Release order instead of chronological order is the definitely better for first time reading, you can however, modify it a little bit so the books following the same storyline are together, which is what I did
Release Order:
- Halo: The Fall of Reach (2001) by Eric Nylund
- Halo: The Flood (2003) by William C. Dietz
- Halo: First Strike (2003) by Eric Nylund
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (2006) by Eric Nylund
- Halo: Contact Harvest (2007) by Joseph Staten
- Halo: The Cole Protocol (2008) by Tobias S. Buckell
- Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (2009) - Anthology
- Halo: Cryptum (2011) by Greg Bear
- Halo: Glasslands (2011) by Karen Traviss
- Halo: Primordium (2012) by Greg Bear
- Halo: The Thursday War (2012) by Karen Traviss
- Halo: Silentium (2013) by Greg Bear
- Halo: Mortal Dictata (2014) by Karen Traviss
- Halo: Broken Circle (2014) by John Shirley
- Halo: New Blood (2015) by Matt Forbeck
- Halo: Hunters in the Dark (2015) by Peter David
- Halo: Saint’s Testimony (2015) by Frank O'Connor - Novella [also included in fractures so you can ignore here]
- Halo: Last Light (2015) by Troy Denning