The Original Series

The Original Series is the retroactive name given to the original five Halo novels. It consists of Halo: The Fall of Reach (2001, Eric Nylund), Halo: The Flood (2003, William C. Dietz), Halo: First Strike (2003, Eric Nylund), Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (2006, Eric Nylund) and a final, unpublished manuscript, Halo: The Rise of Reach (2004, Hadwin Fairbank).

The series covers the origins of SPARTAN-II program and SPARTAN-III program, with a particular focus on John-117 and Blue Team. As the original novels, these books form the groundwork for the majority of Halo lore released after 2006. These novels also set up the events of the original trilogy of Halo games, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3.

Novels

Title	Cover	Author	Audio book narrators	Publication	Summary
Halo: The Fall of Reach		Eric Nylund	Todd McLaren	2001	Details the SPARTAN-II program, the Covenant attack on Reach, and how the UNSC Pillar of Autumn escaped to Halo.
Halo: The Flood		William C. Dietz	Todd McLaren	2003	The novelization of Halo: Combat Evolved. Also features a number of additional subplots which expand on the events on Installation 04.
Halo: First Strike		Eric Nylund	Todd McLaren	2003	Fills in the gap between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, explaining the Master Chief's return to Earth and the survival of a number of characters from Reach and Halo.
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx		Eric Nylund	Jonathan Davis	2006	Follows Kurt-051, the training of the Spartan-IIIs on Onyx, and the three-sided battle for the planet in 2552.
Halo: The Rise of Reach	Hadwin Fairbank	Steve Downes	2004	Follows service number 22926-11908-FM, the events leading up to the SPARTAN-II program on Reach, and the Installation of the AI Déjà as an instructor for the program in 2510.