Author Kelly Gay brings us back to Zeta Halo. We pick up at the end of Halo Infinite, spending a few weeks bridging the gap to the next game. It’s a three-sided look at coming to grips with loss and dealing with trauma. While not as miraculous a feat as her Didact-focused book Epitaph, Edge of Dawn manages to mostly be about nothing, and yet tells us everything.
I Hate You, Jega ‘Rdomnai
John 117, Fernando Esparza (The Pilot), and The Weapon are the main characters in Halo: Edge of Dawn. The Weapon gets a name, which, if you know the epics around Charlemagne, you may have guessed it already. I love how Kelly Gay writes Master Chief. Both his inner monologue and spoken words feel authentic to the book’s version of the character. His interactions with the Pilot and Weapon never border into corny territory, nor is he as seemingly dull-witted as other writers tend to make him.
The ‘star’ of Halo: Edge of Dawn, though, is the repulsive, repugnant, awful piece of shit known as Jega ‘Rdomnai. By the end of this book, he might be my most hated Halo antagonist ever. A miserable, terrible Elite warrior full of tech to keep him going, we get a lot of backstory on the character I thought I killed during Halo Infinite.
His surviving, thanks in large part to all of those technological upgrades, makes sense. His part in the story is being a constant threat while the plot for the next mainline Halo game is set up. There is a ton of setup in this book. Normally, having a story that essentially means little would be a detriment.
Lots of Side Characters
We meet a fair number of characters, with most being window dressing around our main crew. There is an exception that I won’t spoil, a character plucked directly from Halo Infinite, and their tragic story ends up being the heart of the plot. It’s fully contained in the book and is the main thing I could see never being mentioned in the next mainline title.
The combat feels written as though Chief is so used to fighting that it’s almost mindless for him. It isn’t bad, just not as big a focus as other authors have had when writing in this universe. As this is a bridge between Halo Infinite and its eventual sequel, I am fine with it because it has so many excellent lore dumps.
The Endless
We learn so much about everything Halo Infinite and Kelly Gay’s past few books have set up. I mentioned it in the open, but Epitaph is a damned miracle. It somehow tied the plots of Halo’s 4, 5, and Infinite together into a coherent and excellent overall plot. If you, like me, were pissed at The Didact dying in a comic book, then know his tale lives on through her fantastic novel.
Edge of Dawn doesn’t go to those lengths, looking to move things along or tie loose plot threads together. It draws plot points from The Rubicon Protocol, Outcasts, and Halo Infinite to tell a concise, impactful narrative that unfolds over a span of no more than a few weeks. The focus is continually on what happened in Halo Infinite, why, and where things will go from here.
With the near complete overhaul of management at the, then, 343 into now Halo Studios, I hope there is a closer tie between books and games. I’ve always been curious as to how much it comes from the author vs. the studio’s media-focused division. There is just enough plot development in Edge of Dawn that it can be easily told in an opening cutscene or via expository dialogue in-game. While you won’t get the emotional impact you do from the 330+ pages, an overall gist will be easy.
At the heart of it all is The Endless. Introduced in Halo Infinite, learning so more about them was my main hope. Happily, the book obliged with an incredible epilogue read by Debra Wilson. She played The Harbinger in Halo Infinite, and while that character is very dead, she does a great job delivering “The Harbinger’s Lament” in the audiobook.
Audio vs. Text
The audiobook version is mainly voiced by Nicolas Roye, who played The Pilot in Halo Infinite. He reprises the role as the dialogue warrants and does all of the basic narration in a less accented voice. Steve Downs is here as Master Chief, sounding as stoic as ever while delivering a few paragraphs worthy of voice work. Jen Taylor does her thing as The Weapon, as well as Cortana and Dr. Halsey via flashbacks.
It is my favorite Halo audiobook, alongside the aforementioned Epitaph, where the Didact’s voice actor reprised the role. Gallery Books was kind enough to send me a physical copy of the book, which allowed me to easily read and re-read the epilogue a dozen times as I pieced together exactly what it meant. It is a seriously crazy, beautifully written bit of lore, and I hope we see it explored in the next game.
Wrapping Things Up
Halo: Edge of Dawn exchanges plot momentum for lore exposition. As a bridge book between mainline titles, I’ll take that every time. It means less “you need to read the books for context”, instead giving us an easily surmisable series of events that’s still worth reading in full.
Halo: Edge of Dawn
PROS
- Character's consistent with Halo Infinite
- Great lore dumps
CONS
- You could argue nothing major really happens
