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 enlarge | Author: William C Dietz
Creator: Todd Mclaren
Publisher: Tantor Media
Category: Book
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $21.33
You Save: $13.66 (39%)
New (11) Used (3) from $21.33
Avg. Customer Rating:  125 reviews
Sales Rank: 533959
Format: Audiobook, Cd, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.5 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 1400101131
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781400101139
ASIN: 1400101131
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: I20090102032137S
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| Customer Reviews:
 The first game and more February 27, 2008
I worked my way through the first three Halo books sometime last year, and I really enjoyed this one. Pretty much written as a write-up of the first game (along with a side-story explaining the Marines' time on Halo), it's still fun to read about Master Chief's actions just the way you played them. The book is worth reading just to read about the Marine side-story that's happening as MC activates the ring, they're going through their own troubles.
 What happened? January 24, 2008
I, like many others on this site, read "The Fall of Reach" and loved it. I also read reviews of this book and decided that since I've beaten the game on several occasions, I would skip this book and go straight for "First Strike" followed by "Ghosts of Onyx." I loved these books and quickly became a fan of Nylund's writing style. He did a great job of really making the Halo universe real and interesting and personal. I then picked up "Contact Harvest" and read a few chapters before thinking, "Hmm, maye I SHOULD read 'The Flood' to reaquaint myself with Johnson first."
Thus I picked up this book, and, well it's less than good. I like the book when it's talking about parts that you didn't see in the game, it's believable and decently written, but once the parts come around that we all know from the game, it's like Dietz froze and forgot how to write anything more than a laundry list. All too often you see, "The Master Chief walked to a wall and followed it to a door and at the door was a ramp and The Master Chief walked up the ramp that was 20meters high and bent at a 90 degree angle at the top." I mean come on, couldn't he have done something better than that? Why did Bungie and Microsoft allow this to be put out? One sentence says "The Elite reared and fired his pistol and plasma splashed across the narrow coridor." It's this kind of stuff that makes me want to fall asleep.
Basicly, if you have played the game, don't read this book unless you are a hardcore, and I mean HARDCORE Halo fan. Or, if you want to read the book, just read the parts that weren't in the game. Otherwise find the Nylund novels and read them, because they're much much better.
 Good book but repetitive at times January 6, 2008
First off, I want to say that I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and it really portrayed the first Halo game well.
That being said, I think it portrayed the first game too well. In fact, it seems as though the author played the game over and over, took meticulous notes, and recreated the game verbatim in print. There was way too much killing and reloading. The book paints the Master chief as an indestructible war machine who can kill hundreds of covenant and flood without breaking a sweat. While that may be true in the game, it didn't translate well for me in the book.
Now don't get me wrong, the book isn't bad. I just think Dietz went a bit overboard with all the combat narratives. There were many enjoyable parts, such as the story of the OSDT marines which wasn't told during the game. I enjoyed the character of Major Silva and his interactions with the Master Chief.
Better than the first, but why bother? November 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Flood" is the novelization of the first Halo video game. This is a game, if you haven't yet heard of it, that requires the player to shoot thousands of aliens and zombies. You might therefore wonder how much material there might be for a novel.
The answer is, not that much.
Writer William C. Dietz addresses some of the more obnoxious aspects of "The Fall of Reach," the first Halo novel that serves as a prequel to this volume (see my review, "Halo's fascist aura"). In Dietz' Halo universe the military is no longer an Aryan bastion; it is filled now with "black, brown and white faces." Among the Anglo-crew left over from the previous novel, we now have characters with names such as Bisenti, Abiad, Wang, Singh, Dowski and Yutrzenika. Dietz' own character, Major Antonio Silva, who leads the remnants of the Marines that escape the Pillar of Autumn, raises for the first time the moral and ethical issue at the heart of Halo and the Spartan program, describing the Master Chief a "freak, " the result of a morally and ethically suspect experiment.
Parts of "The Flood" are written from the point of view of several Covenant characters and we get to learn a little of their society and ethos. Unfortunately, not much thought appears to have gone into this process, which may the fault of Dietz as much as it is game developer Bungie. The aliens behave in very human ways - they experience boredom, the subjective experience of time dilates when individuals are made to wait, those who sit while others stand have higher rank, religious leaders are afforded special respect.
To his credit, Dietz does more than just follow the game from the point of view of the Master Chief. He also fills in the gaps - how the Marines escaped the Pillar of Autumn and regrouped to support the Master Chief, or how Captain Keyes was captured, for example.
All in all, though, there's not much here that makes the novel worth the time and money. At least not for the casual fan. Hard core Haloites will of course want to read every last word.
At the end of the day, it would be a lot more fun playing the game again.
It's ok........ September 3, 2007
My question is why have a different author right one book out of a three book set?.. Having said that, the mood is completely different as well as the angles from the first book Fall of Reach. The book is ok and does give a little background that the game does not. How ever, having said that I was bored with this book at times because it feels like you are watching somebody play the game over their shoulder. It's an ok book, but falls short of Fall of Reach. Have not read First Strike yet, hopefully it will recover what is left of this series
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