Halo: The Fall of Reach, The Flood, First Strike

Halo #1-3

by Eric S. Nylund, William C. Dietz

"The official novels of the award-winning Xbox game!"

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Video Games, Gaming, Games, Science Fiction Fantasy

200 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 28, 2004

Reviews

[Airy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some cases, you don't even have to play Halo to enjoy the books. Eric Nylund is simply that good a writer.

I must make a confession: I don't own an Xbox. The only experience I have with Halo is watching my best friend beat it in a 6 hour marathon while I had a stack of comic books to read through. As for Halo 2, I followed my FPS-savy friend through the first few hours of the game, but we never got the chance to finish. I got into the books because my friend insisted I read them and, well... I actually listened to her.

Don't take my opinion as one from a Halo fan - take it as one from a complete plebe who found enjoyment from a set of game-based books.

If you're still curious about my opinion, let me start off with this: Read First Strike and the third book, The Fall of Reach, but don't read the middle book, The Flood. I have three reasons for this:

1) The middle book is based off the first Halo game (so why not just play the game? I didn't, but I really wish I had heeded my friend's advice and did that instead of reading The Flood).

2) It is the only book in the series not written by Nylund and you can really tell the difference by the prose and pacing.

3) It is utterly boring. I know that's harsh, but I don't like having to skip through harrowing battles against the Flood - but I will do that if the action scenes end up reading like Ctrl + C off of GameFAQs... which they did, so I skipped through about 30% of the book.

Okay, I've gotten that off my chest. Now for what I liked about the books.

The Fall of Reach sets up a prologue to Halo. It's an engaging plot that details the super-soldier SPARTAN program that made the Master Chief who he is in the games. It's a good read, but a tragic one as well. These Spartans start off as tough kids thrown into a secret government project and raised to be efficient killers. They are cold, they are detached... but as you learn who they are, their names their personalities, you really start to like Kelly, Sam, Linda, John, and all the rest. Liking them is the worst part, because a war is a war and a war against the Covenant is... more than you can imagine.

As for First Strike. Well, it's no secret that the Master Chief is labeled the Last of the Spartans. What you may not know is that Nylund has a great talent of bringing in more to a story than you can ever hope to expect. This book takes place after the first Halo game and the action is intense. That's all I'm saying about this book. Go read it.

I was caught up in these Halo books thanks to a friend with a good taste in games and it's left a lasting impression in me. I'm not saying that you're going to get deep insights from these stories, but they are damn good sci-fi alien invasion war novels.

Sometimes, everyone needs a damned good sci-fi war novel.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love the game - you will love the books. I was excited to read these 3 and was not dissappointed. It opens up the Halo universe and makes the game even better.

[Wakko · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest I don't remember much of this book but kid me really liked it because yknow... Halo was like my favourite thing at the time and master chief is cool.

[Carnage410 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don't already have a good understanding of the mythos of the "Halo" videogame series these books are not for you. They are designed to fill in the blanks of where the MC comes from, and the events during and after the first game. The second book in this series is rather pointless if you have already played the original game. Though it does give some insight into what the marines were doing while you were out blasting covenant. Overall i love these three books. Its a good story, and it gives a better understanding of the games.

[Pika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I would not consider this as a book, it is a collection of some of the best books ever written. The book case includes the first three of hopefully more Halo books. The first one is the "The Fall of Reach", the second book is "The Flood", and the last novel is "First Strike". These are not all of the Halo books, so make sure to check out the others if you like them. I have also wrote reviews for all of the books, so you might want to check them out.

[Braden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ths Book has Fall of Reach,The Flood and First Strike,three good books for a great low price.

[Thomas Senechal · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have read ALL OF THESE!!!!!

[Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was good had a lot of parts the movie missed out that i didn't know about.

[Wesley F. F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just plain awesome. Nothing but pure Halo vibes. Even the sort of side stuff with marines and that Elite hunting Master Chief was all throughly enjoyable. For sure pick this one up.

[Collin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this series so much. Cheesy. Pandering. Lots of guns

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

All brilliant novels from the best series in all of fiction.

[jack galanek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fall of reach was good, the flood was not

[Navajo Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit... I love this series. It first came to my notice when my son wanted to play the X-Box game many years ago. I wasn't very thrilled with the idea of him doing so but he convinced me to read the books written to provide the full story.

What I found surprised me. The characters in these three books and in the newest two novels, are more fully-developed than I expected. The main character, Master Chief, aka Spartan 117, is given some Christian subtexts in that his mission is to save mankind from eternal death (extinction) at the hands (claws) of a vengeful enemy (the Covenant). I have read some comments that indicate that Master Chief, whose name is John, and his designation 117, refer to the Bible: John 1:17.

