Yes, there is. You can actually view the entire background history and timeline of the Halo story originating on Earth in the year 2160 to 2552 (post-First Strike and pre-Halo 2) at HBO's Halo Story Timeline. Most people probably aren't interested in all those details in the timeline. I'll probably be told that I need to get a life for writing about this :) Oh well. It's fun sci-fi.

Halo 2, the graphic novel, and another Halo novel by Eric Nylund entitled Ghosts of Coral continue the story and timeline. Ghosts of Coral will be out on 10/31/2006, and I'll definitely be picking it up. Sadly, these books are about the only ones that I read. At all. I get crap from a lot of peers about not reading. What can I say... I'm scared of books. A book tried to eat me once.