Spartan Chatter: Empty Throne

0:00 Welcome to Spartan Chatter everybody.

0:01 My name is Sam.

0:02 You guys might know me as Snickerdoodle.

0:03 I'm on the community team here at Halo Studios.

0:07 And Spartan Chatter is just an audio live podcast feed something or other

0:12 that we do here on our Halo Discord just to have some fun, hang out.

0:16 Lately, it has been a book club,

0:18 which I'm not mad about because there are a lot of books in the Halo series.

0:21 And uh we're covering a new one today.

0:23 We're going to go over Halo: Empty Throne.

0:25 And as always, I am not here alone.

0:29 I am joined by the one and only Haruspis.

0:32 Take it away, Alex.

0:34 Yeah, Alex Wakeford here.

0:35 I've become kind of part of the Spartan Chatter furniture

0:38 really uh I think over the last year, year or two.

0:42 Um talking about Empty Throne today,

0:45 which I'm excited about because I mean I got to work on this book

0:49 uh from the beginning and it was

0:51 with the wonderful Jeremy Patenaude who's the author.

0:53 So I have no end of good things to say about that man.

0:57 So, for those of you that don't know,

0:59 Jeremy used to work on the franchise team here at um well,

1:02 he worked at the on the franchise team when we were still 343 Industries,

1:06 but tech like whatever.

1:08 He worked here.

1:08 He worked for us.

1:10 He was here basically from the start of 343.

1:13 Yeah, he was speaking of being fixture and furniture.

1:17 He was that guy.

1:19 Um I remember you were still on um the community team.

1:23 you were still on my team when this book started to become

1:27 more of a reality I think like when it started to come together.

1:29 Trying to think of how to word this because I suspect

1:31 this book has been in the works for a little bit

1:34 of time based off of like all the threads that are

1:36 pulled together and all the things like all the callbacks and everything.

1:40 So, I just remember you I just remember

1:43 you coming in to stand up and being like,

1:46 I'm working on Empty Throne today and thinking, what are you doing?

1:50 Like, why are you constantly working on this empty?

1:52 How can the throne be empty if you're constantly working on it?

1:55 But I get it now.

1:57 Laying the groundwork for my transition from community team to franchise.

2:01 This is This is it.

2:03 He did so much work on Empty Throne, they're like, "You know what?

2:05 You're just going to come over here now." So, makes total sense.

2:08 But I think we all knew that was coming anyways if we're being honest.

2:11 Right.

2:12 We saw you show up.

2:13 It's like hm how long until they steal you.

2:17 So yeah, that's the question.

2:18 How long do we have you for?

2:20 Right.

2:20 Right.

2:20 And then we had to like find a replacement

2:22 and Mutinous Core has done actually a very good job.

2:25 Not saying he's he he is not Alex.

2:27 I wrote 48 million words on the story of Halo,

2:31 but he has done a very 7.9 million, you know, uh rounding up.

2:35 Come on, give yourself some credit.

2:36 But, you know, he uh he has done a very

2:39 very good job of stepping into some very monumental shoes.

2:41 So, shout outs to him.

2:43 But anyways, let's go back before we totally pigeon hole off on that.

2:48 Um, Empty Throne.

2:49 This was uh it is a book that fills fills in a lot of gaps, right?

2:55 Um takes takes place what like right before Halo

2:59 Infinite kind of type thing like this is late 2559.

3:03 So, just before the destruction of Doisac

3:05 and it goes uh spoilers, by the way, sorry.

3:08 And uh runs through to basically the start of 2560.

3:12 Yeah.

3:12 So, there the 2550s are not a good not

3:16 a good time in and literally like the worst decade imaginable.

3:20 I think skip that if you can.

3:22 Don't don't plan to be around.

3:24 It's parallel to real life.

3:26 You might say we're in our 21.

3:29 Alex, no.

3:30 Oh, not to bring the tone down.

3:33 No, the Covenant war ended.

3:34 Okay.

3:35 Anyways, so this happens like this for those that have

3:37 like wanted a little bit more backstory

3:39 of like how did we end up where we are like on Zeta Halo and Chief and all that.

3:43 Like this is really the book, right?

3:45 And I'm going to get this out of the way up front.

3:48 This literary style is not my favorite.

3:50 And I think it's really funny that it's called Empty Throne.

3:53 You know, obviously it is literally a Game of Thrones,

3:56 and this has the same literary style as Game of Thrones,

4:00 which made me not finish those books.

4:02 I literally DNFed those because I proposed that title,

4:05 but for some reason, they couldn't have it.

4:08 Man, I can't imagine why.

4:10 But no, that that whole jumping around from person

4:13 to person to place to place and just

4:16 never being in the same spot for too long is not good for my brand of ADHD,

4:21 and I can't handle it.

4:22 I just really really needed to like be in one place and be like this is it.

4:27 This is all I got and I could not handle that.

4:29 Um so this was a tough read.

4:31 That was a tough read for me personally

4:33 from that aspect but I liked the content in it.

4:36 Right.

4:36 So it was really hard for me to like like make that work in my head.

4:40 I was like I really like this story.

4:42 I really like the people but I don't like that they're taking me

4:44 away from this person right now and making me read about this other stuff.

4:48 self the kind of books you're describing like you know we we'd

4:51 done a few of those in sort of succession with Shadows of Reach,

4:56 Divine Wind, Rubicon Protocol, Outcasts, The Epitaph.

4:59 So it this was kind of the natural point

5:02 where we'd bread breadcrumbmed a lot of the previous stuff

5:05 leading into Halo Infinite and this was kind of the explosion

5:09 of everything else going off happening in the galaxy.

5:13 Uh so naturally it was a story that that required

5:16 a much broader scope with a very large cast of characters.

5:20 Yeah and I I think that's fair and I do think that is valid.

5:24 There is a time and a place for that.

5:26 I think stories like that need a particular kind of pros.

5:29 All books live and die by pros but ones that jump care that is absolutely true.

5:32 I think like the story definitely has

5:34 to be engaging right behind if you're constantly

5:37 moving you have to have something engaging and a reason to hook back to it.

5:40 And for me, like there were definitely parts

5:42 of this that I thought were more engaging,

5:44 but this definitely had that engagement for them at least,

5:47 which kept me going because there were definitely parts of this I was like,

5:50 I just really want to get back to the guy

5:53 mad about his home world being blown up, right?

5:55 Like he was he was big mad about that.

5:57 Can't blame him, you know, all things considered.

6:00 But yeah, and I'm grateful though that we don't have a lot of stories

6:05 that require this level of character development

6:08 for this many people because how many?

6:10 You said you counted this up and you you landed on an absurd number, right?

6:14 Oh, it's well over 80.

6:15 Yeah.

6:16 I just don't even understand how you how you keep track of that as a writer.

6:22 Like that that outline and storyboard must have been crazy.

6:25 Absolutely crazy.

6:26 when I was in all those standups and I

6:28 said I was editing Empty Throne and you were like,

6:30 "Alex, what the hell does that even mean?" That that was very much part of it.

6:34 Oh, yeah.

6:35 No, like I said, after after going through this book,

6:38 I suddenly had a way better understanding and appreciation for those comments

6:43 because like that was saying there has to be a spreadsheet.

6:46 Yes, I have created many spreadsheets in my time.

6:50 Yeah, I I I would imagine there's also flowcharts, right?

6:54 I really hope there's a flowchart somewhere with like

6:56 red arrows being like this has to thread to here because I actually find it one

7:00 of the great joys of going through these books.

7:02 I've been obviously working on the omnibus now but going back to the fall

7:05 of reach the flood and first strike and making my spreadsheets for those which

7:09 uh which are very exciting and then you know as over the next few

7:13 years I'm probably going to do do the entire rest of the book series.

7:17 Uh that's a lot that's a lot of books.

7:19 I mean did we how many how many are we up to now?

7:22 Oh gosh, it must be about it must be near nearly 40.

7:25 This is a good time to plug the book guide, right?

7:28 Aka.ms/HaloBookGuide if you are interested.

7:30 Uh Alex has been doing a great job of keeping that updated

7:34 with a co a snip of the cover and then a quick short snippet.

7:37 Probably just the the back I assume it's

7:39 the the writing that's on the back of the books, like a truncated version of it.

7:43 Yeah.

7:43 Just to like, hey, here's what this book is kind of about.

7:45 Yeah.

7:46 If you're like, "Hey, I really only want to read books about Master Chief." You

7:48 can just go on that page and search Chief and be like, "Hey, this is great.

7:52 This is exactly what I want.

7:54 So, uh, really great.

7:55 So, Empty Throne is now on there as, uh,

7:57 that was added, you know, when the book came out.

8:00 February 2025, which feels like 50 billion years ago already.

8:03 Are you sure?

8:04 Are you sure that's right?

8:06 I think so.

8:08 Time has no meaning anymore.

8:10 But, all right.

8:11 So, I think let's let's get into it before

8:14 we we definitely side like side quest off of this.

8:17 Empty Throne has a lot of really neat throwbacks.

8:20 It pulls in a lot of characters that we haven't seen

8:23 in a while or that we're seen in like way different eras, right?

8:27 Like Grey Team comes back.

8:28 Um, which I really was surprised to see in a good way cuz I love Grey Team.

8:33 Uh, they are in my favorite Halo novel of all time.

8:37 So, that was very exciting.

8:38 And I think they have a really different

8:41 personality than the Spartan teams we've seen so far, which is a lot of fun.

8:46 There's that be the cold protocol.

8:48 Yes, exactly.

8:49 Uh, old school one.

8:50 Yep.

8:51 So, Cole Protocol.

8:52 Speaking of Cole Protocol, you got Abigail Cole,

8:54 which I I did not expect that reading this because I went into this blind.

8:57 I tried to do that with most of the media I do.

8:59 I don't like to watch movie trailers.

9:01 I try not to read too much.

9:03 I just like go into it blind.

9:05 And uh, very surprised to see my favorite

9:07 character in all of Halo's daughter was in this.

9:10 So, very, very quickly became one of my favorite favorite parts of the book.

9:14 Uh, and then what else?

9:15 We've also got like all the Covenant factions and the Banished.

9:18 I think the best what what what did we discover yesterday?

9:21 Somebody called in Tartarson.

9:22 Yes, that was so I went looking for just like, you know,

9:27 thoughts, people's thoughts on Empty Throne yesterday to see what I could find.

