Halo: Battle Born is the 27th novel set in the Halo universe, written by Cassandra Rose Clarke and released in January 2019. It is also the first Halo novel to be explicitly marketed as Young Adult Literature.
It is 2548 on the Outer Colony of Meridian. Life goes on as normal for four teenagers, Saskia Nazari, Dorian Nguyen, Evie Rousseau, and Victor Gallardo, each of whom are dealing with their own personal issues and following their passions, all while growing up with the spectre of the Human-Covenant War lurking above them. Their comfortable lives are suddenly uprooted when the Covenant attacks their backwater town of Brume-sur-Mer, forcing them to band together to survive. Locked out of the town's shelter, they encounter an injured Spartan-III, Owen-B096, who reluctantly agrees to train them in guerrilla tactics to keep the Covenant distracted until help can arrive.
It is followed by a sequel by the same author, Meridian Divide, which was released in October 2019.
- Artificial Stupidity: Salome, the town's AI, recognises that the town's bomb shelter is at-risk of flooding and killing all of its inhabitants. Unfortunately, she also recognises that the Covenant outside the shelter technically presents a bigger threat, and so refuses to do anything.
- Bittersweet Ending: Our heroes are successful in saving the surviving residents of Brume-sur-Mer from a bomb shelter at risk of flooding, and they evacuate everybody to the safety of a UNSC ship. Unfortunately for them, ONI has taken notice of their feats, and not only plans to use them for propaganda purposes, but also pressures the teenagers into accepting accelerated training for future combat as part of Meridian's Colonial Militia as soon as they come of-age. And as we know, Meridian will eventually fall to the Covenant and be glassed.
- Continuity Nod:
- Owen-B096 is from Jericho VII, the same planet that Jameson Locke and Noble Six are from.
- The Sundered Legion, the Insurrectionist group who built the town's bomb shelter, was first mentioned in a piece of mission intel in Halo 5: Guardians.
- Deconstruction: The ending picks apart the idea of Kid Heroes in a setting that wasn't built to accommodate them. Yes, teenagers absolutely do have the bravery and skills to pull off amazing feats against all odds... which makes them perfect Propaganda Heroes.
- "Die Hard" on an X: "Die Hard in a backwater town in space".
- Dying Town: Brume-sur-Mer was a tourist town that obviously lost most of its traffic after the Human-Covenant War started, with homes being allowed to fall into disrepair.
- Domed Hometown: The Covenant place an energy barrier around Brume-sur-Mer as a defensive measure, which also prevents the protagonists from escaping.
- Family of Choice: A theme of the book. Owen-B096 lost his biological family in a Covenant attack, and found a new one among his fellow Spartan-III's. He tells this story to Saskia, who is estranged from her frequently-absent parents and is fighting for her survival alongside young people like her, and who learns to consider them family by the end of the story.
- Medals for Everyone: Saskia, Dorian, Evie, and Victor all become the youngest people to ever receive the Medal of Honor for their actions.
- No Antagonist: The biggest thing this book has to a central antagonist is the rain.
- The Big Easy: Brume-sur-Mer has a French-colonial vibe going for it, from its name and language, to the architecture, to its weather.
- Weather of War: Meridian is stated to have heavy rain seasons, something which the ongoing battles are making worse. This turns out to be a massive plot point, as the heavier-than-usual rain puts the bomb shelter that Brume-sur-Mer's population is hiding in at risk of flooding, while the AI in charge of it refuses to do anything as it registers the Covenant as a greater threat.
- Younger and Hipper: A natural result of the protagonists being teenagers and the book being intended for younger audiences. A fair amount of time is spent detailing what youth culture on Meridian is like, along with some clear parallels to modern teenage culture and issues.
