The Flood really didn't have a lot of room to branch off, and Dietz probably had to tie in a lot more Halo Story Bible than Nylund had to in his books. I think Dietz did a good job of sticking with the game very well, while still writing a pretty decent novel at the same time.

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I like pi.

Yes the books are very well written The Flood is my fav. The Fall of Reach is pretty good but its kind of boring 

the flood was really good in my perspective as it took you into the life of covenant which was really awesome and interesting

To describe each in thier own glory, as an overview:

Halo:The Fall Of Reach-- I thought was an extremly good title. Is considered by most to be a very good read, since of the wealth of info it hands out. Not boring IMO, because of the stuff i learned from it. Very good if you want to know the Halo universes past, and all that that encompases.

Halo: The Flood-- Was amazing at recreating the game, yet makin you still enthusiastic as to what will happen. And the side stories come together to make another wonderful read. Plus if anyone has ever wondered what went on between levels in Halo 1, that question is answered exquisitly.

Halo: First Stirke-- is what it is. Connects Halo 1+2 triumphantly. More backstory.

 

I got a 3 pack of all of them, coudnt resist. read them 3 times each too. just to pound the info into my head. 

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The Fall of Reach: When I first read the parts about the spartans, I thought it was well done and compelling. However, once the Covenant showed up, I thought "What the hell? This isn't legendary, this shouldn't be that hard for the marines. What the ***, why don't you guys actually try to dodge the Covenant plasma in your ships? You guys have THREE NUKES, use them! What crappy plan is that? Why can't you aim or use cover? Why don't you defend your base? Why don't you take the weapons of the grunts and jackals and give them to ONI for study? Wait, Reach fell, and humanity is doomed?" In the end, I was pretty much saying "I don't accomplish *** in Halo! *** this!" I put the book in the closet after reading it, and it's been there ever since.

The Flood: This book did a good job of keeping the cool feeling of Halo 1, and the marines (Silva and co.) kicked ass. The Chief wasn't just a robot like in Fall of Reach, the side-stories were entertaining, and it had a good ending feeling. Unfortunately, Nylund had all ready started writing First Strike, thus causing The Flood to have to match up to Nylund's third chapter. In other words, McKay went section 8, didn't even realize that the possibility of using the flood as a weapon and studying the T&R was humanity's last hope, didn't see how obvious it was that if Reach fell Earth would too, and she blew up the ship, thus killing everyone, humanity's last hope, and stranding the Chief in outer space where he would eventually starve to death.

First Strike: Let me just say that the way John got the cryo pods, found the unlisted pelican, and took over the entire ship was dumb, even for fiction. The stuff on Reach afterwards sounded like fanfiction as well. All in all, it wasn't interesting.

HGN: Not a good read. In the first story, it is nothing but hack and slash against blobs, with the viewpoint and shading being so bad you can barely see, the second story doesn't really have any of the "ONI plots" that it was said to have in the plot, the third story was just some fanfare where a shotgun misses Johnson at point-blank range, he teleports from the flood room to other places and we still don't know how he found the pelican, and the final story was just odd, suddenly made the scarab a common thing, the people fighting back lasted for only three panels, and it was lame. Not a good read.

(As a sidenote, how do you guys seperate your posts into paragraphs? I've tried and the post still comes out as a mess.)

(edited: fixed paragraphs- paragon) 

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"Forget going out with a whimper, Halo humans have been whimpering since the war began."

1) If you want to get technical, Legendary is the reality of the Halo universe. The Covenant are really that good. The Shiva tactical nukes mean nothing if the Covenant just shoot them down before they even get close. If they can launch hundreds of Archer class missiles and the Covenant can shoot half of them down, then I am sure three nukes mean little. Even if one nuke manages to hit a Covenant ship, it would only be enough to take out the shields.

2) Fall of Reach represented the Spartan-IIs as the military machines they really were. Ackerson calls them Halsey's wind-up toys. The Spartans take orders, they don't question them unless they think the order will waste life rather than spend life, and even then they probably won't question the orders.

3) Silva was a good field commander, but he was far too worried about his personal glory. The Flood cannot be controlled as a weapon. Especially with the way they had the Flood "contained" on the Truth and Reconciliation. McKay realized that the glory of capturing the first Covenant ship did not come before the safety of Earth, and that since they couldn't even properly contain the Flood on the ship, what would it be like if the Flood got loose on Earth. The Covenant wouldn't even have to kill humanity, Silva would have done it for them in the name of glory and praise.