9:30 And there was a really, really great summary on Reddit.

9:33 If I can find it, I'll drop it in chat later,

9:37 but if not, uh, just know it was a fantastic summary of this novel.

9:42 It was like Tel ‘Juran learns to not be racist.

9:46 Yeah.

9:46 Right.

9:47 Like learns to not be racist.

9:49 They talk about Tartarson, Baby Halsey.

9:51 I was like this was incredible.

9:54 Such a way with words.

9:56 Beautiful.

9:56 Chef's kiss.

9:57 Anyways, I will let you take it away from here

10:00 cuz I know you can like table set it.

10:01 We can get into some of the things.

10:03 Apple, you have not missed much.

10:04 Actually, we are just about to start up on the novel.

10:07 We have kind of been we are just getting started because

10:10 we have been talking about anything but the book so far.

10:13 So, we're I'm I'm trying to get us into the book right now.

10:16 We just covered some of the main characters and then I'm handing the stage over

10:20 to Alex to let him take it away for a little uh for a little exposition.

10:25 Yeah.

10:26 I mean, just for a little more table setting, you know,

10:29 the true main character to call out, I think, is is Mr.

10:33 Jeremy Patenaude.

10:34 Uh, as we mentioned, he uh, all the way back with the Xbox 360 uh,

10:39 Halo Waypoint app, which is still one of my favorite Halo experiences ever.

10:44 He used to do some of the old video series

10:47 like Vintage Fisticuffs and A Different Way to Campaign where,

10:50 you know, playing through Halo 1 through 3,

10:52 he would show some of the different sort of ways

10:55 you can engage with the encounters in the games,

10:58 but obviously he was working on a lot

11:00 of the the story things as well on the side.

11:03 things like Halsey’s Journal, the Forerunner Saga he was involved in and he's

11:06 obviously credited as one of the authors

11:08 of Halo Mythos which was fantastic story summary uh

11:11 reference book all the way leading all the way

11:15 up to Halo Wars 2 and then he's done you know a lot of things where

11:19 his name wasn't attached to it necessarily like

11:21 the adjunct at the end of Shadows of Reach,

11:24 Sacrifice and uh certainly the the end to Bornstellar’s story

11:28 in Fractures which is still one of my favorite Halo stories.

11:31 ever.

11:32 Uh, it's very short,

11:33 but that end to Bornstellar just felt like a really like nice cap

11:38 to his his adventures and the horrors

11:40 that he'd been through through the Forerunner saga.

11:43 So, this is very much a book that has kind

11:46 of built up over time uh from Jeremy's time at the studio.

11:50 there's like a mashup of all these different ideas

11:54 and concepts that have been explored maybe like partway

11:57 made it into projects or were like left

11:59 on the cutting room floor or whatever it might be.

12:02 So as a result of that it all kind of that inspiration well as it

12:07 was got funneled into into this and I

12:10 mean we have we've talked previously I remember

12:13 about uh one of the main characters which

12:16 is James James Solomon James-005 from the fall

12:19 of reach where I discovered those pictures

12:21 of Idris Ela in in his uh personal folders.

12:26 I was like Jeremy what is this?

12:29 Oh that's James.

12:30 Wait what?

12:31 You you were definitely there the last time that we talked about this.

12:35 Oh, I do not remember.

12:36 That is what Yeah, I was just poking around to see what like, you know,

12:42 story resources were were hanging around in some

12:45 of the franchise folders for something and I just

12:48 stumbled upon this folder full of pictures of um

12:51 I think it was specifically from Pacific Rim,

12:54 his character in in that is lots of pictures of Idris Ela.

12:59 That's fantastic.

13:00 I I have no recollection of that and I could not be more pleased to hear that.

13:06 That's so funny.

13:07 That y'all what you guys don't realize is that if you look at any

13:10 one of our computers and like look at our reference images for things,

13:13 my folders are so chaotic.

13:14 I have assets from everything.

13:16 I'm like, "Oh, I might need this video one day.

13:18 Let me download it." Crazy stuff.

13:20 So, I'm I'm surprised, but not surprised, right?

13:23 Have a good day, Spartan.

13:25 You can catch the You can catch the rest of it on YouTube probably tomorrow.

13:29 So have a great night.

13:31 Um, but that's so funny.

13:33 I just an entire folder of Idris Elba is amazing.

13:36 Absolutely amazing.

13:37 Just like one or two pictures.

13:39 We're talking like, you know, over a dozen.

13:41 And these are I assume they're all just like reference photos, right?

13:44 Like what could Yes, basically.

13:46 I love that.

13:47 I love that so much.

13:48 Like low res screen caps and stuff like that.

13:51 That makes it even better.

13:52 Like, oh, I just saw an article on like CNN.

13:55 Let me just like screen snip it.

13:57 Right.

13:58 That's incredible.

13:58 Uh what I have to say that like I cannot say enough good things about Jeremy.

14:04 He was a wonderful person to work with uh and especially on this book.

14:08 You know, it was a a privilege to kind

14:11 of get to to work closely on this cuz obviously

14:13 he was still around when we were doing work

14:17 on the Rubicon Protocol and uh even Epitaph and Outcasts.

14:21 But um this was, you know, this was his book ultimately.

14:24 So getting to sort of work with him

14:26 in telling his story was was just really nice.

14:29 Was this the first Halo novel or story that he had

14:33 written for the franchise like straight up to put his name on?

14:38 Uh yes, I believe so.

14:40 Uh he had obviously like he'd been working on the books since

14:44 I want to say like 2011 since you know he was I

14:48 remember old Sparkcasts back when you know that's what Spartan Chatter used

14:52 to be called where he's uh on a a podcast with Greg Bear,

14:56 David Ellis and various other people from from you know 343's

15:00 past talking about you know the the making of those books

15:03 which he seemed to be quite involved in and obviously

15:05 going through Broken Circle and the the following books from there.

15:09 Um he's done a lot of wonderful work

15:11 on the franchise which is the fact which I think is

15:16 what surprised me that this was the first written work

15:19 with his name on it right because like you you

15:21 have just gone through so many things that he has

15:23 actively worked on and so many parts of the Halo

15:26 universe that it's really surprising that this is literally

15:29 the first thing cuz he's been doing this for so long.

15:34 Yeah.

15:34 I realized at a point that a lot of what I loved about Halo came from Jeremy.

15:39 Uh I mean even going back to when, you know,

15:42 in my fan days where he was running the Ascendant Justice blog,

15:46 which uh was like, you know,

15:48 that that was back in the the Halo 3 through ODST days where he

15:53 was doing all the like narrative analyses and things like that that, you know,

15:57 I would take to as inspiration for for my blog there.

16:00 So, there's that fun kind of lineage going running back through all that.

16:05 Was he the Catalog account on the Waypoint Forums back in the day?

16:09 Oh, he wasn't.

16:10 Who was that?

16:11 Is that or is that still like secret?

16:13 I'm not sure if it's been stated who that was, actually.

16:17 I It would not have having gone through

16:20 all this, it would not have surprised me.

16:22 So, all right.

16:22 All right.

16:23 All right.

16:23 We got to stay on topic.

16:25 Stay on topic.

16:25 I'm very clearly bad about this, but All right.

16:28 So, we've already kind of established that Empty Throne set

16:31 in late 2559 leading up to the events of Halo Infinite, right?

16:36 So, it's kind of bridging that gap, filling in a lot of those empty questions.

16:40 And we know after Halo 5, Cortana's kind of on a bender.

16:44 There's a lot going on there.

16:46 You got to stop her.

16:47 I've never heard it described that way before.

16:50 Am I wrong, though?

16:52 I suppose not.

16:53 I mean, she's she's losing her like she's I don't I I Yeah.

16:57 No, we're just gonna we're gonna leave it with that.

17:01 Um but uh obviously drunk on power.

17:05 Exactly.

17:05 She's drunk on power.

17:07 Nobody wants this.

17:09 So, everybody wants to stop her, right?

17:10 And I think that that was actually kind

17:12 of an interesting like I was reading this is like,

17:15 oh, literally nobody wants this girl to have all this power.

17:17 The Banished want to stop her.

17:18 The humans want to stop her.

17:20 The Covenant want to stop her.

17:21 Literally, nobody wants her to be in charge.

17:24 So, hence the Game of Thrones.

17:25 We're gonna go after that throne, right?

17:28 100%.

17:28 Yeah.

17:28 And, you know, obviously the games present a much more narrow experience.

17:33 Um, when they go to Zeta Halo, the the ring gets,

17:37 you know, jumped through slip space somewhere else in the galaxy.

17:41 Uh, so the just as you do casually, just, you know,

17:44 taking the ring on a walk, moving through slipspace portals, no big deal.

17:48 Um, and so the notion with Empty Throne was what's going

17:51 on in the rest of the galaxy while all that is happening.

17:54 And you know, we, as I said, we breadcrumbmed some of this with like

17:59 Outcasts and Rubicon Protocol where, you know,

18:01 we we've touched on various things that were going

18:04 on, but it's from a much smaller and narrower point of view.

18:07 Uh, and this was kind of the big explosion of like,

18:10 all right, here is what everything here's everything that was going on.

18:14 Here's what everyone was up to um leading up to.

18:18 and beyond that point and we really are covering like all parts

18:22 of the galaxy in this because you're on Earth, you're on Venezia,

18:27 not called Venezia like that was a surprise to me

18:30 like but also not a surprise once they were like

18:33 oh and then you remember it's kind of like where

18:35 all the mercenaries are like that totally makes sense to like

18:38 no rules mind your own business right like keep your eyes

18:41 down don't look at anybody kind of thing but you

18:43 are all over in this you're we are literally all

18:46 over the galaxy in different corners checking in on everybody here.

18:50 Even some old maps that appeared in like Halo 4.

18:53 We go to Cascade, which is Skyline,

18:56 which one of the old Halo like world championships was

18:59 was won on back in 2013, I believe it was.

19:03 I had some reason that that just really sticks in my memory,

19:07 that that particular match.

19:09 That map was the tarp map.

19:12 Tarp map.

19:12 Do you not remember?

19:13 Skyline is like, isn't that the one where there's a tarp on it?

19:16 And that was all people were remembering was the Halo 4 tarp.

19:20 I have no memory of that.

19:23 Okay.

19:23 Well, all right.

