Joseph Staten is the senior creative director at Microsoft and was the writer and creative lead for Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3, as well as Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Halo: Contact Harvest and the novella Halo: Shadow of Intent. He lives with his family in Washington.

"2524. Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space. But humanity has unknowingly trespassed on holy ground--straying into the path of the aggressive, theocratic empire known as the Covenant. What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter soon catapults all of mankind into a struggle for its very existence"--Back cover.