{"id":46662,"date":"2025-08-05T08:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46662\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T08:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:48:17","slug":"audiobook-club-new-blood-halo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/46662\/","title":{"rendered":"Audiobook Club: New Blood | Halo"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of our\u00a0audiobook giveaway series<\/a>\u00a0with Simon & Schuster,\u00a0we\u2019re inviting Halo fans to join a community book club\u00a0in our\u00a0official Discord server<\/a>,\u00a0where we\u2019ll focus on\u00a0a new\u00a0novel from\u00a0the\u00a0Halo\u00a0canon\u00a0each month.\u00a0Join the\u00a0#audio-book-club\u00a0channel to\u00a0listen\u00a0along!<\/p>\n

This month\u2019s book club title is\u00a0Halo:\u00a0New Blood,\u00a0a\u00a0tale that covers the\u00a0lengthy\u00a0service record of\u00a0ODST-turned-Spartan Edward Buck\u00a0as he recounts some of the most important moments in his life.\u00a0Join Buck, Veronica Dare,\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Orbital Drop Shock Troopers\u00a0of\u00a0squad\u00a0Alpha-Nine\u00a0as\u00a0a conflict with the United Rebel Front\u00a0pushes\u00a0their friendships\u00a0to the breaking point.<\/p>\n

Halo: New Blood\u00a0is written by Matt Forbeck,\u00a0a\u00a0New York Times\u00a0bestselling author and game designer.\u00a0The audiobook edition is narrated by\u00a0acclaimed\u00a0actor and writer\u00a0Scott Brick.<\/p>\n

\nPLOT PREVIEW\n<\/p>\n

\"Halo:<\/p>\n

Spartan Edward\u00a0Buck recounts his extensive military career, starting in the\u00a0latter years of the\u00a0Covenant War and\u00a0detailing\u00a0the\u00a0fraught\u00a0political tensions\u00a0that followed\u00a0as Buck\u2019s\u00a0homeworld,\u00a0Draco\u00a0III,\u00a0comes under attack by a human rebel group.<\/p>\n

Along the way,\u00a0Buck\u00a0tells the story of his troubled romance\u00a0with\u00a0Veronica Dare,\u00a0explores his journey to the\u00a0SPARTAN-IV program,\u00a0and\u00a0relays the\u00a0tragic\u00a0events that led to the\u00a0dissolution of\u00a0the\u00a0Alpha-Nine\u00a0ODST squad.<\/p>\n

\nCHARACTER GUIDE\n<\/p>\n

Learn more about the events of\u00a0Halo:\u00a0New Blood\u00a0with these brief character bios.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\nEdward\u00a0\u201cEddy\u201d\u00a0Buck\n<\/p>\n

Former\u00a0UNSC marine, erstwhile\u00a0ODST\u00a0gunnery sergeant, and reluctant\u00a0SPARTAN-IV.<\/p>\n

Buck hails from\u00a0Draco III,\u00a0a human colony\u00a0devastated by\u00a0Covenant\u00a0invasion\u00a0shortly after the\u00a0attack on Harvest<\/a>.\u00a0Upon\u00a0learning of\u00a0his family\u2019s massacre\u00a0and\u00a0the destruction of\u00a0the\u00a0tight-knit,\u00a0maritime community he’d known in Karnak,\u00a0Buck\u00a0enlisted\u00a0in the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, where he soon became the leader of Alpha-Nine squad.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0is\u00a0later inducted into the SPARTAN-IV program by Jun-A266\u00a0after suffering\u00a0a\u00a0loss.<\/p>\n

\"Veronica<\/p>\n

\nVeronica\u00a0Dare\n<\/p>\n

As an\u00a0agent of the Office of Naval Intelligence,\u00a0the strictly\u00a0\u201cneed-to-know\u201d\u00a0basis of\u00a0Veronica\u00a0Dare\u2019s\u00a0work\u00a0has put understandable strain on her romance with Eddy Buck.\u00a0Dare\u00a0acts as ONI\u2019s mission liaison during the events on\u00a0Talitsa, tasking the Spartans in Buck\u2019s command to save Vergil and Sadie from their Insurrectionist captors.<\/p>\n

Halo: New Blood\u00a0recounts their\u00a0troubled\u00a0first meeting\u00a0on\u00a0a\u00a0furlough\u00a0near Saturn,\u00a0their\u00a0fiery\u00a0reunion during the Battle of New Mombasa, and\u00a0a series of\u00a0uncertain\u00a0rendezvous\u00a0as they try\u00a0to\u00a0maintain\u00a0a relationship\u00a0within\u00a0the confines of their separate military careers.<\/p>\n

\"Spartan<\/p>\n

\nSarah Palmer\n<\/p>\n

Long before she signed up for the SPARTAN-IV program, Sarah Palmer served as an ODST, distinguishing herself as a ruthless frontlines combatant. She first met Buck during a failed mission to defend a UNSC munitions factory from the Covenant. When her position was overrun, Buck disobeyed Dare\u2019s orders to mount a foolhardy rescue\u2014but the rest of Palmer\u2019s squad had already been eliminated.<\/p>\n

Their fateful second meeting occurs on Draco III years later, after Palmer had become a Spartan-IV.<\/p>\n