19:24 Yeah, I will I will have to dig some of that up for you later.

19:27 But, uh, and then the next one that got me was actually the Halo 4 map Vortex.

19:30 I didn't realize this was a separate planet.

19:32 Yeah.

19:32 Terceira, which uh you know, we we always try to find, you know,

19:38 fun ways to include some of the multiplayer map spaces because it's

19:42 just this deep well of potential lore that you can tap into.

19:46 And whenever we do, I think, you know,

19:48 the the results are always quite fun from that.

19:50 So, and I think the only other places

19:53 we haven't touched on are um Rossbach’s World, Nysa.

19:57 I'm I'm bad at pronunciation, so if I've said these wrong, please correct me.

20:03 Nysa.

20:04 Nysa.

20:04 Okay.

20:05 And then Warial.

20:06 Warial.

20:07 Warial.

20:07 Nysa.

20:08 Yes.

20:08 Yes.

20:09 That's one of the um Moons of Doisac.

20:13 Yes.

20:14 And then Boundary.

20:15 Yeah.

20:16 I would have also said Nissa.

20:18 Uh Kat.

20:19 I I definitely wanted to say Nissa.

20:21 So Nysa.

20:22 Okay.

20:22 It's a planet hopping adventure.

20:24 And actually when we were working on this book,

20:26 we were also kind of laying some of the groundwork

20:30 in the Waypoint Chronicles for Nysa because obviously that's where the Avery J.

20:34 Johnson Academy is.

20:35 Um, and so the the sort of sequence of it was

20:40 Anvil Accord that Waypoint Chronicle came out and at the end

20:43 of that story they say that there is a distress

20:46 call that they've received from a world called Nysa.

20:49 But we never said at the time that that was the Avery J.

20:52 Johnson Academy and then I think about six or seven months later this book

20:56 comes out and that is where it then you know confirmed that that was

21:00 the planet that the academy was on and then a following six months

21:03 from that was when we did the Battle

21:05 for the Academy two-parter from the Waypoint Chronicles.

21:07 So there were we were able to kind of thread some of that reveal

21:11 uh through some of the different fiction there which was quite fun.

21:14 I feel like you guys just look at this long term and like that ability

21:18 to look that far longterm on these is crazy to me because you're like,

21:21 "Oh, well, we do this in six months." We can bring up

21:24 this one random sentence that we laid that we said like last month.

21:28 Crazy.

21:29 Uh so we cover all that.

21:31 Um the people, let's like we've touched on a few of the people.

21:33 Let's cover those and then we can like get into some of their story.

21:36 But Gray Team comes back which is really cool.

21:39 Uh you see them first thing first things first.

21:41 They're like right off the ship like on a Warthog on a mission, right?

21:45 Crazy.

21:45 Uh Tel ‘Juran, the Shadow of Intent crew.

21:50 Wararchief Severan, who is Tartarson, right?

21:53 Son, uh son of Tartarus for those following along.

21:57 Yeah, Tartarson is just so good.

21:59 Dovo Nesto, Octavio Morales, Abigail Cole, uh and then James Solomon,

22:04 which I thought it was funny that Jeremy did it.

22:08 He was kind of sneaky about like bringing that up.

22:10 who he was and like he saved that for a little

22:13 bit to like kind of get you interested and be like surprise.

22:18 Yep.

22:18 Oh, uh, grand nephew of Macadoodle.

22:21 Maccabeus.

22:21 Macadoodle.

22:21 Of course.

22:22 Yes.

22:23 I So, the story I couldn't I forgot how to spell it one day.

22:28 Um, and I was asking Alex something about Maccabeus and I just said

22:31 Macadoodle and he knew exactly who I was talking about which was fantastic.

22:36 So, it just that's now stuck.

22:37 It's not just a weird nickname for Master Chief.

22:40 No, it's just Macadoodle is that guy.

22:42 But yeah, so there's there's so much happening and I

22:45 think and it starts out with rescuing Hood and Osman,

22:48 right, who we haven't seen in a while.

22:50 They're just kind of there.

22:51 They've been chilling on Rossbach’s World since the year of our lord 2516,

22:55 I want to say, back when Fractures came out.

22:58 So, it's been a while.

23:00 That's a long time.

23:01 That is a really long time to just be chilling.

23:04 The one hood is just doing push-ups and pull-ups all day, right?

23:07 Cuz what else is there to do?

23:09 That was really fun actually was catching up with with Hood's perspective.

23:12 So interestingly like when we was starting on this novel

23:15 um you didn't have a chapter from Hood's point of view.

23:19 It was from Gray Team’s as they just went and kind

23:22 of rescued them and then we moved on from there.

23:24 But uh since it had been so long we were like actually it'd be quite fun

23:28 to just kind of dig into their perspective

23:30 and you know have a moment to breathe.

23:32 Uh, so we actually have, you know,

23:34 split POVs from Hood and Osburn as as things are going on uh there and we kind

23:39 of get where they're at mentally at this point

23:41 in time because when we left them on Rossbach’s,

23:43 you know, Hood was developing a bit of a a drinking problem uh from everything

23:48 that was going on and it was obviously all like a very hopeless situation.

23:52 So catching back up with them and sort of seeing things from their perspective,

23:56 which we haven't for a very long time.

23:58 You know, I don't think we've ever had a POV

24:00 chapter from Lord Hood in the fiction before in Osman.

24:03 Certainly not since uh, you know, Kilo 5.

24:06 Really catching up with them was always good fun.

24:08 Yeah.

24:08 And I think it helped give them a personality, right?

24:11 Just like reestablish that who they are in the universe.

24:13 Like cuz otherwise, why do you care about these people if you don't know?

24:16 If you haven't read Kilo 5, uh, or if you haven't seen the Lord Hood,

24:20 all I can think of when I see that is

24:24 that profile card in MCC anytime face Lord Hood.

24:27 It is just in it is I will never forget that.

24:30 That face is just everyone knows what you mean by that.

24:33 If they don't, go look it up and then thank me later.

24:37 Uh, last time we saw Osman, she was left with a bit of a dilemma because um,

24:42 with her is not only BlackBox, but a bunch of uh, HighCom AIs in a briefcase.

24:48 And um, she gets left a choice at the end

24:51 of Rossbach’s World where she can either forcibly recruit these AIs,

24:55 she can destroy them,

24:57 or she can activate them one by one and give them a choice.

25:00 You know, join the created or help us out.

25:02 Uh and so kind of the the answer to that uh

25:05 is the same way that she dealt with Halsey originally,

25:08 which is that she didn't she didn't really, you know, do anything.

25:12 She took the secret fourth option and was like,

25:16 I'm going to think about this cuz I'm not too sure.

25:19 Um, so now she's kind of being forcibly pulled back

25:21 into the fight and she's coming to understand that uh, you know,

25:26 ONI has kind of moved on without her a little

25:28 bit because we get a bit more from uh,

25:31 Jilan al-Cygni who was from Contact Harvest.

25:34 Johnson's paramore from that particular scene you may recall.

25:38 Um, we've been in ONI for for a much longer time.

25:42 Same with Octavio Morales who we'll get to, uh,

25:45 where they've sort of been, you know, almost running the show.

25:48 Um, since then I I think her I think what got me

25:51 in that was that um Osman's surprise at functionally being left behind.

25:54 She was like, "What?" I was like, "What do you what do you expect?

25:58 You haven't like they're not going to wait for you

26:01 for how long's it been almost, you know?" Yeah.

26:04 Yeah.

26:04 Yeah.

26:04 Yeah.

26:05 It's been so long.

26:06 They're not just going to like wait around like they have to do something.

26:09 So, I think her surprise and confusion at not being looped

26:13 in like in the loop of everything was a little interesting.

26:16 But I think that also just comes from her.

26:19 She's been she's been that girl for so long.

26:21 So it's hard to, you know, come to terms with that.

26:24 But yeah, we start that off very strong by Grey Team being dropped

26:28 in on the planet with a Warthog and just

26:31 being like basically shut up and drive, right?

26:33 Just hop in and then we're going.

26:36 No questions.

26:36 Just Guardians shown up.

26:38 We uh we got to get out of here with with BlackBox and yeah, move on.

26:43 I think I don't remember where.

26:45 I think there was like actually I read

26:47 that somewhere in the book they were b it he

26:49 Jeremy basically took shut up and drive and made

26:51 it sound very officially and I was like that's funny.

26:54 I feel like that was an inspiration and if not it should have been.

26:58 My favorite little bit in this is the suggestion that Gray

27:02 Team might have shot down Hood and Osman if they'd

27:05 made a fuss uh about the AIs because their mission is

27:09 that they are there to retrieve the briefcase and and BlackBox.

27:12 Um, you know, it's it's a bonus to get, you know, these two Admirals back.

27:17 Um, but when Osman is kind of making

27:20 a bit of a fuss about it, they're like, "Oh,

27:23 they they seem to be holding their weapons in a way that suggests

27:26 that they're uh they're going to act if things go sideways." Yeah.

27:31 And that's that is such a different personality

27:33 from the Spartan teams that we have seen more recently, right?

27:35 Like Blue Team is definitely there's a little bit more empa

27:39 like not empathy but there's more understanding of things are happening

27:43 heroic nights on the round table right the atomic ideal of Spartans

27:48 as heroes right and Gray Team is very like one track

27:51 my like the mission is get that briefcase the extra stuff

27:55 extra if they give me problems you know that wasn't the mission

28:00 I mean the team called Gray Team has some kind

28:03 of like gray morality thing kind kind of going on about them.

28:06 Funny how that works out.

28:08 Uh I do love Gray Team though.

28:10 I think they are super fascinating and I love but also

28:13 like when push comes to shove like they don't mess around.

28:15 They are they got you right.

28:17 They are all there.

28:18 So all right.

28:19 So let's move on.

28:20 Let's let's you brought up Octavio which I think was like super deep cut.

28:25 Super deep cut.

28:26 The deepest of deep cuts.

28:28 Uh, I remember I went to dinner with Jeremy and he was sort of laying

28:33 this story out to me and when he brought up Octavio I was like

28:36 now hang on a minute that name sounds quite familiar and he was like

28:40 yeah this is going to be somebody from all the way back in I love

28:44 bees and he explained to me that this was going to be code named

28:47 SURGEON who is a character that has appeared in a recurring kind of way since

28:51 the fall of Reach in the book that you know this is one

28:55 of the the sort of only POVs that we've had throughout a number of the books.

