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This topic has moved here: Poll [70 votes]: Have you read the books?
  • Poll [70 votes]: Have you read the books?
Subject: Halo BOOKS
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Poll: Have you read the books?  [closed]
I have read 'The Fall of Reach':  4%
(3 Votes)
I don't plan to read those so-called "books":  11%
(8 Votes)
I have read 'The Flood':  0%
(0 Votes)
I have read 'First Strike':  0%
(0 Votes)
I have read some or all of the above:  84%
(59 Votes)
Total Votes: 70

So I just literally finished reading The Fall of Reach. Gotta say it was a pretty easy read, almost too easy, but very straight forward. I would definatly recomend it for those who crave more of the back story to the halo universe (like me). However I only bought TFOR and First Strike, which, from my understanding the events that follow Halo after it blows up (but correct me if I am wrong). One of my main concern was, I did not pick the book "The Flood" Only because I have played through Halo, and I understand that TF is just Halo is book form. For those of you who have read TF, could you tell me if it is worth it having played the game? Are there any other plot points that are revealed?

While I am here though, let's do a poll!

  • 08.09.2004 10:05 AM PDT
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Im gonna buy 1 and 3 with a Barnes and Noble gift card I got for Christmas.

  • 08.09.2004 10:08 AM PDT
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Your not missing much from the flood, it has all of the cutscenes from the game in there and its all word for word from the game. There are a few interesting things in there, as it has covenant perspective in there and also tells about the ODST's that landed on halo aswell.

I'd pick it up if I were you just for those 2 things, if youve played the game, you already know the rest of the story.

  • 08.09.2004 10:09 AM PDT
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The Flood explains some bout the covenant and shows the game from their point of view....and 343 Guilty Spark also says a lot of neat stuff that is good for speculation...thats pretty much all i got out of it

  • 08.09.2004 10:09 AM PDT
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mine barnes and noble doesn't have one

  • 08.09.2004 10:09 AM PDT
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The Fall of Reach, The Flood and First strike. In that order, but will you missing anything thats important if you skip The Flood book? Nope, everything is blown up, and it pretty much starts with a new slate. And First strike does a good job at letting you know where things are in the plot, I was unhappy with The Flood I felt like it was a useless read. You don’t even read about survivors 'till First Strike =(.

[Edited on 8/9/2004 10:15:41 AM]

  • 08.09.2004 10:13 AM PDT
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SPOILER for TFOR:




Yeah I was really interested (speaking of survivors) in finding out if any of the spartans survived the glassing of Reach. And since it seems like First strike is a direct pre-cursor to H2, whether or not some spartans may be in the next game...

  • 08.09.2004 10:34 AM PDT
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ALSO [color=red]SPOILERS....[/color]



i always new there would be SPARTAN survivors...if no1 saw them die...they didn't die. and I also remember TFoR saying that the ONI facility could withstand a 10 megaton blast....i thought that might come in handy ya kno?

[Edited on 8/9/2004 10:39:39 AM]

  • 08.09.2004 10:38 AM PDT
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Boston Red Sox - World Champs (04'/07')
Boston Celtics - World Champs (2008)
After 22 years another championship flag is up in Boston,
the 17th Title on the 17th of June, 2008

Posted by: HavocGM
SPOILER for TFOR:




Yeah I was really interested (speaking of survivors) in finding out if any of the spartans survived the glassing of Reach. And since it seems like First strike is a direct pre-cursor to H2, whether or not some spartans may be in the next game...


Yes, There Were.

The Flood Was Good But First Srtike Was The Best Book Of The Three. (Please Don't Flame Me It's Just My Opinion)

I Would Rate Theses Books Like This: ( Ranks Are 1 Out Of 10 )

The Fall Of Reach: 8
The Flood: 7.8
First Strike: 10

  • 08.09.2004 10:41 AM PDT
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OMG, if you crave the background story in the halo universe, u need to read the flood too, it has important points, stuff the game doesnt tell u........read it...........!