\"Jun-A266\"<\/p>\n

\nJun-A266\n<\/p>\n

A Spartan-III of Alpha Company and the only member of Noble Team to survive the fall of Reach. In the aftermath of the Covenant War, Jun served as an advisor and recruiter for the burgeoning SPARTAN-IV program, an initiative that used revolutionary technological advancements to turn adult volunteers into super-soldiers.<\/p>\n

\"Alpha-Nine\"<\/p>\n

\nKojo Agu (“Romeo”)\n<\/p>\n

Ace sniper, former ODST, and current Spartan-IV. After suffering critical wounds during the Battle of New Mombasa, Buck worked tirelessly to save Romeo\u2019s life, thereby earning his unwavering loyalty, even in the face of a changing wartime political landscape.<\/p>\n

\nJonathan Doherty (“The Rookie”)\n<\/p>\n

The youngest member of Alpha-Nine and the nameless protagonist of Halo 3: ODST. Though relatively inexperienced, the Rookie proved himself during the Covenant occupation of New Mombasa and became a highly valued member of Alpha-Nine in the years to come. On Draco III, he takes part in a mission that forever alters the trajectory of the squad\u2019s lives and careers.<\/p>\n

\nTaylor Miles (“Dutch”)\n<\/p>\n

A hardened ODST and a God-fearing man, despite all his time in hell. After witnessing the glassing of Earth firsthand, Dutch grew beleaguered by war against human separatists. The ONI-led operation on Draco III ultimately tests his resolve more than any other mission.<\/p>\n

\nMichael Crespo (“Mickey”)\n<\/p>\n

Demolitions expert and former ODST. As the UNSC turns its attention to insurrectionists in the wake of the Covenant War\u2019s end, Mickey joins the SPARTAN-IV program seeking a more noble appointment. Soon the reignited flames of civil war and a traumatic event lead him to question his personal loyalties.<\/p>\n

\nQuick to Adjust (“Vergil”)\n<\/p>\n

A Huragok who defected from the Covenant. Known to humanity as \u201cVergil\u201d (after the Superintendent AI whose data he assimilated in New Mombasa), he is best known for providing valuable intel on the Covenant\u2019s quarry during the Battle of Earth.<\/p>\n

\nSadie Endesha\n<\/p>\n

Vergil\u2019s companion and assigned handler. As a child, her father programmed the \u201cVergil\u201d subroutine of New Mombasa\u2019s Superintendent AI to watch over her. Sadie later helped rescue the Huragok Quick to Adjust, who inherited the absorbed AI\u2019s affinity for Sadie, leading them to become inseparable.<\/p>\n

\nGAME CONNECTIONS\n<\/p>\n

Halo: New Blood connects several plot threads from the Halo universe.<\/p>\n

Told in the style of a memoir, Buck\u2019s recollections form a time-hopping narrative that bridges the gap between Halo 3 and Halo 4, in the years when the Master Chief had been declared MIA (still adrift on the wreckage of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn), and explores the troubled \u201cpeace\u201d that followed the end of the Human-Covenant War.<\/p>\n

Buck revisits Alpha-Nine\u2019s pivotal rescue of Vergil, as experienced in Halo 3: ODST, and outlines the personal tragedies that culminated in his desire to move away from leadership and reassignment to Fireteam Osiris (a story that continues in Halo 5: Guardians).<\/p>\n

Along the way, we are reunited with Jun-A266, the last surviving member of Noble Team (the tragic Spartan heroes of Halo: Reach), who now recruits candidates for the SPARTAN-IV program. We also encounter Sarah Palmer in her early years as an ODST, well before she attains the rank of Spartan Commander aboard the UNSC Infinity in Halo 4.<\/p>\n

\nABOUT THE AUTHOR\n<\/p>\n

Matt Forbeck is a New York Times bestselling author with over thirty-five novels and the designer of countless published games. His projects have won a Peabody Award, a Scribe Award, and numerous ENNIE and Origins Awards. He is also the president of the Diana Jones Award Foundation, which celebrates excellence in gaming.<\/p>\n

\nABOUT THE READER\n<\/p>\n

Actor, writer, and award-winning audiobook narrator Scott Brick has narrated almost 900 audiobooks, including over a dozen Halo-universe titles. To date, his narrations have earned him over 65 Earphones Awards, five Audie Awards, five SOVAS Awards for voiceover, and a Grammy nomination for the multi-cast recording of\u202fThe Mark of Zorro\u202f(2011). Scott reads Halo: New Blood and its sequel, Halo: Bad Blood.<\/p>\n

\nAUDIOBOOK GIVEAWAY\n<\/p>\n

Enter to win an audiobook copy of a new book-club title each month now through October! To participate, react to the Halo: New Blood post in the\u202f#giveaways\u202fchannel of the\u202fofficial Halo Discord server<\/a>\u202fbefore August 8.<\/p>\n

\nJOIN THE BOOK CLUB\n<\/p>\n

Listen to a new Halo title every month in our Discord book club! To participate, simply join the #audio-book-club channel of the official Halo Discord server<\/a>, where we\u2019ll select a new title from the Halo universe to discuss each month now through October.<\/p>\n

Share your favorite moments and engage in discussion topics for a chance to find your words featured in an upcoming Halo Waypoint post! At the end of the month, we\u2019ll host a special Spartan Chatter episode on Discord to discuss the audiobook and answer questions from the Halo community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of our\u00a0audiobook giveaway series\u00a0with Simon & Schuster,\u00a0we\u2019re inviting Halo fans to join a community book club\u00a0in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-46662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}