28:59 books uh certainly in the earlier years

29:01 of the franchise um and this was going to be

29:03 the point where you know we sort of like

29:05 lift the veil on who some of these people are.

29:08 So codename SURGEON and Cole Miner which is

29:11 uh what Jilan al-Cygni’s uh codename is as well.

29:14 So the when when you go back through some of the old fiction you now know like

29:19 oh that's who these two you know who

29:22 these two are who's been communicating back and forth.

29:26 Definitely like little puppet masters like working in the dark doing Yes.

29:30 making moves, right?

29:31 You don't know what they are, but they are making those moves.

29:34 You just don't realize it.

29:35 And that's really how I think Jeremy threads

29:38 the needle very carefully of of explaining who some

29:40 of these characters are in the book because

29:44 the parallel to Octavio Morales is Dovo Nesto, right?

29:47 If Octavio Morales is kind of the shadow master behind ONI,

29:50 then Dovo Nesto is the shadow master behind the Covenant.

29:53 uh he's part of the the Order of Restoration.

29:56 They've been like pulling the strings in in the background

29:59 of Covenant history with the hierarchs and nobility in the Covenant.

30:03 Uh and Dovo Nesto uniquely claims that he's

30:06 been around since the very beginning of the Covenant.

30:09 So he's thousands of years old if his claims are true.

30:12 Uh and you know his mission in this book is

30:15 to uh claim control over the domain, ascend to godhood.

30:20 This is his personal Great Journey.

30:23 uh you know once Cortana is ousted, he's going to take her place.

30:28 Um so that's just a really good way I think to to help

30:33 if you're if you're picking this book up for the first time.

30:36 Uh you can sort of see some

30:38 of those parallels between these characters and go, "Oh, okay.

30:40 I see what this is all about." Because everyone is after kind of the same thing.

30:45 The UNC, the Covenant, the Banished, they they all have the same goal.

30:49 They're just coming at it from three different angles.

30:52 Right.

30:53 It is like like we kind of laid out earlier.

30:55 It is that Game of Thrones, right?

30:57 Everybody's angling for the same thing.

30:58 Uh but what is it like you were talking about, you know,

31:02 if you believe him or whatever is that the kids say big if true, right?

31:07 Don't know.

31:07 Um I think one of my favorite parts that like one of my favorite

31:11 threads that he brought in was James because also like I said,

31:14 he doesn't tell you outright who he is.

31:16 He just kind of refers to him as James or then

31:19 Solomon and then you find out like put it together.

31:21 It's like, "Oh, that's a name I haven't heard in a very

31:24 long time." Super cool to find out like what happened to him.

31:28 So, that was that was a neat surprise.

31:31 Um, basically living his best mercenary,

31:34 doing whatever needs to be done for ONI, right?

31:36 Just kind of operating in the dark a little bit here and there,

31:40 doing things as as needed.

31:41 Yeah, it's funny.

31:42 He's one of the Spartans who's kind of been

31:45 one of the only true MIAs over the years

31:48 because uh we experience that chapter in the Fall

31:51 of Reach from the Master Chief's point of view.

31:54 Uh and the last he hears, you know,

31:56 is and sees is of James getting his thruster pack uh exploded

32:00 a little bit and him sort of rocketing out into space and like,

32:05 "Oh, I wonder what happened to him." Out of sight, out of mind.

32:11 Yeah.

32:11 So, uh, he's recovered and revived by ONI and he

32:15 becomes a sort of wet work operator for them answering,

32:18 you know, specifically to to Morales.

32:20 He gets his own ship.

32:21 He gets uh a lovely AI called Lola, who was a fun character in this book.

32:27 Um, and he's got total freedom to run these high-risk missions,

32:31 you know, any way he pleases so long as he completes his objective.

32:35 Um but the only caveat for him is that uh if he fails

32:39 then he's either going to die uh or he's probably going to die

32:43 given the the nature of what kinds of missions he takes on and only

32:48 will disavow any kind of knowledge or um you know connection to him.

32:52 So he is well and truly kind of a ghost a ghost operative in that in that sense.

32:57 Uh and as we sort of meet him in the book

32:59 you know he's very tired of of the life that he's leading.

33:02 uh he realizes it's a very empty life.

33:04 He doesn't even know if he's, you know, ultimately doing any good.

33:08 The way that um we're introduced to him is

33:11 a really awesome chapter of him taking down six frigates um

33:16 which was an action set piece I hadn't anticipated when

33:20 we uh when we were going through this the first time.

33:23 And that was really fun.

33:24 And obviously when he's doing that, he encounters some of the uh Janissaries,

33:29 the uh Rent-A-Spartans as he as he calls them in narration uh in that chapter.

33:34 And that was good fun.

33:36 Really enjoyed that because that was around

33:38 the time that in Halo Infinite, you know,

33:40 we were building into some of that u some of that lore

33:43 around some of the alternative super soldier programs that are being explored.

33:48 Somebody in chat said,

33:49 "I love that Alex is still so excited about Halo lore." He lives for this Kat.

33:53 He lives for this.

33:55 He is in his element.

33:57 So, we kind of have, you know, all these mirrors a little bit.

34:01 Then we go over to um the Covenant side and you have Severan.

34:06 Um now I just confused myself.

34:08 I'm Yeah.

34:09 So, not Covenant, Banished.

34:11 Right.

34:11 Sorry.

34:11 Um well, it's a bit of Yeah, right.

34:15 That's why I'm like I don't really know how to how to go here.

34:18 But uh son of Tartar Tartarus uh Tartarson he

34:21 basically becomes like a little acolyte of Dovo Nesto, right?

34:26 He's like you were the guy.

34:28 You were the guy that I want.

34:30 Yeah.

34:31 Dovo Nesto was both obviously he was a mentor to him

34:34 but also essentially kind of a father to him as well.

34:37 So there's this tug-of-war, this push and pull in his allegiance between

34:40 the Covenant and the banished because on the one hand,

34:44 you know, he's gaining this this prestige and recognition within the Banished.

34:48 He's been elevated to the rank of War Chief

34:51 by Atriox and Escharum despite his his past affiliations,

34:55 obviously his family affiliations with Tartarus,

34:58 who is hated by the Jiralhanae, you know,

35:01 for for the position that that he kind of put them in.

35:06 Um, but he's got this very profound personal loyalty to Dovo Nesto.

35:10 Uh, which is something that obviously the San ‘Shyuum is going

35:13 to uh going to manipulate and and pull at those strings.

35:16 And you know, at the end of the book,

35:19 Severan decides where it is that he stands.

35:21 And uh he ultimately you know chooses the Banished

35:24 uh because he he discovers that Dovo Neseto has been

35:29 making much the same promises to the wonderful Salon

35:34 everyone's favorite uh how everyone puts it in the book

35:38 like waste of breath waste of space absolute waste

35:41 man Sali ‘Nyon nobody cares about him everyone's incredibly upset

35:46 whenever Sali ‘Nyon shows up uh and Sean is

35:50 the one to put an end to this particular character.

35:54 Somebody in chat said, "I love that he ends up being the Darth

35:58 Vader and essentially overall leader." I spoilers, I guess.

36:00 Um, but if you've gotten this far, it's been over a year, right?

36:04 Like, at this point, it's fine.

36:06 Uh, it's funny that you say Darth Vader

36:08 because that Reddit comment found basically was like,

36:10 "Yeah, he gets Darth Vadered.

36:11 He turned it into a verb." So, same absolutely on the same track here.

36:16 Can you believe a prophet would lie?

36:19 Like, right?

36:20 What a surprise.

36:21 Prophet?

36:22 Lie?

36:22 Never.

36:23 Then you've got uh Captain Abigail Cole and her ship,

36:27 the Victory of Samothrace, which I really liked that name.

36:30 I did um one of my favorite courses that I've

36:33 ever taken in school was an art history class

36:35 and we talked a lot about the Winged Nike of Samothrace

36:38 and like I've seen it in person, stuff like that.

36:40 So I really liked that name.

36:41 I just thought it was very elegant feeling, a cool ship.

36:44 You know, we don't get many Valiant-class super heavy cruisers in the fiction.

36:49 It's usually like smaller scale frigates and cruisers.

36:52 So, this was this was a fun one to use.

36:55 And obviously, if you are new here,

36:58 Preston J.Cole is my favorite character in Halo.

37:00 I think he is the most interesting character in the franchise,

37:03 just because his story is bonkers.

37:05 So, if you don't know, look it up.

37:08 It's exciting.

37:08 It's fun.

37:09 It's crazy.

37:10 It feels very superhero and like very fake, but it's insane.

37:13 So having his daughter be another ship captain

37:16 was really fun and I did not expect that.

37:19 Like you you'd think that she's quite young but by the time this book

37:24 takes place she must be around 60 years old actually in in terms of chronology.

37:29 Um because she would have been born around 2500 or so.

37:33 I actually don't think I actually don't think I put that together.

37:36 I really did think she was like maybe 30s or 40s or something.

37:39 Did not think about that.

37:40 It could be as as Canadian says, you know,

37:42 there's cryo there spend years uh in in cryo sleep traveling between places.

37:48 Um obviously that's less of a concern in sort of the modern age,

37:52 but it still still happens.

37:54 Um so yeah, it's it's really interesting uh because when I

37:57 s when I first pictured her, I was like, oh yeah,

38:00 I pictured somebody who was much younger as well,

38:03 but if you think about the the timeline, then I guess that makes sense.

38:07 And I do have a bit of a confession around Abigail Cole because

38:11 Jeremy's original notion was that she would be um captain of the UNC Eternity,

38:16 which was the sistership to Infinity.

38:18 And um I might have talked him out of that one.

38:23 I I I thought that uh it would be more interesting to be

38:28 a different class of ship rather than repeating some of the like

38:32 hero ship problematic elements that sometimes we have with Infinity um

38:36 by just saying like oh and there's another one out there as well.

38:41 So actually having a more specialized Valiant-class um seemed

38:44 like a more fun Yeah I thought that was great.

38:47 I think it was definitely unique and like you said, we don't see a lot of them.

38:51 So, it was really fun to see that.

38:53 The name was cool like that that like the name instantly got me and I was like,

38:57 "Oh, that's different.

38:57 I like that." And then obviously just the ship battles are cool

39:01 because I think we haven't for Halo being a space fiction thing.

