Thankfully I read The Fall of Reach before I attempted this, otherwise I would have been hard pressed to understand how Master Chief could survive the sheer amount of carnage in this novel. The background provided on the Spartan project and, probably more importantly, the MJOLNIR armour, goes a long way in justifying some of the madness in this book. Those of you who have read Dietz before this will know that he is no slouch when it comes to writing military science fiction. I refer, especially, to his Legion of the Damned books. So, an obvious choice then for the novelization of Halo - Combat Evolved. Again, like its prequel, this is a military science fiction novel, but with the emphasis squarely on action. I did enjoy the fact that Dietz wrote some sequences from the Covenant point of view. Reading this book in conjunction with Halopedia (the Halo wiki) is actually a great deal of fun, especially for someone (like me) who hasn't actually played the Halo games. This is a good way of finding out how the pesky aliens look, for example. The whole back story is pretty epic too.

So, pros. The action scenes are solid, although I enjoyed the battle scenes with the marines more than the scenes with Master Chief. I was reminded of the Legion books, but also of some of David Drake's stuff, maybe Redliners or something from the RCN series. The Halo construct, or array, is still fascinating, and we learn rather a lot in this novel as to its purpose. The Flood of the title, especially the despicable infection types, evoke emotions usually reserved for Ridley Scott's Xenomorph facehuggers. Revulsion and Fear, anyone?

And of course, cons. Yes, being based on a game, this book is pretty frantic, with mindless engagement following mindless engagement like clockwork. It's all here, from 'reloading' to 'weapon swapping'. Master Chief outdoes himself in this one, as far as the alien death toll is concerned. Coherence gets lost somewhere in the mix. In Dietz's defense, he was doing what was expected from him, writing the game (or re-writing someone else's story, if you will). Perhaps he should have another shot at a Halo title somewhere along the line, where he can have some creative freedom.

This is by no means a bad book, as far as I'm concerned. It's exactly what you would expect. I think Dietz has done as good a job as anyone could, given the same material. The series so far is truly enjoyable and I'll be digging in for Halo: First Strike soon.