Halo: Silent Storm is the 26th book in the Halo franchise, written by Troy Denning, making this his third Halo novel.
It is the first year of the Human-Covenant War, and the UNSC is still operating in the dark about the scale and capabilities of their enemy. Desperate to gain a foothold, the Spartan-II program, led by a young John-117 and initially developed to fight Insurrectionist groups in the Outer Colonies, are turned against the Covenant and tasked with intelligence gathering in the hope that some way of delivering a decisive blow to the Covenant onslaught can be discovered. Operation: SILENT STORM is enacted to that end, but the Spartans are faced with a familiar enemy as they encounter heavy resistance from the United Rebel Front, who see the Covenant invasion as an opportunity to break free from Earth's governance, and are even willing to consider forging an alliance with them to do so. With one Sangheili Shipmaster willing to give the Insurrectionists an ear, the Spartans are on a race against time to prove humanity can stand up against the alien invaders.
It is followed by a direct sequel, Halo: Oblivion.
Tropes featured:
- All Gravity Is the Same: Subverted. The gravity on the ice moon of Seoba is stated to be much lower than that on Earth. As a result, combatants on the moon are able to make jumps that carry them higher and farther than would typically be normal.
- Anti-Mutiny: With the revelation that Hector Nyeto is aligned with the Insurrectionists, Colonel Crowther, Sergeant Major Johnson and a cadre of ODSTs attempt to relieve Nyeto of command. Unfortunately, the UNSC underestimates the number of Insurrectionists among them, with the crews of an entire Prowler wing turning traitor. Consequently, the attempt at an anti-mutiny ends with Crowther dead, with Johnson and the ODSTs blasted into space. Only some quick thinking on Johnson's part forces the Insurrectionist aligned Prowlers into retreat.
- The Bait: ODST Nelly Hamm sends the Spartans of Blue Team up a decrepit, unused mass driver. By ascending the mass driver, the Spartans believe they will get ahead of and ambush an incoming convoy of Insurrectionists. This is a ruse on Hamm's part, however; the Insurrectionists spot and attack Blue Team, allowing Hamm's ODST's to take up positions and ambush the Insurrectionists while they are distracted firing on the Spartans. Blue Team is understandably miffed at being used as unknowing bait.
- Betrayal by Inaction: Nyeto launches a sortie to support the Spartans engaging the Covenant on Seoba. He purposefully takes his time launching the attack, however, hoping that the delay will result in the Spartans being decimated. All of the Spartans wind up surviving, much to Nyeto's chagrin.
- The Bus Came Back: This novel marks the return of many minor Spartan-II characters who had earlier one-off appearances in other Halo stories. Daisy-023 (previously seen in Homecoming) gets the biggest role of the bunch, with other appearances from many Spartans who had their last significant appearance in Halo: First Strike (Joshua-029, Grace-093, Anton-044, and Malcolm-059), one who last appeared in The Package (Solomon-069), and even Kurt-051, who has been mentioned plenty of times throughout the novels but who last appeared in-person back in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.
- Insurrectionist leader Lyrenne Castilla also makes a cameo appearance near the beginning, having last been seen in The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole.
- Downer Beginning: The book opens with the Spartan-II's infiltrating a Covenant frigate to acquire intelligence, which ends with a dud when the ship is alerted to the UNSC presence and self-destructs.
- Fake Relationship: Doctor Halsey stages a relationship with Colonel Crowther, who realizes Halsey's intentions but plays along. This allows Halsey to bring Crowther into her private quarters without arousing suspicion; Halsey's quarters are free of the surveillance bugs planted by Insurrectionists throughout the rest of the Fleet, allowing them to secret plan retaliatory measures against the Insurrectionist moles embedded throughout Task Force Yama.
- Genre Throwback: The book as a whole reads as a throwback to the early Eric Nylund-authored Halo books, which were largely hardened Military Science Fiction in tone.
- Les Collaborateurs: A group of United Rebel Front cells led by Harper Garvin believe making a truce with the Covenant can secure them their independence from the United Earth Governments.
