Halo: Contact Harvest has been released today to book stores. Those who have followed the book series know they are in for an awesome treat in this epic prequel to the Halo trilogy. Even if you’ve never picked up the book series in the past this is your perfect opportunity to see how the Halo Universe started its wars.

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.