Tor Books announces new Halo novels with #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss

From the press release...

Veteran author of bestselling Star Wars and Gears of War novels to follow up her contribution to the “Halo: Evolutions” story anthology with an all-new series set in the Halo Universe

New York, NY – July 20, 2010 - Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC—the largest publisher of science fiction in the world is excited to announce that Karen Traviss, who has penned number one bestselling novels in the Star Wars universe, as well as bestselling novels for the Gears of War franchise, will be writing the successor novel to Halo: Ghosts of Onyx in the first part of a multi-book deal to explore the Halo Universe in the wake of the final events of Halo 3. Halo novels published by Tor have sold over a million combined copies to date, and in 2010 Tor will also publish the first in a new Halo trilogy by science fiction icon Greg Bear. The highly-anticipated Xbox 360 video game “Halo: Reach” is scheduled to release September 14.

Traviss, whose first foray into the Halo Universe came with “Human Weakness,” a short story from Fall 2009’s New York Times bestselling Halo: Evolutions anthology, says of the opportunity:

“When I was invited to write Halo fiction I already knew it’d be right up my street; not just because military fiction is my specialty, but because there’s also huge unexplored depth, grey areas, and really uncomfortable moral dilemmas that underpin the Halo story, and that’s like catnip to a writer like me. I write what’s known as tight third person – that is, I get right inside each character’s head and see the world as they see experience it – and Halo offers some terrific chances to explore some fascinating psyches caught in complex situations.”

“Halo fiction fans are incredibly passionate about the fate of the Spartans of Onyx and the state of the Halo universe in the aftermath of the game events,” adds Frank O’Connor, 343 Industries Director of Franchise Development. “We know that Karen has the talent, skill and passion to not only bring those stories to life, but also bring her experience a fresh new perspective too.”

I only ever read the one ‘Gears of War’ book and wasn’t too keen; I loved Traviss’ ‘Republic Commando’ books though (‘True Colours’, ‘Order 66’ and ‘501st’) so am excited to hear that she’ll be writing in the ‘Halo’ universe. Like I said, hopefully these books will be more along the lines of the ‘Republic Commando’ books than ‘Gears of War’ though...