4) I don't really think the beginning of First Strike was too farfetched. I mean, John was stranded without a slipspace capable ship of any kind in a galaxy that was who knows how far from Earth. It would still take hundreds of years for the Longsword to fly back to Earth if it knew where to go and if it had an infinite supply of fuel. The only rational thing to do was scan the wreckage for any survivors, and perhaps some workable parts of the Pillar of Autumn that could be salvaged and somehow increase John's chance of survival. Finding the cryotubes was luck, and John went after them because it would be a waste of life (which John has learned to dislike from Mendez) to assume that the cryopods were empty. Some of them were, one wasn't. Coincidence can be merciful. The Pelican on the asteroid was hiding. They were probably scanning the wreckage too, but a group of Marines and Naval officers is not always as cool headed as a Spartan in times of crisis. When they saw the Covenant ship, they thought they were screwed. They then noticed the Longsword, and helped it. John came up with the only logical plan, which was virtually a suicide mission without the multi-tasking, instant thought skills of a smart AI. Cortana wired the Moray mines to fly around wreaking havok as well as the Pelican, which went in first taking all the hits. Then when the Seraphs launched the Longsword flew into the docking bay, hosed the Grunts in the area, and then they took the ship. Luck was on their side (but what would the story be if luck wasn't?)

5) I have no comment concerning the Halo Graphic Novel because it hasn't arrived yet, and as such I have yet to read it.

6) The <enter> key can be very effective. For example, I would have broken your passage up by book then threw the side not under all that.

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I like pi.

I thought all of the books were good. They weren't to violent and they didn't have any sexual themes. They did, however, have many things I did not expect from Halo books such as the ship-to-ship fighting which I thought Nylund did incredibly well. (Other things were cool too but I don't want to give anything away).

With all that said my personal opinion is Nylund's books were better then The Flood. But The Flood was still worth the read especially if you’re a big halo fan.

 The Graphic Novel was good too. But if you’re just reading it for just the Halo knowledge/fun and probably won't read it again after you’re done, then don't buy it. It was very expensive and it only took me about 15 minutes to read. If I didn't want it because it's cool and it's a collector’s item in hindsight I would have just read it in Barns & Noble (sp?).

(Also my dad read the books and thought they were good and he mostly reads Tom Clancy books. This just goes to show how well the books are written and how people of any age who are interstead in the Halo Universe can enjoy them.)

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*Insert signature picture with dramatic lighting... and cool stuff... that pops... and makes everybody say "wow what a bad***!"*

I really like some of the metaphors Nylund used to describe normal things, like a Seraph exploding became it's own galaxy complete with a sun and orbiting planets. I tried to make a teacher read Fall of Reach in the hopes of indoctrinating her in the way of Gamerism and Haloism...she is the person whom I have lost contact with that has my book because she no longer teaches at my school (she left to get a higher degree at ASU). I am having my current English teacher email her so I can get it back soon.

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I like pi.

Rotaretilbo:

I really like some of the metaphors Nylund used to describe normal things, like a Seraph exploding became it's own galaxy complete with a sun and orbiting planets. I tried to make a teacher read Fall of Reach in the hopes of indoctrinating her in the way of Gamerism and Haloism...she is the person whom I have lost contact with that has my book because she no longer teaches at my school (she left to get a higher degree at ASU). I am having my current English teacher email her so I can get it back soon.

lol. yes, Nylund is a very gifted writer. and all this talk of the books is makin me ancy to read them again... 

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Rotaretilbo:

1) If you want to get technical, Legendary is the reality of the Halo universe. The Covenant are really that good. The Shiva tactical nukes mean nothing if the Covenant just shoot them down before they even get close. If they can launch hundreds of Archer class missiles and the Covenant can shoot half of them down, then I am sure three nukes mean little. Even if one nuke manages to hit a Covenant ship, it would only be enough to take out the shields.

2) Fall of Reach represented the Spartan-IIs as the military machines they really were. Ackerson calls them Halsey's wind-up toys. The Spartans take orders, they don't question them unless they think the order will waste life rather than spend life, and even then they probably won't question the orders.

3) Silva was a good field commander, but he was far too worried about his personal glory. The Flood cannot be controlled as a weapon. Especially with the way they had the Flood "contained" on the Truth and Reconciliation. McKay realized that the glory of capturing the first Covenant ship did not come before the safety of Earth, and that since they couldn't even properly contain the Flood on the ship, what would it be like if the Flood got loose on Earth. The Covenant wouldn't even have to kill humanity, Silva would have done it for them in the name of glory and praise.

