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This topic has moved here: Poll [73 votes]: What do you think of this book?
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Subject: Anybody read "The Flood" by William C. Dietz?

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Poll: What do you think of this book?  [closed]
It's very good:  47%
(34 Votes)
It's OK:  34%
(25 Votes)
It's terrible:  3%
(2 Votes)
I haven't read it...:  16%
(12 Votes)
Total Votes: 73

This is the middle book in the Halo series of novels, and covers the events of Halo:CE. Anybody actually read it all the way through? Is it really as bad as I think it is, having read about 80-odd pages? From what I've read so far, it seems like Dietz is the blandest and most cliched writer ever.

Does it get any better?

  • 05.24.2006 12:00 PM PDT

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I liked it alot actually, I liked how he personified the covenant and told about other missions of the marines on Halo

  • 05.24.2006 12:17 PM PDT
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that book is pretty good i mean does cver alot of details since halo dosent really like say the details out loud or what mc is thinking and ya i really personified the grunts and elites and everything i like how they where going thru the desert and the marines get attacked my banshees and like a brigade of covies and how it tells like from an elite or grunts perspective i think its a very good book


[Edited on 5/24/2006]

  • 05.24.2006 12:18 PM PDT

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Or read my fanfic, "Effort Cannot Conquer Faith" -- it won a signed novel from Eric Nylund!

Posted by: Recon Number 54
Knowing the basic story, and having filled in details as you played the game itself, that novel is fighting an uphill battle when it comes to winning over fans.

While I personally didn't find it as painful as others have, I will admit that it is the one that I re-read the least.

That's a good point, but that's not really the problem I have with the book. I'm perfectly OK with rereading the story of the game... it's just that Dietz's writing is really bad. Very repetitive, very flat, and very boring. He uses the same grammatical constructions over and over again, and the dialogue seems stilted and awkward. He's just not a very interesting writer.

  • 05.24.2006 12:28 PM PDT
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It was all right. I liked the stuff with the marines and the covenant, but the MC action bits are just hard to realize in print when you played through them already. The main problem with the Flood book is that Cortana and the MC are kind of bland characters. Eric Nyland's characterizations gives them greater depth, and they're more interesting to be around in Reach and First Strike.

  • 05.24.2006 1:04 PM PDT
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he's not as good as nylund. it is a good read, but like the other one said. it's hard to seem origional or put a creative spin on someone else's story. he does manage to do it though. i won't ruin it for you but there are some great "meanwhile"s in the book.

  • 05.24.2006 7:12 PM PDT
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I prefer Nyland's style of writing. Dietz was a bit weak but was better than I expected. I liked the stories of the seperate UNSC marines on other parts of Halo. The Covenant, though, seemed a bit... I don't know. Pompous? I didn't like them. Also that wacko due Zuka and Zawas seemed somewhat comical to me... I felt a bit like I was reading a kids book.

  • 05.26.2006 12:00 AM PDT

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I really liked "The Flood" and it was interesting to see how it corresponded with Halo:ce and the extral stuff it added in. Someone else said this but I also liked how he personified the Covenant.

  • 05.26.2006 10:01 PM PDT
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I agree. I don't know who gave Dietz the nod over Nyland, but it could have been worse. Dietz is way way too descriptive and focused a lot on things that were mostly unimportant to the story. It didn't help that the reader knows the outcome before ever opening the book. I've read a lot worse, but only by independant publishers. It's strange to me that Dietz's draft ever made it off the editors desk.

  • 05.27.2006 8:27 PM PDT
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I though it was alright. I would have prefered though to have more views of what the covenant thought

  • 05.27.2006 8:40 PM PDT

Reading about keyes and Jenkins in the floods hands was cool, and so Zuka and the ODSTs at alpha base, otherwise he wrote it like a school essay
"The masterchief had to reload so he pressed X" -lol yes i made that up

  • 05.27.2006 9:05 PM PDT
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I liked The Flood but it won't ever compare to the fall of reach, which in my opinion is one of the best books ever, not just for game fans but for anyone, I know this is straying slightly off topic but I gave the fall of reach to my science teacher, who had never played halo and he loved it. right anyways, The book is good but like many before me said, it doesn't help that you know the outcome at the beginning (for most readers). And you're comparing it to fall of reach and first strike.

