Halo: The Fall of Reach is the first Halo novel ever made. It’s the prequel to the first game Halo: Combat Evolved. I respect the audacity of the Halo franchise to make most of the novels canon, however it creates some inconsistency with the games. When recording this podcast I originally was told it was all novels but it turns out even 343 and Bungie has a limit. Often the games canon will override the book canon, which makes sense as this is a video game series first and foremost. According to David Cameron our Halo lore correspondent
“OG Bungie wasn’t big on the idea of transmedia like books anyhow so they largely ignored it. But they never exactly contradicted it either except for Halo: Reach. As of right now, all Halo media with the exception of some (Halo: Legends anime) have been treated as canon.The only major contradiction I can think of is that in The Fall of Reach, Master Chief, Cortana, and the Pillar of Autumn are depicted as being in orbit for the entirety of the battle. But in Halo: Reach’s last mission they are groundside. And that’s not too hard to reconcile as they don’t necessarily preclude each other.”
Both Halo Reach the game and Halo The Fall of Reach Novel lore can work together if placed in the following order. Be advised that this will spoil the ending of both the game and the novel so proceed with caution!
“The majority of Spartan IIs (the Spartans we see in Halo: Reach are IIIs so this tracks) still alive this late into the war were aboard the Pillar of Autumn to conduct Operation: Red Flag, or the abduction of a Prophet to force the Covenant to negotiate a ceasefire. However, the Autumn is called back to Reach in the waning parts of the fight because the IIIs finally got an SOS off planet.
Cortana was stationed with Chief on the Autumn but did have a fragment working on a digsite with Halsey on Reach that would eventually help them locate Halo.
From here, there are two specific points that don’t mesh between The Fall of Reach and Halo: Reach:
In the book, the Pillar of Autumn deploys all Spartan IIs groundside with the exception of Master Chief, Linda, and James (they are deployed on a mission to an orbital space station).
Issue #1: The Pillar of Autumn itself is never said to have landed itself, instead deploying its Spartans via gunships. However, it feasibly could have landed while Chief is on his mission (if not for the next issue).
Issue #2: (this is the deal breaker) In an easter egg in Halo: Reach, Master Chief can be seen in his cryo pod while the Pillar of Autumn takes off from Reach. This is an issue because in the book, he enters his cryopod AFTER the orbital space station, but after this mission he is denied going to the surface to help his team as the planet has finally been overrun. There is no way to reconcile these two.
So in the book, by the time Chief is in the pod, the Autumn never touches down on Reach again. In the game, he is in the pod while the Autumn is landed. Obviously both cannot be true.
The best way, in my eyes, to make sense of all this is to declare that Halo: Reach’s easter egg of Chief in cryo as just that: an easter-egg that is non-canon. Same with the Johnson/Elite hug a5 the end of Halo: CE. Even ignoring the book, it is unlikely that Chief would already be in cryo while active fighting was still occurring. He would almost definitely be with Keyes, waiting to receive Cortana’s fragment.”
David Cameron (Halo Lore Correspondent)
Here is a quick breakdown of the timeline:
-The Pillar of Autumn receives Reach’s SOS.
-Spartan IIs are deployed via gunships to Reach’s surface.
-Chief, Linda, and James are deployed to the orbital space station.
-The Pillar of Autumn lands on Reach as the Spartan IIs and IIIs clear a safe landing spot.
-Noble 6 delivers the Cortana fragment to the Autumn, which is forced to evacuate the planet, leaving behind the Spartan IIs.
-The Pillar of Autumn picks up Chief’s team from the station, Keyes denies Chief’s request to go back and save the Spartan IIs.
-Chief enters cryo.
-Noble 6 dies on Reach.
-The Pillar of Autumn discovers Halo.
For full discussion (on the novel Halo: Fall of Reach) check out the VGBCs Youtube or Spotify. For what we are currently reading check out GoodReads. If you wanna join in the conversion we can talk chapter to chapter on Fable .
Leave a reply!