The Halo Trilogy (of books)

[goatdan]

Has anyone else read this?

I found the trilogy boxset for $4.50 on clearance at a GameStop, and I decided that I would pick them up. When I had jury duty a few months ago, I took one of the books with me to read. I didn't expect much, but I was really surprised and ended up plowing through the first book in a couple days, and then taking a bit more time with the final two. I have one or two chapters left in the third book tonight.

I've been really impressed by the series. I have never got into the game, but the books make me want to try again. Has anyone else read these? I'm really curious if they fit into the Halo mythology correctly, and if Halo 2 makes sense with the progression of the books.

And if you haven't read them, they're definitely worth a read, even at more than $4.50 for all of them ;)

[PapaStu]

Yes.

I really liked them. They all lead each other well and dont do anything but give some excelent back story to the games. The ending of the 3rd book and the start of Halo 2 are far enough apart (in storyline) that theres no overlapping or breakdown of story. and infact they dont even really touch on the same stuff.

[Gamereviewgod]

I have them in a box set, but I've never read them. Whatever one I opened to start reading had an incomplete sentence as its opener. I didn't have much faith after that. But, maybe I'll give them another go.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Is that what this is maybe???

http://shop.game.net/ViewProduct.aspx?cat=8&mid=327143


I am baffled to exactly what constitutes as a "Triple pack". Or could it be Halo I, Halo II, and Halo II Multiplayer Missions bundled together?

If it is the latter, then it may be worth getting if it comes in nice gatefold packaging. Otherwise, pointless, as I have all three of these, and Halo II is the CE.

[goatdan]

I think what that link is too is a set of the three games Halo, 2 and Expansion. I heard about that. The books are this:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345473043/qid=1127149170/sr=8-3/ref=pd_bbs_3/103-3277846-2032623?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

The first book in the series (The Fall of Reach) starts off absolutely horribly for about 10 pages, if I remember right. I was sitting outside the courthouse before going in (I showed up really early) and was wondering if perhaps I could find something else to read... I decided to keep reading though, and I'm glad I did. If you can get past those first 10 or so pages (Which sounded like someone doing play-by-play for a game of Halo to me), the books get really, really good.

If you've got them and like Sci-Fi stuff, try reading the first 50 pages of Reach and see what you think. In my opinion, it's been one of the best-written series of books I've read in a while.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

How do they read? I'm picky about some styles of writing, and have previously found certain author's "Hard" to read (Not literally, i'm no retard, but certain authors have a different writing style)

I loved teh Resident Evil series of books, and swear by the Red Dwarf books. I also prefer novelisations of films.

Are these Halo books just the novelised versions of the games? Or are they similar stories set in the same sort of "Universe"?

[goatdan]

Having never played Halo beyond 15 minutes with it (I bought the books to figure out what the big deal was, not because I loved or even liked the game), I'll leave most of the questions for other people.

As for how they read, I think that they flow rather well, and everything is relatively easy to follow. I finished reading the Bourne trilogy right before this, which I really loved, but I found myself needing to re-read big parts of it to figure out exactly what was going on. This trilogy isn't like that at all. It is a little more simple, I guess, but at the same time it is a very fun read. Compared to some of the Star Wars books that I've read, it is so much better then those it is amazing.

A lot of my wife's students (she's an High School English teacher with Juniors and Seniors) have read the books and done book reports on them, and she said that her students have pretty much unamiously liked them too.

[ubersaurus]

Yes, they fit into the game's backstory. Here and there they do have some mess-ups, but more often it's within the books themselves, rather than in comparison to the game. Bungie pretty much gave the authors the Halo Story Bible to use as a guide to their books, which is why it matches up. Bungie also says they consider the books canon, if that means anything.

Of course, they did the same story bible thing with I Love Bees, but since Joe Staten didn't write that, he doesn't want to consider it canon. But that, too, doesn't break canon.

[PapaStu]

How do they read? I'm picky about some styles of writing, and have previously found certain author's "Hard" to read (Not literally, i'm no retard, but certain authors have a different writing style)

I loved the Resident Evil series of books, and swear by the Red Dwarf books. I also prefer novelisations of films.

