Scan barcode
A review by taberiusrex
Halo: Cryptum by Greg Bear
2.0
Ten years ago, this book came out, and I hated it with a fiery passion. I gave it a one-star review, put it on my "Shelf of Shame," and bitched about it to anyone who would listen. While I certainly had some specific criticisms of the story, a lot of my reaction was emotional, centered around the fact that the book was not—and this is critical—what I would have written.
At the time, I was writing a series of Halo fanfics centered on the Covenant. I had already been irritated by a lot of the worldbuilding decisions present in a previous book, The Cole Protocol, for essentially invalidating years of work and care on my part. When this book came out and dared to be a different kind of book, I rushed to judgment and condemned it, as well as all its sequels.
A few weeks ago, I decided to give it another shot. I was inspired by Brian David Gilbert's video review of every Halo novel (which is very entertaining) and figured it was worth revisiting. He called it a "Dune-level science fiction novel," so I approached it as such.
My revised opinion: eh, you know what? It's actually pretty okay.
I stand by my specific critiques from my first read-through: Bornstellar is a do-nothing protagonist, and it's really stupid for a species to call itself the Forerunners. The latter was probably a decision made for the author by Microsoft, and Greg Bear gamely writes in an explanation along the lines of, "Hey, we understand we won't last forever, we'll just set the stage for whatever species succeed us." But none of their actions or attitudes back this up, especially since virtually every single one of the Forerunners is a xenophobe.
As for the former, that was a conscious decision on Bear's part, and it hurts the book. I understand what he was trying to do. He wanted to have Bornstellar act as the Watson to the Didact's Holmes. It's a classic narrative choice, but it's best balanced by the Watson-type character nevertheless doing things. Even if he does them wrong and fails and everything has to be fixed by the Holmes-type character, then he's at least making decisions and taking actions.
Instead, Bornstellar is the king of standing there, being judgmental, while other people do things around him. He's the most interesting at the very beginning, when he's pursuing rumors of treasures with Chakas and Riser. But as soon as the Didact appears, his agency disappears. I'll admit that I better appreciated this time how Bornstellar is an unreliable narrator, but it wasn't enough to prevent me from rolling my eyes hard when he goes back to his family's home and acts undeservedly jaded and mysterious.
Any other character would have been a more compelling viewpoint. The Didact himself, obviously, but also Chakas and Riser. (Chakas, who becomes the main character in the very next book.) Hell, Dust or Bornstellar's sister—who was in the book for a whole two chapters—were much more interesting.
Also, the end doesn't make any sense unless you've read the entirety of the Halo 3 terminals already, which requires playing through the most difficult parts of the game at every difficulty level. Without that knowledge, everything that happens from roughly Chapter 38 onwards comes out of left field, entirely too late to cause anything but confusion for the reader.
But with all those gripes out of the way, the writing is good, and if you take the book at its own pace, it's a fine story. A slow, deep read is beneficial here. Nevertheless, I cannot recommend this book to anyone, really, not even my fellow Halo fans.
I will, however, continue with my reread of the rest of the trilogy, and I will remove this book from the Shelf of Shame. Because I would have my readers know that I have changed, and it shall be my example.
At the time, I was writing a series of Halo fanfics centered on the Covenant. I had already been irritated by a lot of the worldbuilding decisions present in a previous book, The Cole Protocol, for essentially invalidating years of work and care on my part. When this book came out and dared to be a different kind of book, I rushed to judgment and condemned it, as well as all its sequels.
A few weeks ago, I decided to give it another shot. I was inspired by Brian David Gilbert's video review of every Halo novel (which is very entertaining) and figured it was worth revisiting. He called it a "Dune-level science fiction novel," so I approached it as such.
My revised opinion: eh, you know what? It's actually pretty okay.
I stand by my specific critiques from my first read-through: Bornstellar is a do-nothing protagonist, and it's really stupid for a species to call itself the Forerunners. The latter was probably a decision made for the author by Microsoft, and Greg Bear gamely writes in an explanation along the lines of, "Hey, we understand we won't last forever, we'll just set the stage for whatever species succeed us." But none of their actions or attitudes back this up, especially since virtually every single one of the Forerunners is a xenophobe.
As for the former, that was a conscious decision on Bear's part, and it hurts the book. I understand what he was trying to do. He wanted to have Bornstellar act as the Watson to the Didact's Holmes. It's a classic narrative choice, but it's best balanced by the Watson-type character nevertheless doing things. Even if he does them wrong and fails and everything has to be fixed by the Holmes-type character, then he's at least making decisions and taking actions.
Instead, Bornstellar is the king of standing there, being judgmental, while other people do things around him. He's the most interesting at the very beginning, when he's pursuing rumors of treasures with Chakas and Riser. But as soon as the Didact appears, his agency disappears. I'll admit that I better appreciated this time how Bornstellar is an unreliable narrator, but it wasn't enough to prevent me from rolling my eyes hard when he goes back to his family's home and acts undeservedly jaded and mysterious.
Any other character would have been a more compelling viewpoint. The Didact himself, obviously, but also Chakas and Riser. (Chakas, who becomes the main character in the very next book.) Hell, Dust or Bornstellar's sister—who was in the book for a whole two chapters—were much more interesting.
Also, the end doesn't make any sense unless you've read the entirety of the Halo 3 terminals already, which requires playing through the most difficult parts of the game at every difficulty level. Without that knowledge, everything that happens from roughly Chapter 38 onwards comes out of left field, entirely too late to cause anything but confusion for the reader.
But with all those gripes out of the way, the writing is good, and if you take the book at its own pace, it's a fine story. A slow, deep read is beneficial here. Nevertheless, I cannot recommend this book to anyone, really, not even my fellow Halo fans.
I will, however, continue with my reread of the rest of the trilogy, and I will remove this book from the Shelf of Shame. Because I would have my readers know that I have changed, and it shall be my example.