If there’s anything I like more than games, it’s books (sorry family, you’re a solid third place). The combination of the two has, surprisingly, been pretty successful in terms of quality output. While all movie adaptations and most comic adaptations of games have been pretty terrible, the recent spate of novelisations for games like Halo and Gears of War have been pretty good. This is mostly down to the fact the people in charge have wisely enlisted the help of some very talented authors to work on their brands. People like Tobias Buckell (Ragamuffin and Sly Mongoose, both highly recommended if you like space opera sci fi) and Karen Traviss (who almost single handedly made the Star Wars universe cool again with her Clone Wars novels).

The Contributors for Halo Evolutions include:

Tobias Buckell, who wrote Halo: The Cole Protocol, which was pretty good and his own series of science fiction inclduing Ragamuffin and the recent and brilliant Sly Mongoose which features alien hive mind zombies and rastafarian super soldiers.

B.K. Evenson, the Edgar and Horror Guild International nominated author of Last Days and The Open Curtain. Prolific short story writer who has also written stories set in the Aliens universe (yes, as in Ripley Aliens).

Jonathon Goff, writer and artist with 343 Industries working at Microsoft.

Kevin Grace, writer and Managing Editor of 343 Industries at Microsoft.

Tessa Kum & Jeff Vandermeer, Kum is the author of 7wishes and an assistant editor for Weird Tales (as in the long running magazine that published stories by the likes of HP Lovecraft and Robert E Howard) and the Best American Fantasy series. Vandermeer is the World Fantasy award-winning writer of City of Saints and Madman as well as Shriek: An Afterword and Finch. Click here to read Jeff VanderMeer talking about the collaboration he did wtih Tessa Kum.

ROB McLEES, Bungie game developer and writer on Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3, as well as the upcoming Halo: Reach. So yes, he knows Halo better than you do.

Eric Nylund, the New York Times bestselling author of Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and most recently a new non-Halo series that begins with Mortal Coils. He's the name most associated with Halo novels.

Frank O’Connor, the Franchise Director for Halo at 343 Industries at Microsoft. Frank should be familiar to long term haunters of Bungie.net

Eric Raab, writer, and Tor editor of the Halo novels since 2004.

Karen Traviss, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of her own Wess’har series as well as Star Wars and Gears of War novels. If you've ever wondered why there are still Star Wars fans kicking around, Karen is most of the reason.

Fred Van Lente, the New York Times bestselling author of Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak) and the Marvel Zombies comics, as well as Cowboys and Aliens and the upcoming Marvel comic series Halo: Blood Line. You can read some of his comics for free online as well, here's The Weapon and Watchdogs.

The book should be out in the US November 24th and either the same day or not long after every where else, perfect timing for an early christmas present.

Here's the back cover blurb and the front cover to get you all excited and jittery.

When humanity expanded beyond the safety of Earth to new stars and horizons, they never dreamed what dangers they would encounter there. When the alien juggernaut known as the Covenant declared holy war upon the fragile human empire, millions of lives were lost—but, millions of heroes rose to the challenge. In such a far-reaching conflict, not many of the stories of these heroes, both human and alien, have a chance to become legend. This collection holds eleven stories that dive into the depths of the vast Halo universe, not only from the perspective of those who fought and died to save humanity, but also those who vowed to wipe humanity out of existence.

Microsoft certainly weren't kidding when they said Halo 3 was far from the end of the franchise. So long as they keep the quality quotient above the quantity I'm happy.