After starting to read the Halo book series (wanted something that would be stimulating enough to keep me awake, without being stimulating enough to distract me, while driving) I ended up watching the two Halo shows available on US netflix. Halo Fall of Reach, and Halo Episodes.
Both movies were surprisingly not bad, and went along well with what little I remembered from literally ONE halo game I played on PC, I think around 2002? 2004?
First book was OK, slogging my way through the second, not sure if I'll continue to the third or switch to something else. (2nd book feels almost like a walkthrough with characters thrown in after the fact, which I suppose in a way it is.)
Ooooh man I could talk your ear off with Halo knowledge.
The 2nd book (The Flood?) is definitely the worst book. The book "Cole Protocol" is also meh and you can skip it without missing anything important.
I would definitely recommend sticking with the Halo books though. Most of them are well written and cover some interesting topics with regards to morality and warfare, especially the newer books.
In order, the series goes:
Fall Of Reach
The Flood
First Strike
Ghosts of Onyx
Glasslands
Thursday War
Mortal Dictata
You can pretty much read the whole series without touching any of the games, as the books do a pretty good job of covering the important parts.
Theres also a few supplementary books that dont fit the main chronology.
-First Contact, which takes place before Fall Of Reach and covers the first contact between humans and the covenant.
-Broken Circle, which takes place thousands of years before the events of the Halo games, and covers the origin story for the Covenant.
-New Blood, which is a story about the ODSTs and the beginnings of the Spartan IV program.
Theres also the Forerunner Saga, which is a trilogy consisting of the books Halo Cryptum, Halo Primidorium, and Halo Silentenium. These ones delve pretty deep into the backstory of the Halo universe. You pretty much have to read all the other books and play the games to get a full scope of them.
Theres Halo Evolutions and Halo Fractures, which are collections of short stories set in the Halo Universe. I like these a lot as they also feature stories written from the Covenant perspective.
As far as movies/shows based on Halo, theres a number of offerings out there:
-Halo Legends, which is a collection of short animated stories from a variety of studios featuring a lot of interesting and unique art styles. Just be aware that most of the short stories arent strictly canon and are more for entertainment.
-Forward Unto Dawn, which is my personal favorite, and is a decent live action film depicting the origin story for Captain Lasky, and sets the stage for Halo 4.
-Halo Nightfall. Ugh. I would skip this one. Bad acting, bad CGI, and a stupid plot that doesn't align at all with any Halo canon.
-Fall Of Reach animated. This ones pretty good, although I was disappointed it only covered half of the book.
