Half-Life novel is 600 pages long and coming soon

pcgamesn.com:

Half-Life remains one of the great FPS game stories. From the dank, claustrophobic mystique of Black Mesa, to the expansive, sci-fi road trip of City 17 and Half-Life 2, Valve’s shooter is a masterclass in packing narrative and character into the smallest visual details. Half-Life Alyx marked the first time in some 13 years that Valve officially expanded on the HL canon, but now, with Half-Life 3 possibly (hopefully) still on its way, PCGamesN has an exclusive interview with the author of a new Half-Life novel. A companion to Half-Life A Place in the West, the fan-made comic that launched on Steam back in 2016, Half-Life Phase Transition is a huge work of some 600 pages, and it’s scheduled to arrive before the end of 2023.

“So, Phase Transition is a Half-Life novel,” author Ross Joseph Gardner explains. “A very lengthy, possibly mad, piece of fan fiction, it serves as a prequel to our Half-Life comic, A Place in the West. But the novel stands very much on its own. A Place in the West takes place between Half-Life and Half-Life 2. Phase Transition takes place during the first stages of the Combine occupation, following two characters, Ray and Gemi, who must navigate this strange and terrifying new world whilst being drawn into a conspiracy that reaches all the way back to Black Mesa.”

While not an official Valve collaboration, Gardner says that Valve is “aware” of Phase Transition and knows that it is being released. While the central characters are all Gardner’s own, many recognizable heroes – and villains – from both the original Half-Life and Half-Life 2 make a return.

“My intent was to focus on new, original characters,” Gardner says, “but a few of the game’s cast do indeed pop up here and there. I’ll take any