39:04 We'd spend a lot of time on the ground.

39:07 I feel like for a lot of these books,

39:09 so seeing big ships space battles was really cool,

39:12 especially like when they are tactical and they

39:16 have to be precise and they they're like, "Oh,

39:19 we're too close." And when you when you stop to think about it,

39:23 too close is still really far for us, right,

39:26 as people, but too close for a ship is probably I don't

39:30 even want to know how many how many hundreds of kilometers, right?

39:34 So, I I really enjoyed those.

39:36 People really seem to gravitate towards them as being Nylund-esque

39:39 is how a lot of people sort of described it, which which is great.

39:43 I mean, I know that's what uh Jeremy was was very much hoping for.

39:46 That was that was his intention.

39:48 And, you know, I we've not really had a lot

39:51 of major space battles in the books in recent years,

39:53 which, you know, is a a regret of mine because I love reading them as well.

39:58 So, that's definitely something that uh that I'm

40:00 keen for us to to lean more into.

40:02 Uh, and it's great because obviously you've got the Covenant,

40:05 UNSC, and Banished in this.

40:07 So, you get a real sort of different sense of their individual

40:11 tactics and what kind of flavors they bring to to space combat.

40:15 But, they are all ultimately quelled whenever a Guardian comes into the picture,

40:20 like during the um the battle, you know,

40:23 in the Sol System where two of the Guardians come in, they start,

40:26 they're about to unleash their um their pulses.

40:29 It's like, oh, we got to get out of dodge.

40:32 Gotta go.

40:33 Bye.

40:33 We're done.

40:34 I I am trying to keep up with chat a little bit, too.

40:38 Shadow of Intent.

40:39 Some other people are saying they love the space battles for sure.

40:43 Make Jega have a girlfriend.

40:44 Okay.

40:44 Come on, dude.

40:45 This is not Dating Sim.

40:47 All right.

40:47 And then we've got I think the last main character

40:50 that we need to cover here is Tul ‘Juran, right?

40:53 The one that learned to not be racist according to one random person's comment,

40:58 which was very funny.

40:59 So she I mean she goes through like a big character development though.

41:04 Yeah.

41:04 This was actually one of my favorite parts

41:06 of the book personally and I say that because you know

41:08 this was one of the the areas that I kind

41:10 of got to work more closely with with Jeremy on.

41:13 Um so she was introduced all the way back in Joseph Staten’s novela

41:17 in 2015 um Shadow of Intent which is fantastic absolutely brilliant uh novela.

41:25 I think I recommend anyone who's got any interest in Halo pick that up.

41:28 I mean first of all everyone loves Joseph Staten of course

41:31 fantastic writer but also the the book is short you know it's

41:34 about 150-200 pages or so less than that maybe um follows

41:39 the shipmaster from uh Halo 2 and 3 who is a major

41:45 character in this book as well um and Tel ‘Juran is

41:48 introduced in there and she's a major POV character in Empty Throne

41:52 she was orphaned by the Order of Restoration they they killed

41:56 her family and her keep um with the exception of her brother.

42:00 So, one of the driving forces in this book is her desire for revenge.

42:04 You know, she's on this path um

42:06 of self-destruction because she is just so fueled

42:09 by hatred and rage and it's kind

42:11 of corroding her from within and uh her mentors,

42:14 you know, ‘Rtas and and Vul ‘Soran,

42:17 they're struggling to kind of reach her through this anger.

42:21 Um but ultimately she gets betrayed by Vul ‘Soran who's the uh

42:25 the aged Sangheili blade master who is actually loyal to Dovo Nesto.

42:29 Um and that really kind of challenges her perspective on things.

42:33 There's a fantastic scene where he's about he's

42:36 defeated her after this big battle on on Boundary

42:40 has kind of gone down and he's got the kill shot on her but he

42:44 doesn't take it which is a nice little like oh you know that there is

42:49 that genuine fondness there that that he holds

42:51 for her which meant that he couldn't do it.

42:54 He was able to beat her down but he couldn't couldn't finish the job.

42:57 So I wonder if that will come to to bite him in the future.

43:01 Um, is that foreshadowing of any point

43:03 or is that just you like genuinely wondering?

43:07 Yes.

43:07 Okay, that's fair.

43:08 I expected as much.

43:10 You know, it's always the way with revenge tales

43:13 that if you don't if you don't kill that person,

43:16 then they they might come back uh in some way, right?

43:19 You left a you left a loose end like what's going to happen, right?

43:23 You never know.

43:24 Yeah, for sure.

43:24 It's because of that emotional compromise from we get to see

43:27 some of their adventures in this book which is great fun.

43:30 The the first chapter with them is when

43:32 they're storming one of the order of restoration

43:34 ships and they find the uh Forerunner War

43:37 Sphinxes aboard it and they start piloting them.

43:39 Uh and of course when I say they I mean the angry Stolt is with them as well.

43:44 another character from Shadow of Intent who

43:46 is this absolutely beastly Unggoy uh who's like

43:49 you know incredibly strong who's taken on the Spartan

43:52 before and live to tell the tale.

43:55 He's a fantastic character and uh yeah, so so Tel ultimately um comes to let go

44:01 of some of her hatred uh just a little bit,

44:04 you know, by serving alongside Gray Team.

44:06 Uh and you know, she by the end of the book,

44:09 she's kind of unofficially part of the team.

44:10 She's effectively been adopted by them.

44:12 Uh which is great fun.

44:13 And certainly I would love to see the the future

44:16 of the future adventures of of Tul ‘Juran and Gray Team.

44:20 Baby steps, man.

44:21 Somebody just called Stolt the utter G of the Unggoy, which is hilarious.

44:25 Uh just he's he's definitely got a chip on his shoulder,

44:28 but he's deserved it, man.

44:30 So all these characters and all these different factions,

44:32 cuz again, you got three factions.

44:33 You've got the UNSC, you've got the Covenant,

44:35 you've got the Banished, and the other Covenant and the Banished.

44:38 There's a little bit of like, you know, back alley chatter, right?

44:41 There's, you know, maybe I'm going to go to you, maybe I'll stay here.

44:45 But ultimately, they all want access to the domain.

44:49 They all want Cortana to not be there anymore and they all want to take over.

44:53 So, they all have to find a way in and they

44:56 all somehow know that it all comes down to this girl.

44:58 I think what was it?

44:59 Dovo Nesto said, you know, we're not going to bother finding it.

45:01 They're just going to bring her to us.

45:02 Like, they're just going to hand her over.

45:04 They'll do all the work and we'll we'll benefit from it.

45:06 Right.

45:06 Yeah.

45:07 It's one of those like, you know,

45:08 the different flavors of story you get in there.

45:11 There's all the political machinations of the Prophets in there.

45:14 And then with, you know, James and Chloe,

45:16 it's very much the the wolf and cub type story

45:19 that uh has become quite popularized in recent years with stuff like,

45:23 you know, The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, all that sort of thing.

45:27 So, you know, the there there's going to be something in this book

45:30 for you that you're going to enjoy just because it's got so much on offer.

45:34 I actually really liked uh when James was picking up Chloe that whole fight.

45:39 I did feel you say Mandalorian and it was kind

45:42 of the same vibe like going to a bar, right?

45:44 Checking things out cuz there's a bar in Mandalorian like there.

45:48 But the way that he basically just walks in and literally they're like,

45:52 "Oh, there's six of us." He's like, "That's it?" You know, that's nothing.

45:56 And like before you know it, everything's happening.

45:58 Then you find out, you know, he gets he finds the girls.

46:01 He's like, "No, I don't want to go." And he's like,

46:03 "Too bad." and just she loves her job working for this uh Cao’mar

46:07 the Kigyar who's just got her running the books which is great which is wild.

46:12 Uh yeah, she just like no this is my home

46:16 I don't want to leave and he's like okay

46:19 and kidnaps her anyways but he also you know

46:21 is making sure that she's not going to get hurt.

46:24 He's taking like while he's going on this crazy motorcycle ride he's got

46:28 her eyed to him and he's just constantly checking on her making sure she's okay.

46:33 It's a simple life, dishonest work.

46:35 Yeah, I I loved that sequence, the the like the motorcycle.

46:39 I mean, first of all, because we got to use uh one of the Mega

46:44 Bloks vehicles for for that, which was good fun.

46:47 Um but also, I just had such, you know, Red vs Blue animated,

46:51 you know, Season 8, Season 9 kind of vibes from from that whole sequence.

46:56 It was really great fun to imagine that.

46:58 Yeah.

46:58 Yeah.

46:59 And I think that's part of what made it

47:01 fun is that you could imagine a Spartan basically

47:03 going through that cuz at that point you realize

47:05 that it is a SP like full-on Spartan thing.

47:08 Lola being really sarcastic and unhelpful.

47:10 So good.

47:11 Um you don't have time for that.

47:14 Like I know.

47:15 Leave me.

47:16 I know, right?

47:18 Like stop talking.

47:19 So my Halo Mega Bloks collection is embarrassingly big.

47:21 There's no such thing.

47:23 Be proud of that.

47:24 A lot of fun stuff there.

47:25 So all right.

47:26 So we've gone through all that.

47:27 We all know they're all fighting for for Chloe.

47:30 Like they all want Chloe because she's got something that somebody wants, right?

47:34 Do we need to get into what what what is going

47:36 on there a little bit or do we want to leave that?

47:39 She Yeah, she she's the last surviving flash clone of uh Dr.

47:44 Catherine Halsey back when she created Cortana.

47:47 Um, and that means that she's got the same, you know,

47:50 whatever you want to call it, like genetic code to kind of, you know,

47:54 to unlock the Domain,

47:56 gain access to it because it would recognize her as, you know,

47:59 sort of being the same.

48:01 Halsey is obviously out of reach herself because

48:03 she's on the infinity going to Zeta Halo.

48:05 And so this is kind of the ah yes, this is this is our only option.

48:10 We have to sacrifice the innocence of a child in order to save the species.

48:15 And that is, you know,

48:17 that's a moral question that's been hanging over Halo since 2001.

48:21 Really?

48:21 I was gonna say, I was gonna say that question sounds so familiar.

48:25 It it is it is truly a full circle full circle moment.

48:29 Like literally that is where Halsey started

48:32 and now we're back to the same question.

48:35 And what do you do, right?

48:37 That's tough.

