This may not be groundbreaking news, but I just realized and figured a reminder would be in order. The 5th OFFICIAL book in the Halo series, Contact Harvest will be released Tuesday, October 30th. Even though Eric Nylund is not the author here, I look forward to reading this. I have read the other four(Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx), this will certainly be a nice addition because it is a prequel. Here is a little backcover preview for you:

This is how it began…

It is the year 2524. Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space. But we have trespassed on holy ground–strayed into the path of an aggressive alien empire known as the Covenant. What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence.

But humanity is also locked in a bitter civil war known as the Insurrection. So the survival of Harvest’s citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees. In this unlikely group of heroes, one stands above the rest…a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson.

Don’t expect any Master Chief or Spartans. He was not born yet and they were not invented yet, but this does tell how this conflict began. Avery Johnson is a bad ass by the way. Looks a little like the Carl Weathers character from Predator doesn’t it???