4) I don't really think the beginning of First Strike was too farfetched. I mean, John was stranded without a slipspace capable ship of any kind in a galaxy that was who knows how far from Earth. It would still take hundreds of years for the Longsword to fly back to Earth if it knew where to go and if it had an infinite supply of fuel. The only rational thing to do was scan the wreckage for any survivors, and perhaps some workable parts of the Pillar of Autumn that could be salvaged and somehow increase John's chance of survival. Finding the cryotubes was luck, and John went after them because it would be a waste of life (which John has learned to dislike from Mendez) to assume that the cryopods were empty. Some of them were, one wasn't. Coincidence can be merciful. The Pelican on the asteroid was hiding. They were probably scanning the wreckage too, but a group of Marines and Naval officers is not always as cool headed as a Spartan in times of crisis. When they saw the Covenant ship, they thought they were screwed. They then noticed the Longsword, and helped it. John came up with the only logical plan, which was virtually a suicide mission without the multi-tasking, instant thought skills of a smart AI. Cortana wired the Moray mines to fly around wreaking havok as well as the Pelican, which went in first taking all the hits. Then when the Seraphs launched the Longsword flew into the docking bay, hosed the Grunts in the area, and then they took the ship. Luck was on their side (but what would the story be if luck wasn't?) I have no comment concerning the Halo Graphic Novel because it hasn't arrived yet, and as such I have yet to read it. The <enter> key can be very effective. For example, I would have broken your passage up by book then threw the side not under all that.

I disagree with your statement that legendary is the reality of the Halo universe, seeing as how the Chief would have lost far more spartans and the fact that the T&R didn't have ten or so ship commanders with plasma swords at the gravity lift. Also, the grunts wouldn't be described as cowardly, seeing as how the humans are no threat to them on legendary. Judging by the name, weapons strength, amount of gold elites and etc., I'd say normal was the reality of the Halo universe. I have no problem with the fact that the spartans were immensely loyal to Halsey, it's just that John lacked the small sense of feeling in FOR that he had in H:CE. In The Flood, humanity was so doomed that taking the ship back was probably the best thing to do, since it would either give Earth one last boost of morale, the Chief could board it after escaping and make it back, thus raising morale, and at worst the flood could have used Earth to destroy the Covenant. Either way, it was the best option to save it. On the First Strike matter, I find it farfetched and lame that with only one longsword and a pelican from out of nowhere, John managed to avoid tons of seraphs, take over an entire Covenant flagship, and only had to really fight one real enemy (the elite) to boot. That was just too much, even for a work of fiction. It was like a moment of a fanfic edited by someone competent. (I do use the enter key to seperate my paragraphs, but the post comes out as a mess anyway.)

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"Forget going out with a whimper, Halo humans have been whimpering since the war began."

Perhaps Legendary is not the standard, but normal isn't either. Think of it this way, John > player, therefore, player requires an easier game mode because player < John. Legendary might have been a step up from reality (what with the Covenant never reloading and the number of Zealots around), but I think at least Hero (I think it is called that...I wish my Xbox worked...maybe I should install Halo CE for PC again...) would be accurate. Easy and Normal are both jokes, and I think more meant for the player to quickly play through and absorb the plot. Hero is is challenging, and Legendary is meant for 1337 players.

Also, I want to note the Moray Space Mines, which played a major part in the plan, the Pelican which took most of the hits for them, and Cortana being a Smart AI flying the Longsword (with the help of Polaski, a highly skilled pilot who flew with Foehammer). If Cortana can fly at high speeds threough a debris field dodging both plasma and debris, certainly she can dodge a few Seraphs which are primarily occupied by the Moray Space Mines. Cortana had also reset all the Flagships weapons giving Polaski time to manuever into the docking bay.The docking bay was relatively close to the command deck, and Chief still had to fight five Elites at the first doorway, followed by a dozen Elites down the corridor. There were a lot of Elites looking for them, but Cortana created ghost signals to throw them off. In fact, most of the trip to the command deck is from her perspective and it seems John still was fighting while this was happening

First Strike page 66:

"Chief, there's another way to the bridge"
"Affirmative. Wait one." There was a burst of gunfire on the COM, then silence. "Go ahead Cortana."

First Strike page 67:

Then again, this ship, although armed for war, didn't appear to be staffed for combat. It carried only a few hundred Elites and an army of Engineers.

First Strike page 67:

"Cortana?" The Chief's voice broke her concentration. There were sounds of plasma bolts and automatic weapon fire. "We've got Elites in active camouflage in the passage. We need a way around this intersection."

Cortana then diverts air and pressure to only John and his team, meaning the Elites, for the most part, passed out. This is when the fight for the bridge begins. Not exactly the lack of fighting you depicted, you just don't get many details because it mainly comes from Cortana's perspective at this point.

