A good book, but somehow missed the mark for me. For one I felt like if I wasn't already familiar with the Halo universe, I might have been more lost in this book. I finished it and on some level enjoyed it, just not as much as I'd hoped. ( )

Upon finishing Primordium I called my brother (who was halfway through the book) and simply stated, “and you thought the last line of Cryptum changed the halo universe.” This is, succinctly put, the crux of Bear’s enterprise.

Following the tale of Chakas after the events of Cryptum, the story weaves between his telling and his modern existence as a monitor talking to Reclaimer scientists and military. As well as being fascinating and filled with vivid imagery, compelling characters, and intriguing technologies, the novel provides depth, scope, and new dimensions to the Halo universe, the Flood, the Primordials, the Forerunners, the Librarian, the Captive, the Didact, monitors, Halos, and Arks. The tale grows in the telling, and is a beautiful composition that educates readers about the Halo universe, but not at the expense of plot, readability, or pace. The Forerunner Trilogy may turn out to be among the best Halo novels (despite its lack of John, Cortana, and Spartan IIs). The concepts, including the child, the experiments, and the composer, are chilling. As with Cryptum, the last chapter and indeed the last line turn everything you thought you knew about this universe upside down.

I highly recommend this series to sci-fi fans, including those who have no interest in the Halo universe (though the incredible endings of the novels and twists are most significant to those familiar with the Halo games and novels). ( )

An improvement on the first volume in this series. As the first book this is a step away from the action packed military Sci-Fi stories following the Master Chief and other special forces characters in the Halo universe. This book is told as a data stream from one of the monitors, once a human long ago. This book tells some of the story of the forerunners, who they were to the human race, and the story of the rings and how they came to be. ( )

This was not the usual kind of scifi that I like and at first I thought I wasn't going to like it but somewhere along the way I got sucked in. Very interesting story line. I would certainly recommend it and will read other books by this author. ( )