During my Freshman year of High School I read Ender's Game and during my Sophomore year I read Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind. Throughout the series I saw many similarities to the Halo particularly in the first one. Now these books were published between 85-96, so I tend to question if these books influenced Bungie in making the Halo trilogy. The first thing I see in the books is that Ender is taken as a child into a military academy and that instantly reminded me of Halo. Running children as young as 5 through military training exercises matches up perfectly with the book and Halo. The second major similarity is Jane in the later books. Jane is basically an AI that lives in something called the Ansible, which is essentially interstellar internet. The only person she talks to up until the end of the third book is Ender. Cortana and Jane share many similarities, especially if you've read the Halo books. They both carry out millions of processes every second and one day feels like an eternity for them. Both Jane and Cortana help their respective "hosts" through tough situations and give them valuable information. But one thing that they show is human personality and the want to feel real emotion and see with their own, real eyes. This is where they become different because Jane becomes Human and *SPOILERS* at the end of Halo 4 Cortana hints at this, but doesn't become human. The third major similarity is the interstellar war between Humans are an alien species. In both wars the humans are pushed to the brink of extinction before a child soldier comes to save them all. Granted Master Chief isn't a child when he saves them, but that's what his background consists of. Both Ender and Master Chief are the saviors of the human race and both essentially go into exile after the war. The only difference between the wars is that in Ender's Game the Formics don't know what the humans are, so they respond to the threat. The Covenant just want to irradicate humanity all together. All of these similarities bring me back to the question; Did the Ender's Game series have any influence over the Halo franchise? [Edited on 11.12.2012 11:06 AM PST]