48:38 Yeah.

48:38 And that's, you know,

48:40 when James meets up with Adriana from Grey Team toward the end,

48:43 there there's a hint of that of, you know,

48:45 him recognizing it and her understanding what he

48:48 means when when they when they talk and uh,

48:51 you know, she ultimately decides to to kind of cover for him,

48:55 let him get away and escape rather than,

48:58 you know, committing to um, you know, taking Chloe by force or anything.

49:02 So, that that was a nice moment to kind

49:05 of wrap up his character arc there at the end.

49:08 Yeah, definitely just lets him, you know,

49:10 stick by what he's tried to do all this time, right?

49:13 Because he was trying to get away,

49:15 like he was trying to get out of here before this and the guy was like,

49:18 "Oh, just one more thing, one more easy thing.

49:20 I'll even pay your rent after.

49:22 What could go wrong?" Famous last words, right?

49:24 Uh I think one of actually and then this book

49:27 and on top of all that going on, you've

49:30 also got like the really big throwback to like

49:32 the Lord of Admirals and stuff going on in here, which is crazy, dude.

49:35 This book has it all, y'all.

49:37 If you have not read it, this book has so much.

49:40 There's so much going on in here.

49:42 That uh Adjunct was something that I got to add to the book,

49:45 which I was very pleased about.

49:47 I mean, first of all, like,

49:48 thank you very much to Jeremy for being so generous in allowing

49:51 us to make some of these kinds of additions to to his story.

49:55 You know, it's it's that kind of yes

49:58 and philosophy that we have working with authors that really,

50:01 I think, just makes these the best possible stories.

50:04 But um the context really for that is that um both

50:08 this and Epitaph which you know came out back to back essentially

50:11 the you know what one book after the other were all about

50:15 the Domain um and there was a lot of speculation like oh

50:19 how's Empty Throne going to connect to Epitaph and as we were

50:22 going through the story it didn't really you know there there wasn't

50:26 a natural place to to connect the events of one book

50:29 to the other which is fine and makes total sense so we We

50:34 had this Adjunct at the end where uh Forthencho who is

50:37 a major character in obviously the Forerunner Saga and in Epitaph um he's

50:41 neurally transmitted himself to Boundary to bear witness to the destruction

50:45 of the Lithos uh on Boundary just before he returns to the Domain

50:50 and watches the sunrise with the Didact with whom he is now

50:53 you know lovely good friends with as you do after the events

50:56 of the book yes you know exactly what you expect also I

50:59 didn't realize it was Forthencho I kept wanting to say cho So,

51:03 good to know on that one.

51:05 I've always called him Forthencho,

51:07 but I'm I'm sure that Forthencho is actually probably the correct pronunciation.

51:13 I Yeah, I I don't know.

51:15 Uh the Yeah, the Didact and Such a Heated Rivalry.

51:18 Haha.

51:19 Uh but yeah, the sunrise was out of out of nowhere.

51:23 It's okay.

51:24 Sure.

51:25 It was we wanted to pull the camera back essentially to the cosmic scale, right?

51:30 because we've gone through all these different perspectives and we

51:34 wanted to have that sense of um you know

51:38 the the mythical nature to Halo almost like you know

51:42 the gods watching over Jason and the Argonauts type thing.

51:45 So after after everything that's kind of happened there because their mission,

51:49 the Didact and Forthencho is to close off access

51:51 to the Domain which is that connection point, right?

51:54 Because that's what happens at the end of this book when the Samothrace

51:58 uh unleashes its MAC upon the Lithos and you know destroys it.

52:02 Um so for like yep that's great that's happened.

52:04 Uh this gateway's done.

52:06 I'm going to go chill with my buddy now.

52:08 We're going to you know drink some Mountain Dew

52:11 and play some Halo 3 multiplayer online with the Didact.

52:14 It's going to be great fun.

52:16 Can can you imagine?

52:17 I would probably lose and then like have no excuse.

52:21 So, um, how did how did it come about that you were like,

52:26 "This is how I want to tie this in." Like,

52:28 what made you think of that in particular?

52:30 Um, well, there were a few like different

52:32 chapters that I got to add into the book.

52:34 There was one with Spartan McEndon from his point

52:37 of view uh as he sacrifices himself to free

52:40 uh the Unggoy Stolt as they're being crushed

52:43 by a destroyed building at the end of the battle.

52:45 Uh you know, some of this is just like through the editing process

52:48 once you sort of see where some of the gaps in the story are,

52:52 it's like, oh, we just need a little bit extra here.

52:54 We need a bit more here.

52:56 Um originally it was just that you know Tul ‘Juran goes meets up

53:01 with Stolt and Spartan McEndon dead and there's

53:04 no there's no connective like throughine there.

53:07 So it was like okay what if we just

53:11 had a very short chapter where a Spartan sacrifices himself

53:14 for you know an alien that's something that you know

53:18 sort of brings together his more heroic perspective on the SP.

53:22 This is getting to something larger because we have two different Spartans

53:25 in this book who are uh sort of binary opposites of each other.

53:30 We've got Spartan Mckendon and Spartan Merrick.

53:32 They're both Spartan IVs and Merrick turns out to be, you know, the bad guy.

53:37 He represents the problematic element of the Spartan

53:40 IV program where they come from all these different

53:43 backgrounds so they could have these different allegiances

53:45 and ultimately betray the UNSC, which he does.

53:48 and Spartan McEndon who represents on the opposite side, you know,

53:52 the more heroic, self-sacrificing platonic ideal of being a Spartan.

53:56 Um, so him sacrificing himself for Stolt by, you know,

53:59 lifting this crushed building that has has uh impaled him was great fun.

54:03 I I I really loved being able to add that.

54:07 Um, and as for your question of the Forthencho stuff, um, as I said,

54:13 it was that connection point to to Epitaph, which we were like, uh,

54:18 we do want to make it feel like this book has such a has more

54:23 of a connection with that one because all

54:25 of the books that you've read in recent years,

54:28 Rubicon Protocol, Shadows Reach, uh, Outcasts,

54:31 there there's been this kind of um,

54:34 narrative through line around the Halo Infinite era.

54:37 Um, that kind of reaches a bit of a head in Epitaph where a lot

54:42 of the events even going back to Halo 5 are sort of tied up.

54:47 Um, and so, you know,

54:49 originally we were talking about would it be the Didact who does

54:53 this or would it be Forthencho um who actually goes to witness this?

54:57 And it's interesting because, you know,

54:59 Forthencho is a character who you wouldn't expect to see there.

55:02 you know, he he's sort of shown up um in in Epitaph as, you know,

55:07 more of a more of a secondary capacity.

55:10 Whereas here, it's like, oh,

55:12 he's bearing witness to modern humanity and the things

55:14 that are going on in the present now.

55:17 And he's getting an interesting understanding of, you know,

55:21 what his people have become over over

55:24 the last 100,000 110,000 years since he's been gone.

55:27 Um, so it was that little surprise just to, you know,

55:31 tease people a little bit of of that aspect.

55:34 Yeah.

55:34 Just, hey, what's been going on while I took a nap, right?

55:38 You know, what could have possibly changed?

55:40 Um, you're talking about McEndon and actually Eternal

55:43 Canadian said it was nice or sorry, McEndo.

55:46 Um, he says it was nice to see him at the end think of things beyond duty.

55:52 And somebody somebody else is pointing out that it's it it is the kind of maybe

55:58 the difference between like a Spartan III

56:00 and a Spartan II to a Spartan IV, right?

56:03 Spartan IIIs and Spart Spartan IIs and IIIs

56:06 were just like created to be war machines.

56:09 Spartan IVs had to volunteer so they have a little bit more

56:13 of that like life experience and just for better or worse, right?

56:18 Maybe they maybe they're a little bit more sour on the UNSC.

56:21 Maybe they're, you know, all in.

56:23 It's It's hard to It's hard to guarantee what you're going to get out

56:28 of a Spartan IV when they have when

56:30 they come into this with a life lived, right?

56:32 If that makes sense.

56:34 With with like New Blood and Bad Blood with Mickey right after Mickey and Ilsa.

56:39 Mickey and Ilsa were both just name dropped in chat.

56:42 So, exactly.

56:43 So I think it is that is the risk you take

56:46 but then because which one's more ethical converting an adult or a child?

56:51 Probably the adult right when somebody can opt in that is

56:55 probably more ethical than you know kidnapping a child.

56:58 I guess that would depend who you ask in Halo.

57:00 I was literally about to say, "Yeah,

57:01 depends who you are asking." Cuz here we are again.

57:04 At the end of the book,

57:07 we it it not a novel that will necessarily like tie up every loose end,

57:12 but it does lead into Infinite.

57:14 So, we see some things happening there,

57:16 but there's also it leaves some like we see some things

57:20 happen and there's room for learning later on down the line, right?

57:24 With some more things that happen.

57:25 Yes.

57:26 I mean, we leave everyone in quite an interesting kind of situation.

57:29 You know, the created have been for now, you know, defeated.

57:33 Cortana has has, you know, sacrificed herself with Zeta Halo.

57:37 And as a result, the created have lost control over uh

57:41 the Forerunner constructs that gave them such a centralized um you know,

57:46 power over over the rest of the peoples of the galaxy.

57:50 So there's this now power vacuum that's you know come about.

57:53 At the same time, Zeta Halo has disappeared along with Atriox and Escharum.

57:57 And that leaves Severan kind of the de

58:00 facto leader of the Banished home fleet almost because,

58:04 you know, he was promoted just before they

58:06 left to go on their on their little mission.

58:08 Um, so that leaves him in a very That is that definitely gives

58:12 the vibes of like when you lie on your resume and get the job, right?

58:16 And then like all of a sudden like here you are, you're the guy.

58:21 What?

58:21 So it'd be interesting to see what happens with him, you know, in the future.

58:24 And obviously, yes, we we we've Darth Vader-d him.

58:27 he gets uh very much injured by Vul ‘Soran after killing Sali ‘Nyon.

58:33 Um and so he wears this awesome, you know, life support suit,

58:37 which was actually a piece of uh concept art for Voridus in Halo Wars 2.

58:43 We we visually depicted that in uh in a cannon foder issue,

58:47 you know, back when when the book came out.

58:49 So if you you look at that, that's very

58:51 much kind of the the appearance that that he's got.

58:54 Um, we catch up with Dovo Nesto as well.