Are these Halo books just the novelised versions of the games? Or are they similar stories set in the same sort of "Universe"?

Fall Of Reach (Book #1) Is Pre-story for the Halo Universe and for the whole Spartan program.

The Flood (Book #2) Is the novelization of the game. This splits between the stuff you get in-game (thru Master Chief's eyes) and what happens with the rest of the marines and even some Covanent storyline.

First Strike (Book #3) Is what happens between Halo and Halo 2 for Master Chief, his return to Reach and the surviving Spartans as they go on a 'First Strike' against The Covanent.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Would you perhaps insist I played Halo II first? Or read the books then play the second game?

I didn't really follow the story too closely when playing the first one a few years back. I just went in, guns blazing, and finished it as quick as poss, without paying much attention to what was really going on. Probably why I am fining myself playing through it all over again now, but actually watching the story... D'oh.

I have played Halo II on Xbox Live around my mate's, and got totally slaughtered due to not having played for a long time. I really wanted to play through the first game again (Albeit on a harder mode than before to make it worth doing) and then going straight into the second.


To be honest, I don't really recall any of the integral parts of the story from the first game at all. Either because it's been so long, or because I just didn't pay that much attention to the whole thing. :roll:

[den68]

I've only got First Strike. I picked it up at a thrift store for a quarter. As it's book 3 I haven't read it. I do plan to once I find the other 2.

The only books based on video games that I've read are Raymond Feist's Krondor series. I'm currently on the 3rd one. Krondor: Tear of the God's.

I don't think these really count though. Technically they are based on the PC games Betrayal at Krondor and Return to Krondor but most of the characters and the world of Midkemia had already been well established in several other books. So I guess it's that whole Street Fighter the Movie game syndrome. Books based on games based on books.

[PapaStu]

These books are here for you if you LIKE the Halo story, or just want to know more. Your not missing out on any ingame stuffs if you dont read em. Its just a deeper look and some background on the whole shebang.

I read them all as they released (which was after Halo was released). It didnt affect my perception of the game or anything like that.

[Spartacus]

All three for $4.50 is a pretty good deal. I bought them separately and probably paid that much each. Good background information about the creation of the Spartan program and MJOLNIR suits. Just by playing the game I would have figured the Spartans were created to fight the Covenant instead of putting down colony uprisings. The books also dealt a lot with ship to ship combat that the game barely touched on. Eric Nylund is the better of the two authors in my opinion.

[njiska]

The first book in the series (The Fall of Reach) starts off absolutely horribly for about 10 pages, if I remember right. I was sitting outside the courthouse before going in (I showed up really early) and was wondering if perhaps I could find something else to read... I decided to keep reading though, and I'm glad I did. If you can get past those first 10 or so pages (Which sounded like someone doing play-by-play for a game of Halo to me), the books get really, really good.

Yeah that was my problem. I tried reading The Fall of Reach on a break at work and I was so pissed off after the first 10 pages i just couldn't continue. I suppose since i have the trilogy sitting on my shelf i should probable get around to reading them. I'll take your word for it Dan. Of course i hope you understand that if you're wrong and i suffer through all 3 of them like i did through the opening of The Fall, then you'll have to be crucified. No hard feelings.

[goatdan]

Yeah that was my problem. I tried reading The Fall of Reach on a break at work and I was so pissed off after the first 10 pages i just couldn't continue. I suppose since i have the trilogy sitting on my shelf i should probable get around to reading them. I'll take your word for it Dan. Of course i hope you understand that if you're wrong and i suffer through all 3 of them like i did through the opening of The Fall, then you'll have to be crucified. No hard feelings.

If you don't like Fall by about page 75, then give up. The other two books follow the same general format.

But yeah, the first 10 or so pages of Fall seemed to be a play by play of a multiplayer game of Halo, and it made me think that if there wasn't more to those books, $4.50 for the trilogy was a RIP OFF.

One thing that I found interesting was that the author of book two is different than one and three, yet for the most part they flow rather well. The only difference is that book two gives you a look at the Covenant from their viewpoint, while the other two don't.