The Didact. The Forerunner Trilogy of Books and Halo 4 introduced a new big bad for the Halo universe. A forerunner with immense power, and a deep-seated hatred for Humanity. Throughout three books, a game, and a comic book series we saw the rise and fall of this would-be God-like figure. His end coming in an off-shoot comic book series never sat well with me. Halo: Epitaph is a fitting final chapter, adding depth, sadness, and heart to a character while simultaneously filling in the gaps of Halo 4, 5, and Infinite’s storylines.
The Premise
Halo: Epitaph spans a long period, starting in the near immediate aftermath of the Didact’s death at the hands of his composers through the beginning of Halo Infinite. Trapped just outside of the Domain, the remnants of the Didact’s mind slowly come together in a new digital form. The first third or so of the book is about the Didact’s mind piecing itself back together. It is a strange setting, both unsettling and dour. Slowly but surely the pace quickens as the Didact reforms, leading us throughout his history in flashback and “space magic” forms.
The Domain is still recovering from the effects of the Halo rings firing some 100,000 years prior. No one can enter, including a returning character last seen in Halo 5. Getting an understanding of who The Warden Eternal is, and why he was not present in Halo Infinite is one of the many questions the book deftly answers. Epitaph is a culmination of Greg Bear’s incredible work started in the Forerunner Trilogy. I don’t think anyone was happy with Halo 5’s story after it abandoned the Forerunner-tinged weirdness of 4’s campaign. Halo Infinite moved to a more focused, grounded approach that was better received but the time skip it employed left a lot of hanging plot threads.
The Execution
Halo: Epitaph uses the “hero’s journey” setup, with struggles to overcome (many of them) before success could even be dreamed of. The Didact was an unrepentant murderer in Halo 4. His anger at humanity over their ancestor’s actions drove him insane. There was a never-ending rot inside him, eating away until all he had left was rage. Walking a character like that back and turning him into something more complex is no easy task. It’s not an incredibly long book. I read it in a few sittings over roughly 5 hours.
What Epitaph’s greatest accomplishment is how for 305 pages Kelly Gay manages to tell a compelling narrative while answering major questions that I had never thought would be. How do the Guardians function, what is Cortana’s end goal, who is the Warden Eternal, and where was he during Infinite are but a few of the things you will learn. She cleverly extends scenes from the games by showing what happened just before or shortly after them. There is no retconning, instead, more clarity is given to motivations and consequences. The biggest of them all is a satisfying reason why was Cortana so different in Halo 5 and what changed with her in Halo Infinite.
Cortana goes from feeling completely foreign in Halo 5 to becoming something I finally understand. I hope that 343i stays the course with their story arc. Halo Infinite looked ready to have the franchise’s first campaign DLC until that was canceled and the studio’s management was overhauled. Epitaph continues the extended lore’s hard work of building an overall narrative that I am desperate to see through.
In Conclusion
The ending of the book is full of emotion, learning, and hope. Halo: Epitaph is a brilliantly written book that earns its’ major payoffs. If this is the last we see of the Didact I am satisfied as he has been given an excellent send-off by a wonderfully talented author.
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Great review, I’m definitely going to give this a read.
While I love the Halo lore I didn’t pay much attention to it in the original trilogy / Reach / ODST as was having too much fun on co-op, but since playing Infinite and reading up online, I’ve been a lot more interested in it.
Been loving the TV series (particularly the second season) and thought of reading some of the novels - thinking I might start with this one given I roughly remember most of the lore but was a bit lost how we got to the start of Infinite…