a young girl and an old man, Chakas begins an epic journey across a lost and damaged Halo in search of a way home, an explanation for the warrior spirits rising up within, and for the Librarian's tampering with human destiny.

One hundred thousand years ago. In the wake of the apparent self-destruction of the alien Forerunner empire, two humans—Chakas and Riser—are like flotsam washed up on very strange shores indeed. Captured by the Forerunner known as the Master Builder and then misplaced during a furious battle in space, Chakas and Riser now find themselves on an inverted world, where horizons rise into the sky and humans of all kinds are trapped in a perilous cycle of horror and neglect. They have become both research animals and strategic pawns in a cosmic game whose madness knows no end—a game of ancient vengeance between the powers who seeded the galaxy with life, and the Forerunners who expect to inherit their sacred Mantle of Responsibility to all living things. Missy Wadkins (June 26, 2011). "Halo: Cryptum: The Forerunner Saga". Portland Book Review . Retrieved March 20, 2013. Now, well-read SF fans might have recognized some similarity shared between Primordium and Larry Niven’s seminal Ringworld. You’d be correct. In fact, it isn’t much of a stretch to say that Primordium takes some of the most interesting aspects of Ringworld and its immediate sequel, Ringworld Engineers, and uses them to construct a Halo narrative. Indeed, we’ve got the hapless, helpless crew crashing down. We’ve got a narrator who doesn’t really understand the severity of his situation because critical information is always being withheld. We’ve got lots of talk about impossible machinery, and enough jargon to make a man wish for some simple tanjin’ language. There’s the inevitable search for companions, the discovery of ignorant but charming(?) natives with strange cultures who have no real knowledge of what sort of world they live on. Present are the trip to the place where the ringworld’s material has been laid bare, to abandoned cities (though the Halo’s isn’t compacted with garbage), and, of course, the rush to save the ringworld from imminent collapse. Don’t forget that the main characters are so far beneath the mysterious creators (Forerunner, Pak, who can tell the difference? Neither have noses!) that they can’t see the purpose or grand scale. Primordium is a Ringworld Lite, I think. But is that a good thing? Many of the chapters are very bland and uneventful. Just depicting lots of travelling and talking, almost all of which is hard going but doesn’t really give anything of interest to the reader. If you keep reading it’ll be due to signs of progress towards something big, but these are few and far between. Though the payoffs to these hints are always good there’s a good chance you’ll end up missing a few due to Chakas’ vague descriptions. To make matters worse, the same vague, spartan and confusing descriptions really hamper the book’s use of its location. It’s set on a battle damaged Halo device but from what little information we’re given, it could be on practically any Forerunner planet. On only one occasion does Chakas actually note about the planet’s state and unusual state and then it’s ignored until the very end.He's pried from his broken protective suit, and tended to by a girl. After he's well enough to walk she takes him to her grandfather whose lived away from their village for some time, and the reason they don't violate her is because she tells them his spirit will kill them. Silentium had its title, first cover and release date announced by Tor Books on July 11, 2012, with a release date of January 8, 2013. [16] [17] The book's draft was finished by August, [18] and complete by November. [19] The release was delayed until March 2013, to avoid revealing any plot details about Halo 4. [3] [20] Synopsis [ edit ] Setting and characters [ edit ] In the wake of apparent self-destruction of the Forerunner empire, two humans--Chakas and Riser--are like flotsam washed up on very strange shores indeed.

In the left part of the cover four small figures, possibly humans, can be seen standing on a ledge overlooking Forerunner structures. Set primarily on the "rogue" Halo ring Installation 07 used by Mendicant Bias during the events of Halo: Cryptum, [3] the novel follows the journey of the humans Chakas and Morning Riser, former companions of Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting. After crash-landing on the Halo ring during Mendicant Bias' assault on the capital, they discover it has been used by the Master Builder's researchers to conduct research on humans. [4] They are forced to make their way across the embattled Halo installation, facing the Flood and rogue A.I. constructs on the way, while the Precursors' ancient plan of vengeance against the Forerunners is revealed. [2] During their journey, they find their way into the Palace of Pain, the lair of the ancient entity known as the Timeless One, which has unleashed The Flood on the Master Builder's researchers on the installation. [4] Mendicant Bias will also play a major role in the story. [5] In another forest, they find a shadow ape, forerunner and other different kinds of humans. One human is named Kirimt. The forerunner is named Genebender. They tell them to follow them to a village. Vinnevra can’t smell any of them but the ape. Genebender says he cannot return them to Erde-Tyrene, and that the power stations have been disabled on the ring. The ring is situated where the last human stand was made after Charrum Hakkur. Perhaps to destroy the last of their kind and precursor relics? a b "Tor Books Unveils the Real Cover for Greg Bear's Halo: Silentium". Tor Books. December 5, 2012 . Retrieved April 14, 2013.

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Chakas is a great narrator, and the characters introduced in this book were very unique. In general, the amount of detail Greg Bear goes into describing the way the group of humans on Installation 07 had evolved, as well as the introduction of the Primordial was very interesting. In fact, any mention of the Primordial was really where the book shined. Bear does a REALLY good job (in my opinion) of introducing this extremely outlandish being that answers questions about the universe while also raising even more for you to think about. To Gamelpar and Vinnevra, the old abandoned city speaks of glory days and happiness. To Chakas and the LOA, it speaks of forerunner treachery. They find a strange egg shaped structure in the city that is very large, and is possibly the Librarian’s way of speaking to people. Charum Hakkur once called the Eternal. The Halo starts to shake as if making new land, and they get to the edge of the halo where they see thousands of humans below. They notice the curled up spider looking Beast/Primordial on disk, perhaps in control of the human migration below. He moves them in a structure, perhaps the palace of pain. The group is captured by Mendicant Bias, and their human imprints extracted; Mendicant Bias promises them revenge on the Forerunners, and kills those who oppose him. A fleet led by the Didact appears and the Didact purges Mendicant Bias from Installation 07. Chakas assists the Didact with moving the Halo and preventing its destruction. Having met, in the first book of this series called "Cryptum", the Didact: who is a Forerunner warrier frozen in the Cryptum, Bornstelllar: the inquisitive young Forerunner who releases him, and Chakas and Riser: two human variations on the planet Erde-Tyrene this book carries on with the discovery of an Autonomous Mechanical Intelligence (Forerunner Monitor) device by a science team.