  • 05.27.2006 9:51 PM PDT
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I actually liked it alot. I know I've played through the game a million times, but the way Dietz puts the battles into such detail is great. Also, it was cool to see the game through the eyes of the elites for the first time. Overall, I think it was really good.

[Edited on 5/29/2006]

  • 05.29.2006 7:31 PM PDT
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After re-reading The Fall of Reach, I thought The Flood seemed a little better. TFoR had quite a few spelling and grammatical errors, but it was a pretty good overall prequel.
The Flood, as videogame novels (Especially novels based on the game itself) go, I thought Dietz did a pretty satisfactory job. I mean, instead of describing each scene out like the game played, respectively. Instead of how you play, "Master Chief walked under the tunnel and picked up a rocket launcher." Dietz adds in something about the Chief and his luck coming in threes.
Now, The First Strike, I was amazed at. It filled in the gap between Halo and Halo 2 exceptionally.

  • 05.29.2006 7:45 PM PDT

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I've only read bits and pieces, but from what I've read, it's the best of the three. Dietz does a far better job than Nylund of describing battles, and the characters are much more personable. It's a much more entertaining book to read than the other two.

Anyone else think that Ackerson is poorly portrayed in First Strike? Such conduct ("Dead, dead, dead!") would never be permitted in an official board of inquiry.

  • 05.30.2006 11:50 AM PDT
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Unfourtunately, I have. The Covenant portions, as someone mentioned, were especially dreadful, allthough he did a good job with the battles.

As for the last paragraph in your post, REG, I'm going to guess that Ackerson has a hell of a lot more power than his rank lets on. Why, we don't know; but he would have to, in order to get away with what he did in that room.

  • 05.30.2006 1:08 PM PDT
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Uhhhhhh it was the cover that I don't like.

  • 05.30.2006 4:22 PM PDT
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I have read it, several times over at that, since I own all three books.

I believe it IS a good read. However, Dietz--to put it blandly--screwed himself over by trying to incorporate the points of views of so many different characters. I should know, I'm a writer myself, and I have a hard time even doing two or three different points of views. Although getting to see the game through the eyes of different people/aliens in the book was very interesting.

I also feel Dietz did a great job writing the battle scenes, and making it seem as though it wasn't just a book based off of a game, and more of a real-life type of story. (I fear this statement is an oxymoron...)

As I said before, it IS an excellent story and a must-have for any Halo fan.

  • 05.30.2006 5:19 PM PDT
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I agree the novel is great. Dietz isnt as good as Nylund though. I like he incorporated the ODST's into the novel. I also liked new battles between the marines ,the covies, and flood.


[Edited on 6/2/2006]

  • 06.02.2006 2:55 PM PDT

It wasn't terrible, and saying Dietz is bland is harsh. The sctions that weren't based on The Chief were very good. As for the bits on The Chief, I was forced to skip. Having played the game lots, it felt as though you had already read those sections.

  • 06.04.2006 11:25 AM PDT
Subject: Book Makes Me Alert, Then Sleepy ( Halo: The Flood )
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All I got out of that book was the main story that you or me plays in the game, then some story that is really to imagine but easy to read along. The only chapters I like was 5-13 then it got boring after that but I read First Strike that was good but then the books stopped.

Come on Ghost of Coral

  • 06.06.2006 2:14 PM PDT
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posted by:Achronos
Less self-righteous posturing and ad hominem attacks will keep this thread open and its participants' posting privileges retained.

i think they all are really good, but i must say i find the flood my least favorite of the three.

  • 06.06.2006 2:31 PM PDT
Subject: Anybody read "The Flood" by William C. Dietz?
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its my favorite of all the books

  • 06.06.2006 2:53 PM PDT

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