Halo Books have been around ever since the first game. In fact, the first novel in the series, Halo: The Fall of Reach, was published even before Halo: Combat Evolved came out. Since then, more than thirty Halo novels have been published. With so many books, focusing on different characters and with intertwining story arcs, it might be hard to discern where to start and what your next Halo book should be. To help you out, we’ve compiled the definitive list of all Halo books, both in order of release and in chronological order of the story.
All Halo Books in Order of Release
- Halo: The Fall of Reach (2001)
- Halo: The Flood (2003)
- Halo: First Strike (2003)
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (2006)
- Halo: Contact Harvest (2007)
- Halo: The Cole Protocol (2008)
- Halo: Evolutions (2009)
- Halo: Evolutions Volume I (2010)
- Halo: Evolutions Volume II (2010)
- Halo: Cryptum (2011)
- Halo: Glasslands (2011)
- Halo: Primordium (2012, sequel to Halo: Cryptum)
- Halo: The Thursday War (2012, sequel to Halo: Glasslands)
- Halo: Silentium (2013, sequel to Halo: Primordium)
- Halo: Rebirth (2013, epilogue to Halo: Silentium)
- Halo: Mortal Dictata (2014, sequel to Halo: The Thursday War)
- Halo: Broken Circle (2014)
- Halo: New Blood (2015)
- Halo: Hunters in the Dark (2015)
- Halo: Saint’s Testimony (2015)
- Halo: Last Light (2015)
- Halo: Shadow of Intent (2015)
- Halo: Fractures (2016)
- Halo: Smoke and Shadow (2016)
- Halo: Envoy (2017, sequel to Halo: The Cole Protocol)
- Halo: Retribution (2017, sequel to Halo: Last Light)
- Halo: Legacy of Onyx (2017)
- Halo: Bad Blood (2018, sequel to Halo: New Blood)
- Halo: Silent Storm (2018)
- Halo: Battle Born (2019)
- Halo: Renegades (2019, sequel to Halo: Smoke and Shadow)
- Halo: Oblivion (2019, sequel to Halo: Silent Storm)
- Halo: Meridian Divide (2019, sequel to Halo: Battle Born)
- Halo: Shadows of Reach (2020)
- Halo: Sacrifice (2020)
- Halo: Point of Light (2021, sequel to Halo: Renegades)
- Halo: Divine Wind (2021, sequel to Halo: Retribution)
- Halo: The Rubicon Protocol (2022)
- Halo: Outcasts (2022)
- Halo: Epitaph (2024)
All Halo Books in Chronological Order
- Halo: Cryptum
- Halo: Primordium
- Halo: Silentium
- Halo: Rebirth
- Halo: Broken Circle (first half)
- Halo: Contact Harvest
- Halo: The Cole Protocol
- Halo: Battle Born
- Halo: Battle Born – Meridian Divide
- Halo: The Fall of Reach
- Halo: Silent Storm
- Halo: Oblivion
- Halo: The Flood
- Halo: First Strike
- Halo: Broken circle (second half)
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
- Halo: Glasslands
- Halo: The Thursday War
- Halo: Mortal Dictata
- Halo: Last Light
- Halo: Retribution
- Halo: Shadow of Intent
- Halo: New Blood
- Halo: Hunters in the Dark
- Halo: Smoke and Shadow
- Halo: Renegades
- Halo: Saint’s Testimony
- Halo: Point of Light
- Halo: Envoy
- Halo: Legacy of Onyx
- Halo: Bad Blood
- Halo: Sacrifice
- Halo: Shadows of Reach
- Halo: Divine Wind
- Halo: Outcasts
- Halo: The Rubicon Protocol
- Halo: Epitaph
The books Halo: Evolutions (or Halo: Evolutions Volume I and Halo: Evolutions Volume II) and Halo: Fractures include different stories taking place throughout the Halo Timeline.
For a complete overview of all Halo media in chronological order, please check out our Halo Timeline. It also includes every game, movie, and comic, so you can get a good understanding of how all the media relate to each other.
9 Responses
Thanks for posting this stuff. I’m a major Halo fan, having read all the books (exceptions noted below) and played all that games to date on the original PC 1 & 2, and XBox. But I will not purchase any book written by Kelly Gay. She wrote a short that I believe appeared in one of the Fractured books. It was about a new group of Sparton 3’s. A nice short. Then 343 published a book by her (Smoke and Shadow) that was another short, which included the original short, but added maybe 4 or 5 chapters to the same story. Unfortunately, that book didn’t end the story, it just continued the short. I felt ripped off by that. So, even though I feel she’s a good writer, I will NEVER purchase another HALO book written by her. She’s a rip off, and I’m disappointed by 343 that they perpetuated this scam. Shame on you Kelly, and shame on you 343
Hello! Thanks for the expansive list! Some further nitpicking- didn’t Sacrifice release after Point of Light and Divine Wind?
Hey, on the chronological list ‘Silent Storm’ and ‘Oblivion’ should be significantly earlier in the timeline. They take place in the first 1-2 years of the Human-Covenant War and should be in between Contact Harvest & The Cole Protocol I think.
First strike and the flood are reversed in order on your list. First strike begins August 30th 2552 and ends September 13th 2552. Where as the flood begins September 19th 2552.
Thank you for the list! I was following another list that was outdated and now with this one, I have 9 more books to read! This universe is super interesting to me and I’ve grown so fond of characters that weren’t even in the games! The stories are incredible. Thanks again!
You are very welcome!
Getting nitpicky here but it would be nice to have the books in chronological order listed here instead botanist a reference to the Halo universe list. The overall list is impressive and seemingly exhaustive but there is so much information that people who are interested in only reading the books (and not things like the comics and terminal entries in games and such) have to dig to find the books. Like I said, nitpicky. Overall awesome effort and thank you for it!
Hi! I think you are right and decided to include a list of just the books in chronological order as well. Hope it helps!
First strike and the flood are reversed in order on your list. First strike begins August 30th 2552 and ends September 13th 2552. Where as the flood begins September 19th 2552.