Halo: First Strike

I have only read the universe known as Halo & have not played the game. I can say that these books are very good reading! The stakes are as high as they can be. Out manned. Out gunned. Little to no chance of survival. These are the missions the Spartans carry out. Every time. If you play the game & wanna know more about the characters & or what they've gone thru then look no further. Highly recommended

I love Sci-Fi books and I have read them for over 60 years. I have read thousands of Sci-Fi books. This book, written by Eric Nylund, is one of my favorites of all time. Just as a note, I don't play the Halo game so my review is only about the quality of the book. This story is absolutely full of action, aliens, military combat and of course the superhuman feats of the Spartan II warriors. This is a team of warriors that know no fear and each one can fight like a thousand other soldiers combined. Trained since the age of 6, genetically mutated and enhanced they have become the strongest military force in the galaxy. Coupled with a super smart Artificial Intelligence, AI named Cortana, they are unbeatable. Put them into their Mjolnir Assault Armor and they are almost virtually invincible. This book cames after the story about The Flood. Eric Nylund is the best author to write any of the Halo books. His books are by far the best stories and they are just superb Sci-Fi. I won't ruin the plot of the book as to many other reviews have already done that but if you love Halo stories this is one of the books you must read. I liked the book so much I purchased the Kindle version, then the large paperback version for my library and then the audio CD version to listen to in my car. I have read or listened to the book 5 times already. If you love super heroes you will love the Master Chief and what he does in this book. Get it, you will love it. I really liked this story and I have read it twice and listened to it twice on Audio and I enjoyed it every time! I feel that this story is one of the best military Sci-Fi books ever written. Eric Nylund is in my opinion the best author in the Halo saga series of books.

Eric Nylund has proven himself as a stellar author helming Halo novels, including his first and perhaps best work, The Fall of Reach. I don't feel that First Strike quite lives up to the level of quality you'll find in Fall of Reach, but it is a good addition to the series. To date, First Strike is still the last book in the main story arc of the Halo universe, following Master Chief. Ghosts of Onyx is technically further on in the timeline, but it deals mostly with characters that do not appear in the games. First Strike Happens between the games Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, from how Master Chief survived his encounter with Halo to how he gets to the beginning of Halo 2. There's a lot of adventure to be had along the way, from cramped hallway firefights to interstellar battles between multiple spaceships. You'll get lots of new information about the universe, such details on the operations of ONI and a glimpse into the secret lives of Covenant Engineers. Nylund continues to do stellar work, writing good characters and better action sequences. First Strike came dangerously close to falling off the rails with a few overly complicated plot points. Keeping spoilers to a minimum, part of the plot revolves around Master Chief and friends gaining posession of a crystal that alters time and space. During one space battle in particular, ships aren't where they appear to be and technology stops working in normal ways. This makes things very messy for the crew, and for the reader. Nylund is a really gifted writer when it comes to action sequences, but I don't think any author could fully accomplish juggling everything that's at play here. Things are just too jumbled, and the story suffers as a result. Aside from the bits where there's just too much going on at once, this is an overall very good book. I'd definitely recommend this book to fans of the game rather than fans of the novels. It's clear that Bungie wasn't settled about what they were doing for the second game by the time First Strike was going to press. Because of this, Nylund ties up all his loose ends. The ending of the book wraps everything up in such a neat package, that even if there are more books to come in the timeline, they can safely ignore the events of this book and pick up elsewhere. Things are just a little too neat when it's all said and done, which would make this a very forgettable read if you're not playing the game. This is also not the best entry point for the series. If you're new to the Halo universe, you should either play the original Xbox game, or read The Fall of Reach. Fall of Reach serves as a prequel to the first videogame, and is notable for being one of the better books in the line. Fall of Reach is good enough that I recommend it to readers regardless of whether they play videogames or not. If you want to continue on in the series, you would read First Strike before playing Halo 2 (or reading Ghosts of Onyx, which overlaps with Halo 2). It is not necessary to read First Strike to appreciate anything else in the Halo universe, and it doesn't even add much when read between playing Halo 1 and Halo 2. In this respect, First Strike ties The Flood for being one of the most expendable works in the series. Speaking of which, do not skip playing Halo: Combat Evolved in favor of reading The Flood, which is generally agreed to be one of the least well-written of the novels. Highly recommended to Halo series completionists, First Strike comes weakly recommended to general sci-fi readers who may or may not play the games.

Great book nice and long and all pages were in good condition

This is a great story in the continuing saga of the war between the Covenant and Earth. I love racing about the Spartans, including Master Chief and Cortana. The amazing thing is how much emotion is conveyed along with the drama and action. It is hard to read about lives and planets lost.

Absolutely amazing, this is Nylund’s follow up book to the fall of reach. it takes place just after the events of that book and Dietz’s entry into the series titled The Flood. The book mostly revolves around the chief and a ragtag band of survivors making their way back to earth aboard a captured covenant ship. This team of characters are all very interesting, unique, and a joy to experience. Infact I think character development is a real strong point of this book compared to Nylund’s first book. The fall of reach jumped around between alot of different characters and was stretched over quite a large time period. First strike focuses on only the few survivors of reach and halo and covers only a small portion of time allowing us those important moments of down time where we get to see these characters interact. The only real gripe I have with the book is Nylund wastes multiple chapters introducing more spartans only for them to get killed off soon after. I think such insignificant characters don’t really need any real backstory aside from their first name. Thats only a minor complaint however and honestly its me nitpicking more than anything, which is why this book gets 5 stars from me.

Eric Nylund knows how to write for this universe. Everything flows beautifully. I love the space battles and the characters doing everything they can to get through the ordeal they find themselves in.

First Strike, the third Halo novel, sees the welcome return of Eric Nylund to the Halo franchise. First Strike is a tight, tense narrative that builds to a satisfying conclusion. I'd recommend it to any Halo fan. For those who need convincing, with First Strike Nylund fills in several holes in the Halo timeline. In this book, we learn how the Chief returned to Earth after the destruction of Halo (as well as how Sergeant Johnson managed the same), gain greater insight into the activities of the UNSC High Command - the Office of Naval Intelligence in particular - and we also learn the fate of the rest of the Spartan-II's, who were left behind on Reach before it was glassed to defend the orbital generators. Nylund also does and excellent job of providing a larger window into the interior of Convenant society - including their attitude toward technology and the importance of their language. Most interesting for general science fiction fans will be the chapters narrated by Cortana, giving the reader a look at the ways a AI with beyond-human thinking speed could function. Any, of course, the Master Chief does impossible, dangerous things, and looks good while doing it.