  • 08.09.2004 10:43 AM PDT
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I like the fact that you find out what the hell everyone else was doing while you were running around slaughtering covenant and flood. Other than that though I don't like The Flood book very much. I also think it has to do with the different author. I didn't care as much for Dietz's style of writing. I do have a few questions/problems with the books. [color=red]*Possible Spoilers to follow*[/color] First, they never really say when John gets promoted to Master Chief. Just something minor but I'm still curious about it. He gets promoted to Petty Officer First Class or something like that in TFOR but they never specifically mention his promotion to Master Chief. Unless they mean the same thing. I have no clue about military stuff. Second is more of a typo or continuity error that I find amusing. I'm reading through FS again and I noticed that at the beginning of the book Cortana and the Chief on board a Longsword hook up the Sergeant Johnson and the rest in a Pelican. They all board the Longsword and send the pelican off as a decoy to be destroyed. Later when they hijack the Ascendant Justice they refer to the ship they arrived in as a pelican for the rest of the novel. Another thing that didn't seem to jive was that at the end of TFOR she seems to find the location of Halo by interpreting the strange crystal/rock whatever it is. In FS Dr. Halsey says the Covenant found Reach by the crystal but it was alluded to that Reach was found when a covenant tracking device attached itself to the Iroquis' hull. I'm not sure FS ever discussed how the covenant located Earth either. I may have just missed that part though. Last thing is just a quote that may not mean much of anything but just caught my eye because of all the I love bees speculation that's been going on. It's from FS starting at bottom of page 195 after Cortana erased the covenant AI and is examining it. "She was, however, curious about one thing: She ran a trace on the origin of the copied pathways of the alien AI and found its replication routine. This copying code was extremely convulted; in fact, it took up more than two thirds of the Covenant AI's processor-memory space. It was dark with functions that rn deep to the core. It spread dendritic fingers through the system, like a cancer that had metastasized throughout the AI's entire body." So the only reason I pasted that is the word metastasized. Whether or not that has anything to do with the recent hubub is beyond me. Let the speculation begin. Or continue anyway. So feel free to contradict me with anything I messed up on missed. Sorry about the long post. First time posting.

[Edited on 8/9/2004 11:22:31 AM]

  • 08.09.2004 11:17 AM PDT
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Posted by: halo2bungie
mine barnes and noble doesn't have one

Try the bungie shop they have all three.
If not try Amazon.com

  • 08.09.2004 11:23 AM PDT

"Fight for peace, make love not war, unless you love to kill!"
-Four Postmen

ilovebees.com might be counting down to a new book release. Hear me out.

There are many parts of ilovebees.com that only make sense to people who read the books. The greatest of these are the words, "glassing," "reach," "ONI," and "Seraph." There are also parts of conversations with an ONI guy. Those words and conversations might be related to the new book, or could even be random excerpts from it.

Edit: I liked "The Flood," it had some cool battles with strategies and tactics that were awesome. It also showed a little bit about the covenant cast system.

[Edited on 8/9/2004 11:39:19 AM]

  • 08.09.2004 11:36 AM PDT
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I just remembered another thing that never seemed answered in the books or game. Why couldn't they put shields on the warships? They reversed engineered and improved the jackals shields for the spartans so why couldn't they just put them on the UNSC ships? Was it because of size or some other complication? Just curious. Also, why is John the only one with an AI in his armor? Any ideas?

  • 08.09.2004 3:16 PM PDT

Gamertag: Sarge 117

John is the only one with an AI because he got a special upgrade to his UNSC standard neural implant to support AI. The other Spartans did not get this upgrade, he's the only one who did because Cortana chose him as her "carrier."

  • 08.09.2004 3:30 PM PDT
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That makes sense. I guess I just assumed that they were all supposed to get AI's partially because there were several AI's present when they first got their MJOLNIR armor.

[Edited on 8/9/2004 3:39:27 PM]

  • 08.09.2004 3:35 PM PDT
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the flood was cool with the whole ODST plot and the covenent point of view. Im about half way done with First Strike and its cool to know that other spartans are alive and that the new MJOLNIR mark V armor is briefly introduced

  • 08.09.2004 3:41 PM PDT
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I've read all three at least three times.

  • 08.09.2004 3:41 PM PDT
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That speculation about whether or not Ilovebees is counting down to a new book sits pretty well with me. I mean That whole conversation regarding reach, ONI, Ackerson, etc...is only really understandable by those who have actually looked beyond the game for information. I have mentioned this before in other posts, but it might be leading up to perhaps a new book, or a set of promo materials tha emphasize the story. I mean with Halo 2, there is definatly going to be a line of books to come out to acompany the story. Very interesting...

After reading TFOR (and getting home from work:P), I played through the first level of Halo and wondered if there was any continuity tie in with the book and the game. Two things popped up. One. When the master chief is unthawed, everyone acts as if he rarely gets waked, they are all so awed by his existence. But how long had they been in slipspace retreating from Reach? Hours? Days? It seemed as if when the cheif was wakened it was fare more monemental than it should have been. Next little detail. It explains in the book that the Spartan weapons locker was mangled and they repaired and sealed off. Half way through the first level, when you find your cryochamber full of elites ("looks like they wanted to catch you napping"). The adjacent chamber on the other side is all boarded up. Which was a satisfying bit of continuity.

But those are minor points. I think I just love this game too much...

  • 08.09.2004 6:41 PM PDT
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"I haven't read the books yet" wasn't an option. I'm gonn a buy them soon anyway, before the Bungie Store closes. I'm beggining to see a trend with Bungie re-making their sites and all...

[Edited on 8/9/2004 6:43:24 PM]

  • 08.09.2004 6:43 PM PDT