Halo has really evolved over the years. From the humble origin of first person shooter, the franchise has become the flagship for the Xbox 360 gaming console and has already  spawned a host of other merchandise, from action figures to novels. And with Halo themed games not ready for release for another six months, a novel is a great way to bridge the gap. Halo: The Cole Protocol is the next novel in the series including The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx.

The novel is set, of course, during the conflict between the Covenant, a collection of alien races, which is dominated by the Brutes and the Elites, and the human forces of the United Nations Space Command. The novel is set before the epic events of the Halo videogame trilogy and it will focus on the actions of the Spartan Gray Team and promises a lot of action as “unlikely alliances are formed and shattered, altering the course of the humanity's epic struggle for survival”.

Halo: The Cole Protocol will be released on November 25 and will cost around 14.95 dollars. It will likely slake the thirst of Halo fans as they expect to see Halo Wars early in 2009 and as they get more information regarding the new Halo project announced by Bungie. If you do not enjoy reading real books, you can get the audio book version of Halo: The Cole Protocol which can be listened to while you have your hands busy with beating Halo 3 again. The audio book will be priced at 23.95 dollars.

Microsoft recently said that the Halo universe would be used by the company, mostly because the games and novels only depicted a few months of a conflict which spawned a whole universe over quite a few years.