58:56 He's setting course for Cloisater.

58:58 Now, this is something that's been building

59:01 in the background technically since Halo 3,

59:04 but uh really since Joseph Staten’s novela in 2015, Shadow of Intent.

59:09 Um, you know, as to where the San ‘Shyuum went after the fall of High Charity.

59:15 Um, Troy Denning tapped into this a little bit

59:18 in Divine Wind as well because Cloister comes up in there.

59:21 And we had Ayit ‘Sevi from the Escalation comics.

59:24 He's the only spy aboard uh the Covenant ship who is

59:28 uh keeping an eye on on things there, which is exciting.

59:32 You bring him up.

59:33 There's actually a lot of uh there were a lot

59:36 of comments before you even mentioned his name in chat.

59:37 They were like, "Oh my god, did you see that cameo?

59:40 That was so exciting.

59:41 I can't wait to see what he learns."

59:44 So definitely definitely well loved on that one.

59:46 Indeed.

59:46 uh you know the the whole concept of him.

59:49 He's one of the highlights of the Escalation comics.

59:51 I think you know he's an Elite who thinks like

59:54 a human is kind of the way that they put it.

59:57 He's he's the most human Elite that they

59:58 could find in that he's got this deceitful nature.

1:00:01 He's not honor bound.

1:00:02 Uh Escalation had a few different characters like that like Zef

1:00:06 'Trahl who uh has you know fallen in love with human capitalism.

1:00:10 Uh things like that.

1:00:12 This adds a lot of a great texture to the universe

1:00:15 and to these different characters when you

1:00:17 know the species aren't planet of hats.

1:00:20 They all think and act the same way when they're

1:00:24 exposed to human ideas or the ideas of other species.

1:00:27 They are actually influenced by them in ways that are actually quite realistic.

1:00:32 Um so Ayit is well placed as a fan favorite in in that regard.

1:00:37 Yeah, it's just you know assimilation a little bit.

1:00:41 You learn from the culture, you like things.

1:00:43 Capitalist Sangheili.

1:00:44 Did not have that on my Halo bingo list.

1:00:48 Well, no bingo for you then.

1:00:50 So, and then as we touched on earlier,

1:00:52 Tel ‘Juran is functionally part of Gray Team.

1:00:55 You know, she's just kind of there.

1:00:56 Uh, and just saying that makes me very excited.

1:00:59 It makes me want to like just tell a story about her right now about

1:01:03 what they get up to because uh

1:01:05 just humans and Sangheili serving alongside each other.

1:01:08 That's just one of my favorite like Halo story setups.

1:01:12 Yeah.

1:01:12 And I think having her with Great Team is interesting because obviously I like

1:01:17 them because we've said Cole Protocol

1:01:19 and then Tobias Buckell’s uh Envoy was excellent.

1:01:22 That was a really great sequel to it.

1:01:24 I thought like a good followup with them.

1:01:26 Highly recommend those.

1:01:27 Those are some of my favorites.

1:01:28 But and then um Hood and Osman, they did not just get left alone, right?

1:01:34 They did take BB uh BlackBox from Osman and decommission him,

1:01:39 but he they are back home.

1:01:41 They are back at Earth, right?

1:01:43 They're back on Earth.

1:01:45 Um Osman has said goodbye to BlackBox.

1:01:47 Yep.

1:01:48 Who had to be committed to Final Dispensation, which was a very sad scene.

1:01:53 It's quite low-key actually in in the overall scope of the novel.

1:01:57 you know, after the adventure that they've been on in Kilo

1:02:01 5 and uh obviously BB showed up in Hunt the Truth,

1:02:04 the second season as well as as a companion in that.

1:02:07 Um, and he's he's been in various other stories,

1:02:11 but it was a necessary moment to to say

1:02:15 goodbye to him at this point and, you know,

1:02:18 commit to to the rules of rampy in in this regard after,

1:02:21 you know, they can clearly see that he's breaking down.

1:02:24 uh he he's losing function.

1:02:26 He's got a great line when he speaks with Abigail Cole where uh he's like,

1:02:31 "Oh, you're the daughter of uh of Preston and Jeremiah Cole." Yes.

1:02:34 Would you like to know what really happened to him?

1:02:37 And then she said, "No." I was like, "Oh my god,

1:02:39 am I really going to know?" And she said,

1:02:42 "No." And I was like, "Aw come on!" I mean,

1:02:44 that brings us to a very critical scene, of course.

1:02:48 um where you know Samothrace is in free

1:02:52 fall toward Boundary and she has a vision

1:02:55 or a hallucination of her father on the bridge

1:02:59 alone with her and they have a conversation.

1:03:02 It's the conversation they could never have because obviously

1:03:04 he disappeared or he died whichever one it was.

1:03:08 And uh it strikes me as equally likely that either

1:03:12 it was a hallucination or Preston Jeremiah Cole has found

1:03:17 a way to exploit precursor neural physics so that he

1:03:20 can show up anywhere in the galaxy whenever he wants.

1:03:24 Either of those could happen.

1:03:26 Let's face it, if anybody could, it would be him.

1:03:29 If anybody in the galaxy could find a way to make that work,

1:03:33 it would be him just because of all the crazy stuff he's pulled off.

1:03:37 So there is yeah this book definitely had had it all.

1:03:41 The space battles were great.

1:03:43 The personal like growth and character development was great.

1:03:46 It did bring in a lot of their threads

1:03:49 and tied them together to like what's happening currently.

1:03:52 And then you just I wish it had been a little bit more

1:03:55 linear personally but I think this was actually a really really great novel.

1:03:58 Uh, and I was I was pleasantly surprised,

1:04:01 especially because I went in with the only thing I

1:04:04 knew going into this is that you spent so much time

1:04:07 working on it and I was expecting an absolute slog

1:04:09 and this was way more exciting than I ever could have dreamed.

1:04:14 Oh, you're expecting an absolute slog because I was working on it.

1:04:18 No, but just like it was that's not that's not what I

1:04:22 meant at all cuz I love your work and you know that.

1:04:25 Don't do that to me.

1:04:26 Uh, it was more just like I know you had said there was like

1:04:29 so much going on and I didn't understand that until I started to read it.

1:04:33 Then I had a better appreciation for what she meant,

1:04:35 but it was there was a lot going on and I think that helped

1:04:39 alleviate the some of the issues I had with like the perspective jumping.

1:04:43 That's all.

1:04:43 Yeah, it was crazy like you know it it was a a tough one

1:04:47 to work on just by sheer n you know the sheer nature of what it was.

1:04:50 Obviously the time at the studio was a massive period

1:04:53 of transition for us as well going from 343 to Halo Studios

1:04:57 uh around that time and um you know just it was

1:05:01 it was I look back on it very fondly now as oh

1:05:05 wow we really made something special uh you know through all

1:05:08 this and I'm just very grateful that we were able to do

1:05:12 this with Jeremy uh ultimately and you know tell his story

1:05:15 that had been building up for for so long in his mind.

1:05:18 Uh, I mean, I remember when he first described it to me, I was like, "Ah,

1:05:22 that sounds like it'd be really great." And then

1:05:23 it turned out he was actually writing it.

1:05:25 I was like, "Ah, let's go." I Somebody

1:05:28 earlier I was watching and they were like,

1:05:31 and again, the fact that this was Jeremy's

1:05:34 first real foray into novel writing for or like,

1:05:36 you know, maybe more than a short story or something was incredible because

1:05:41 he has had his hands in the lore for such a long time.

1:05:45 So, this is a really great like it's a really strong first showing.

1:05:48 It's really hard to come out with something so great.

1:05:52 But somebody said uh they they really felt

1:05:55 like Jeremy understood like all the aspects of Halo,

1:05:58 not just one, which I think is really hard to do too sometimes.

1:06:01 He had such a really great with that man for hours and hours

1:06:06 on end on on like a you know a philosophical almost religious kind of way.

1:06:11 I fully believe that and I can only imagine once

1:06:16 Jeff gets involved or Kenneth that you guys could just

1:06:18 like go on for weeks on end just want

1:06:20 to sit there and like absorb it, soak it all in.

1:06:23 So, I did ask chat if we had any questions

1:06:26 or whatever because I do think you said we had some.

1:06:29 But while we're waiting on that, I do want

1:06:31 to again plug the um the book guide aka.ms/HaloBookGuide guide.

1:06:34 I will make sure it's in the YouTube copy as well,

1:06:39 but that is a great resource to get your all the novels,

1:06:42 all the are the comics in there?

1:06:43 I don't remember.

1:06:44 Uh, just the books.

1:06:45 Okay, so just the books, but there are comics and stuff, too.

1:06:49 Uh, somebody would like to know what was your favorite pov from the book.

1:06:55 Oh, that's a good question.

1:06:57 Um I think Tul’s for me her her personal journey

1:07:02 uh in that book was something that I really enjoyed reading.

1:07:07 Like I think um we do a lot of stories about

1:07:14 villains or antagonists wanting vengeance um such that it you know can

1:07:19 become a bit wrote but having one of the more heroic

1:07:23 characters I think lends an interesting kind of different flavor to that.

1:07:27 Similar in Halo Wars 2 where it's Isobel who's

1:07:29 really like gunning to get revenge against the Banished.

1:07:32 like it when it's a a hero who's got a thornier side to them,

1:07:36 which is which is great.

1:07:38 So, yeah, probably to I think I would for me I

1:07:41 think I would say James actually cuz I liked that very rogue

1:07:45 I'm just kind of in it for whatever kind of attitude

1:07:48 which is not something you typically see of the Spartans whereas there,

1:07:52 you know, duty, honor, country, whatever.

1:07:55 He's basically like it pays for my beer, right?

1:08:00 Um, but speaking of James,

1:08:02 so and I don't know if again realize that any questions we

1:08:06 ask the answer might be a non-commmitment non-committal answer or no answer,

1:08:10 but was his Mark V modified in any way post assignment.

1:08:14 Do we know or is it just stock and then repaired off of, you know,

1:08:19 whatever blew off the uh the jetpack?

1:08:22 So you'll see throughout this book there is

1:08:25 a lot of technology that has been described as modified.

1:08:28 So you can absolutely be certain that uh James' Mark V, you know,

1:08:34 because he he's had to keep that up himself over the years,

1:08:37 you know, with with uh everything that he does.

