Halo

My introduction to the story is not the video game but the movie of the same title. As with the movie, this book, created to accompany the game release, is full of people with enough detail and character that you become interested in their lives.

And altho this is about war between two different cultures, and alot of killing, the storyline does a great high-wire act, balancing between the blow-by-blow of the battles and the story between the battles.

And it's answered the question I've always had about the tv-series called Blue versus Red which is also in the same universe, I believe.