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

While it is possible to find Biblical elements in almost any book, it was easier to find them in this series than many other sci-fi novels I have read.

So, I no longer worry about my son playing the Halo game and he loves reading this series. The main character is one that I wouldn't mind him emulating.

Caveat: This series does contain some humanistic/evolutionary content. There is also strong language of the "sailor" variety which seems typical in the military fiction that I've read. Nothing too horrible except for where the Lord's name is taken in vain. If you train your brain to filter these out (or take a black pen to these spots as I originally did in our books), it is an enjoyable series.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from most others, I thought all three books were good, both the two by Eric Nylund and the one by William C. Deitz. In a general sense, if you've played the entire halo series, this series really ties up all the loose ends on the Master Chief's history and information about the "Spartan Program," as a well as a rather unique interpretation of the covenant as well (they have names!). Anyway, The fall of Reach was pretty much how it sounds: The Fall of the Planet Reach, kind of like Halo:Reach (even though the book was written long before the game, you might find continuity conflicts). The Flood gives a little more depth and story into what the "Flood Creatures" actually are (kind of). I saw a lot of people were ripping on "The Flood," the only book of the three written by Deitz, pretty much because it's just telling us what we fans of the game series already know. And that is true, but I still found it to be quite entertaining, and although the writing styles of the two authors are slightly different (I noticed Eric Nylund tends to "dumb it down" a bit), both authors did a nice job of the three books. Finally "First Strike" is once again just kind of starting off the Halo series where the games start, etc. blah blah blah.
I really liked these books considering they tied up so many loose ends, and would definitely recommend it to fans of the games.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five stars go to "The fall of Reach" and "First Strike" because they are wonderful, have aged well and set a high standard for all other halo books in print or yet to come.

"The flood" is utterly awful and should be completely avoided. The side story is definitely interesting, but the bulk of the book follows the plot/game-play of the first game. The plot is good, but the game-play is highly repetitive and drawn out, which translates into a very repetitive set of paragraphs you'll see many times throughout the book, or even entire chapters. The writer seemed to have a poor understanding of the halo universe beyond the copy-paste that was done with the games dialogue and cut-scenes. Side characters will have nonchalant conversations about classified information they really should know nothing about, just to try to add to the situation. Large scale sci-fiction battles between humans and aliens play out like humans vs. humans in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The alien dialogue, character development and social structure are treated like human ones, even inter-species events, and most of that entirely contradicts what we've learned from literally every other halo source. Avoid. In this case, it's better to just play the aging game than read the book.

[Ian Mcenaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books were good books they had alot of action and told stories about family, being true to your friends and your word. Also this book taught me how destructive war can be and how devastating it is to lose everything you have and that war solves nothing, all it does is kill innocent people and hurt milllions of people in the world.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Playing the games is one thing, but reading the events of them in a book makes it 100 times better. The details put into these pages draw out more story than what you experience playing the games, and the story of it all is fantastic regardless. Of all videogame based books, these are some of the finest and highly recommended.

[Dem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series isn't too bad, it gives the back story of Master Chief in the first book and continues on through to the games storyline and back story. The only problem is the third book just seems to lose steam which is a shame actually.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a good read for anyone looking for action/sci-fi reconstructed, whether you've played Halo or not. Still, it is there to especially enhance the game, and the author did a heck of a good job on it.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are one of the millions that play Halo, this series is a must read. Gives you the back story of Spartan 117 and how he became the Master Chief as we know him. Highly recommed it to Halo and Sci-fi fans alike.

[coty · Rating 5 out of 5]

based on the first game of the halo trilogy theses three books are the best, i wish they made a halo 2 and 3 but they have not so i wish they do. but other than that any body who likes the halo story line should read this box set.

[A.j. · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books were very nice, the flood was pretty close to the actual halo: combat evolved video game and the fall of reach was a good prequel to the series. the first strike was ok but my favorites out of the 3 were the flood and the fall of reach

[nooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bizarrely good for a book based off a video game.

[Wachlin007 Hotmail · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you liked the halo video games, you should read these books. They provide more depth and storyline for the game. I liked learning more about Master Chief, who he was and where he came from.

[Alex [WHS] Rivas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insane.....

[Bodoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was just obsessed.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned the enite story of Halo. I learned how he became one of the strongest warriors ever. It's a good book and if you like Halo I'd recommend you reading this book.

[Enaida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich and descriptive story about the plot of the video game.

[Etzael ochoa]

nice

[mookie kong · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Nylund books were great in this collection. The other one, well, it was not so good.