1:08:40 So yes, there are definitely going to be modified experimental

1:08:43 components and we get to see some of the, you know,

1:08:46 the technology that he uses uh like his glider, his various things like that.

1:08:51 So yes, I would describe it as modified.

1:08:53 I think that's totally fair and I think that makes sense.

1:08:55 Him having to do it all on his own is

1:08:58 also insane and no easy task because on the Infinity,

1:09:02 right, you've got a team of people to you maintain you like a race car.

1:09:06 Whereas if you're just by yourself and you've

1:09:08 got a nonvolutional AI hanging out with you,

1:09:10 then you kind of got to do it mostly by yourself.

1:09:12 Yeah.

1:09:13 You've got to and like on the Infinity,

1:09:15 you've got the machines to help you put everything on.

1:09:17 Like it's you stand there, right?

1:09:19 Look pretty.

1:09:20 Yeah.

1:09:20 That's no easy task.

1:09:21 I'm seeing some questions that I'm not going to ask because I

1:09:24 know we won't get answers to or is things we're not addressing.

1:09:27 I'm curious where you believe Spartan Merrick's

1:09:30 loyalties were when he betrayed his team.

1:09:32 Was it with the Banished or with the Covenant?

1:09:35 It's an interesting question.

1:09:37 Perfect.

1:09:37 Um Jeremy has addressed this to a degree himself where uh his intent was to show

1:09:44 the depths to which Dovo Nesto’s kind of manipulation

1:09:47 and machinations were able to to go to.

1:09:50 Now whether Merrick’s loyalties specifically in that context

1:09:53 were with the Covenant or the Banished, you know, the book doesn't spell it out.

1:09:59 Personally, I think, you know,

1:10:01 he would be more of like a middleman through some kind of Banished um sort

1:10:06 of perspective on that, but we obviously

1:10:09 haven't in any official fiction gone into that.

1:10:12 So, you know, maybe that will be clarified in the future.

1:10:16 Maybe not.

1:10:17 We'll see.

1:10:17 A very long- winded way to say I'm not actually answering that.

1:10:22 Well, hey, that's more of an answer

1:10:24 that than I would otherwise be inclined to give.

1:10:26 That is You know what?

1:10:27 That is totally valid.

1:10:28 Totally valid.

1:10:28 Uh, I'm not seeing too much, so I think we can start to wrap up.

1:10:32 We actually went longer than I expected.

1:10:35 Oh, how challenging was writing the space battles.

1:10:37 That I think is something I always wonder about, too,

1:10:41 because I know I can't see pictures in my head very well.

1:10:46 So, I have a really hard time

1:10:48 understanding like when I'm reading something for me,

1:10:50 a lot of times I can skip some

1:10:52 of the details because it literally doesn't tell me anything.

1:10:55 it doesn't manifest in any in any meaningful way in my brain.

1:10:59 But when you're talking, you know, oh,

1:11:01 the ship has to like hit the underbelly or whatever,

1:11:03 like how do you how do you plan something like that?

1:11:06 How do you how do you get from I want this ship

1:11:10 to blow that ship up and then how do you get there?

1:11:14 For me personally, I go back and I watch a lot of space battles,

1:11:19 you know, stuff from like The Expanse,

1:11:22 um, to just get myself in the headspace of like,

1:11:25 all right, here's what a space battle should look like.

1:11:28 Um, but as to the context of this particular novel,

1:11:32 you know, that's that's more a Jeremy question since, you know,

1:11:34 he wrote all these space battles and he's very much

1:11:36 pulling from a lot of the, as we said earlier,

1:11:39 you know, the the Nylund kind of aesthetic

1:11:41 of how um how space battles been done beforehand.

1:11:44 Um, you know, really it's about knowing what your ship's capabilities,

1:11:50 tonnage, capacities are, which thankfully, you know,

1:11:55 we have a very extensive archive of both in our official

1:12:00 uh encyclopedia fiction and also in our, you know,

1:12:04 lovely internal wiki that we maintain.

1:12:07 Um, so being able to pull from that stuff

1:12:10 and knowing how things should work is always very helpful.

1:12:14 That's totally fair and I think that's one of those things

1:12:17 I would definitely have to do a lot of research on.

1:12:19 Oh yeah, Stumpy.

1:12:20 We have internal resources for all sorts of things.

1:12:23 We're usually in there all the time.

1:12:25 Uh I actually really like this question and is

1:12:28 not at all related to uh Empty Throne in particular,

1:12:31 but it is that your vocabulary is stellar.

1:12:33 Do you ever have to replace some words in stories because a word might

1:12:37 be too obscure or do you ever go the other way and be like,

1:12:40 "This word is too simple.

1:12:41 Let me give them a harder word." I can tell you from experience, Kat,

1:12:44 that I do think he does the latter

1:12:45 sometimes because I definitely remember some standups

1:12:48 where Alex would throw a word out and John just kind of like looks over like,

1:12:53 “That's not real.” So, oh man, I think that's happened a lot with John.

1:12:58 I think there I think there's definitely definitely times he does the latter.

1:13:03 Well, when we named the omnibus, you know,

1:13:05 he he gave us me and Jeff a call and he was like,

1:13:09 "Omnibus, is that a real word?" I was like,

1:13:13 "Yes." Uh, somebody brought up the uh Yes, that word.

1:13:18 Of course.

1:13:18 Yeah, absolutely.

1:13:19 And now we're just getting into like know the man.

1:13:23 Maybe we should just do a Spartan chatter

1:13:25 that's just about you and your writing process.

1:13:27 I think that would be really fun.

1:13:29 Um, I'm going to save that, Small Napkins,

1:13:31 because I actually like that idea because I think we may need

1:13:35 to like come up with some topics because that's a good question.

1:13:38 That is I think there I think there could be just

1:13:41 some fun about like how do we how do we get here?

1:13:43 Um I will say it can't be music with lyrics otherwise I get distracted.

1:13:47 It has to be instrumental uh soundtracks that sort of thing.

1:13:50 That's a good question.

1:13:51 What is your favorite memory or experience with this book in particular?

1:13:55 Overall getting to work with Jeremy just all up.

1:13:59 He was a wonderful colleague to to have.

1:14:02 Um we uh I got to go to dinner with him in London when he came to visit back

1:14:10 in gosh 2022 I think 23 um around Christmas time

1:14:15 and we just spoke for hours on end about all things

1:14:20 Halo his experiences and this was you know while we

1:14:23 were sort of in the process of get of sort

1:14:26 of spinning up what this book kind of was and obviously

1:14:28 that lived in his head for a very long time.

1:14:31 Um, so yeah, just getting to work with Jeremy.

1:14:35 Wonderful experience.

1:14:36 If you ever get the chance to meet Jeremy, absolutely take it.

1:14:40 He is a fantastic human being.

1:14:42 Um, very kind, very smart, but also just absolutely loves Halo.

1:14:46 I do think I did I think I did ask.

1:14:49 He is he is working somewhere on other projects that he enjoys.

1:14:53 So, he has he has found a new home at the moment.

1:14:57 where wherever he's at will benefit to no end from having him.

1:15:04 Absolutely.

1:15:04 100%.

1:15:05 So, I think I think we can probably wrap this one up here.

1:15:10 Uh we have another one of these planned for this is April,

1:15:14 so I guess June since we shifted a little bit.

1:15:16 I can look maybe we do it at the end of May.

1:15:19 Uh we'll we'll take a look at some dates,

1:15:22 but I believe got a book coming out at the end of May, of course.

1:15:26 Right.

1:15:26 And it's almost like we have planned this to be topical.

1:15:29 Would you like to tell us about that real quick?

1:15:33 Yes.

1:15:33 Halo: Waypoint Chronicles– Volume 1 will be releasing.

1:15:36 Uh we recently revealed the voice cast of over 30 narrators, myself and Mr.

1:15:45 Jeff Easterling included.

1:15:47 But you don't care about that.

1:15:49 you care about Jen Taylor, Trisha Hefler, Gideon Emery,

1:15:52 all the other awesome voices from, you know,

1:15:55 characters in the games that you've experienced and all the other new

1:15:59 uh voice actors who are going to be in it as well.

1:16:02 That's going to be very exciting.

1:16:04 It collects all of the Waypoint Chronicles that we've

1:16:07 released publicly um from 2022 to last year.

1:16:09 uh all of the Intel and the Armory

1:16:12 Infinitums that we've done in support of Halo Infinite,

1:16:15 but also there are 10 new stories and a lovely short

1:16:20 poem at the end of this um as you know a nice

1:16:24 value ad to to this particular uh book and you will have

1:16:29 seen the titles uh in our announcement in Canon Fodder last week.

1:16:33 Uh some rather interesting ones to speculate about there.

1:16:37 Um, I I'm very excited for people to see

1:16:40 what some of these extra ones are because

1:16:43 obviously we are we we were supporting Halo

1:16:47 Infinite specifically with a lot of these, you know,

1:16:50 as we were going through them and with these additional ones,

1:16:52 we were able to kind of branch out a bit further

1:16:55 in the uh in the universe and do some interesting things.

1:16:59 So, yeah, I did just drop a link to that in chat, so you can catch that there.

1:17:03 For those of you listening at home,

1:17:04 I will make sure this is in the in the copy down below,

1:17:07 so you can grab a link there as well.

1:17:09 But it is going to be exciting.

1:17:11 And then I do know we have another

1:17:14 episode after that planned around the omnibus release.

1:17:16 Uh this has kind of turned into a book club and I'm not mad about it,

1:17:20 but I do want to see if we can maybe, you know,

1:17:23 as we get closer to, you know, things happening this year.

1:17:26 We've got all of our 25th Anniversary celebrations.

1:17:28 Um we've got a game coming out this year.

1:17:31 We've got a lot of opportunities for more of these.

1:17:34 So, we'll definitely keep them up,

1:17:35 but I think we're going to put an end to this one right here.

1:17:38 So, I want to say thank you to everybody who

1:17:39 is in the chat and the audience listening right now.

1:17:42 If you're listening at home, thank you so much.

1:17:44 The next one will be put up I'll put it up

1:17:47 and as an event on Discord as soon as I can.

1:17:49 So, definitely be sure to opt in there to get notified,

1:17:52 stay in the know, and then we will see you in the next one.

1:17:56 Thank you so much, Alex, for joining.

1:17:58 Thank you to everybody and we'll catch you next time!