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I like pi.

does anyone know what happened to fred will and linda after the third book?, cause they were alive at the end of first strike.

Read ghosts of onyx..  if you dont have it, Get it!!  Barnes and noble has it.. as well as many other places.

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Slavish Devotion To Rules Is A Sign One Has Nothing Better To Do With His Time. :P

Wise Speaker:

Rotaretilbo:

1) If you want to get technical, Legendary is the reality of the Halo universe. The Covenant are really that good. The Shiva tactical nukes mean nothing if the Covenant just shoot them down before they even get close. If they can launch hundreds of Archer class missiles and the Covenant can shoot half of them down, then I am sure three nukes mean little. Even if one nuke manages to hit a Covenant ship, it would only be enough to take out the shields.

2) Fall of Reach represented the Spartan-IIs as the military machines they really were. Ackerson calls them Halsey's wind-up toys. The Spartans take orders, they don't question them unless they think the order will waste life rather than spend life, and even then they probably won't question the orders.

3) Silva was a good field commander, but he was far too worried about his personal glory. The Flood cannot be controlled as a weapon. Especially with the way they had the Flood "contained" on the Truth and Reconciliation. McKay realized that the glory of capturing the first Covenant ship did not come before the safety of Earth, and that since they couldn't even properly contain the Flood on the ship, what would it be like if the Flood got loose on Earth. The Covenant wouldn't even have to kill humanity, Silva would have done it for them in the name of glory and praise.

4) I don't really think the beginning of First Strike was too farfetched. I mean, John was stranded without a slipspace capable ship of any kind in a galaxy that was who knows how far from Earth. It would still take hundreds of years for the Longsword to fly back to Earth if it knew where to go and if it had an infinite supply of fuel. The only rational thing to do was scan the wreckage for any survivors, and perhaps some workable parts of the Pillar of Autumn that could be salvaged and somehow increase John's chance of survival. Finding the cryotubes was luck, and John went after them because it would be a waste of life (which John has learned to dislike from Mendez) to assume that the cryopods were empty. Some of them were, one wasn't. Coincidence can be merciful. The Pelican on the asteroid was hiding. They were probably scanning the wreckage too, but a group of Marines and Naval officers is not always as cool headed as a Spartan in times of crisis. When they saw the Covenant ship, they thought they were screwed. They then noticed the Longsword, and helped it. John came up with the only logical plan, which was virtually a suicide mission without the multi-tasking, instant thought skills of a smart AI. Cortana wired the Moray mines to fly around wreaking havok as well as the Pelican, which went in first taking all the hits. Then when the Seraphs launched the Longsword flew into the docking bay, hosed the Grunts in the area, and then they took the ship. Luck was on their side (but what would the story be if luck wasn't?) I have no comment concerning the Halo Graphic Novel because it hasn't arrived yet, and as such I have yet to read it. The <enter> key can be very effective. For example, I would have broken your passage up by book then threw the side not under all that.

I disagree with your statement that legendary is the reality of the Halo universe, seeing as how the Chief would have lost far more spartans and the fact that the T&R didn't have ten or so ship commanders with plasma swords at the gravity lift. Also, the grunts wouldn't be described as cowardly, seeing as how the humans are no threat to them on legendary. Judging by the name, weapons strength, amount of gold elites and etc., I'd say normal was the reality of the Halo universe. I have no problem with the fact that the spartans were immensely loyal to Halsey, it's just that John lacked the small sense of feeling in FOR that he had in H:CE. In The Flood, humanity was so doomed that taking the ship back was probably the best thing to do, since it would either give Earth one last boost of morale, the Chief could board it after escaping and make it back, thus raising morale, and at worst the flood could have used Earth to destroy the Covenant. Either way, it was the best option to save it. On the First Strike matter, I find it farfetched and lame that with only one longsword and a pelican from out of nowhere, John managed to avoid tons of seraphs, take over an entire Covenant flagship, and only had to really fight one real enemy (the elite) to boot. That was just too much, even for a work of fiction. It was like a moment of a fanfic edited by someone competent. (I do use the enter key to seperate my paragraphs, but the post comes out as a mess anyway.)

 

maybe, i think it's EASY because well, the master chief pretty much dominates the covenant. and some hard factual proof:  in "the flood" master chief was killing flood combat forms with about 15 Assault rifle bullets; in easy mode yeah, 15 rounds will do the job, but legendary takes almost a whole clip!!

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Yuor right three spartans did survive and maybe they will be introduced in Halo 3. I also hope we get to see what a Forerunner looks like too.

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Halo rocks !