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Halo: The Flood
(Halo #2)
by
The Human-Covenant War, a desperate struggle for humankind's very survival, has reached its boiling point on the mysterious, ring world called Halo. But the fierce Covenant warriors, the mightiest alien military force known, are not the only peril lying in wait.
As the fortress world of Reach and its brave defenders were bombarded to rubble, a single cruiser fled the ca ...more
As the fortress world of Reach and its brave defenders were bombarded to rubble, a single cruiser fled the ca ...more
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Mass Market Paperback, 341 pages
Published
April 1st 2003
by Del Rey
(first published 2003)
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Aug 04, 2011
Jason
added it
This book was such a let down and unworthy of the sequel to "The Fall of Reach". This book was a novelization of the first Halo game (Combat Evolved). That said, it reads like the author played the Xbox game and wrote play-by-play what happened, where he goes, what he shoots, etc. You're not reading a story, just a re-telling of what happens in the video game. If you play the video game, it's fine, because you're playing the video game, not reading a page of words of what someone did in the vide
...more

In order to understand this book, you have to read the first book in the series and play the Xbox game Halo: Combat Evolved. Even if you don't get it half the time, it's a good read!
This book is set in 2552, in the middle of a great war between humanity and a collective of alien races calling themselves the Covenant. This war reaches its peak intensity when a human ship discovers an ancient ring-world named Halo (hence the name of the book). The ship crashes there, and among the survivors is SP ...more
This book is set in 2552, in the middle of a great war between humanity and a collective of alien races calling themselves the Covenant. This war reaches its peak intensity when a human ship discovers an ancient ring-world named Halo (hence the name of the book). The ship crashes there, and among the survivors is SP ...more

This one wasn't nearly as enthralling (or well written) as the previous novel. Now, I'm not saying Dietz is a bad writer, just that he didn't have a lot to work with with this book. Why? Because it's the goddamn game in written format! It's like a freakin' walkthrough! Hell, I played the game YEARS ago and I still remembered most of the plot, so while reading this I had these moments where I actually remembered a certain scene in the book from the game. That's why I didn't really like the book -
...more

It's official, I don't get it. This book is not very well received among the fandom. Now that I've finished it, I can say y'all are on crack. This was great. I think I might like it more than Fall of Reach. As a matter of fact, I'm sure I do. Granted, the reason for this might only be because I read the newer improved edition of this book, while I read the old flawed version of Fall of Reach. One day I will reread FOR with the best edition and see if my mind changes. But as of this moment, The F
...more

Okay I suppose you can only get "really involved" in a story based on a video game for so long. This isn't really a bad book. For what it is it can be fun. The fight for Halo has begun...and the search to find out what Halo is of course.
Lots of explosions, some human drama (sort of) even some prejudice involved in the story. As I said, not bad but not one I think I'll follow up. If you're looking for action and science fiction combat this may be your cup of tea. I love action books, but I like a ...more
Lots of explosions, some human drama (sort of) even some prejudice involved in the story. As I said, not bad but not one I think I'll follow up. If you're looking for action and science fiction combat this may be your cup of tea. I love action books, but I like a ...more

Okay I suppose you can only get "really involved" in a story based on a video game for so long. This isn't really a bad book. For what it is it can be fun. The fight for Halo has begun...and the search to find out what Halo is of course.
Lots of explosions, some human drama (sort of) even some prejudice involved in the story. As I said, not bad but not one I think I'll follow up. If you're looking for action and science fiction combat this may be your cup of tea. I love action books, but I like a ...more
Lots of explosions, some human drama (sort of) even some prejudice involved in the story. As I said, not bad but not one I think I'll follow up. If you're looking for action and science fiction combat this may be your cup of tea. I love action books, but I like a ...more

Halo: Combat Evolved, the video game version of this book, is easily worthy of 5 stars. However, its novelization, Halo: The Flood, is the definition of a 3 star book. I don't hate the book; I don't love the book; I'm left in the middle thinking the book was okay overall. It had its moments, for sure, but it also had its share of problems. Being as how this was a novelization of my favorite video game of all time, I expected a lot more out of it. Although I wasn't wholly disappointed, I wasn't t
...more

I never really liked The Flood very much, but I feel obligated to read it regardless. Maybe it's just because I've played through the story in a game and so trying to transfer it into text falls flat for me, but I think there are several problems with the book because of its direct game-to-book heritage that the other Halo novels avoid.
Firstly, the author feels compelled to at least note every other encounter with enemies in the game and after a while it gets pretty dull. The combat in the other ...more
Firstly, the author feels compelled to at least note every other encounter with enemies in the game and after a while it gets pretty dull. The combat in the other ...more

DNF at 40% percent.
If I ever get this over, I might come back and tell you why I couldn't take it anymore.
--------------------------------
Ok. I'm back. I will review this book with a single, definitive and utterly accurate phrase:
OUT OF CHARACTER.
That's it.
John is portrayed like your ordinary Terminator: a trigger-happy douchebag focused only in engrossing his kill-count. Cortana? So forgotten that whenever she talks, nobody cares, not even the Chief. Her best lines are the ones transcripted f ...more
If I ever get this over, I might come back and tell you why I couldn't take it anymore.
--------------------------------
Ok. I'm back. I will review this book with a single, definitive and utterly accurate phrase:
OUT OF CHARACTER.
That's it.
John is portrayed like your ordinary Terminator: a trigger-happy douchebag focused only in engrossing his kill-count. Cortana? So forgotten that whenever she talks, nobody cares, not even the Chief. Her best lines are the ones transcripted f ...more

The second book in the Halo series was not written by Eric Nylund, but by William c. Dietz. In my opinion, I think Eric Nylund is a better author, but since its a Halo book, that automatically makes it good. What was cool about this novel is that it's based on the actual game, so it was fun to say "Oh, I love that level." or "Haha, I always die there." The book answers the question "I wonder what Master Chief would do." because you can play exactly what happens in the book. One other thing is th
...more

Dec 15, 2011
seemsbleak
rated it
did not like it
Recommends it for:
That which dies inside a man while he still lives
I hate myself for reading this book.

Boy this was a stinker.
After the very good last book in the series that surprised me with above average characterization this was a severe disappointment. Apparently both books have been written at the same time for there are a multitude of continuity errors regarding both story and characters. From Master Chief starting to crack bad army jokes over Cortana forgetting that she already saw Halo both books don't mesh very well.
Even more damning - and I'm aware that this is not the writers fault - ...more
After the very good last book in the series that surprised me with above average characterization this was a severe disappointment. Apparently both books have been written at the same time for there are a multitude of continuity errors regarding both story and characters. From Master Chief starting to crack bad army jokes over Cortana forgetting that she already saw Halo both books don't mesh very well.
Even more damning - and I'm aware that this is not the writers fault - ...more

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,
...more

Halo The Flood by William C. Dietz is a science fiction novel that has more background stories than the X-box game Halo combat evolved that it is based on. It is much more detailed and explains in much detail the story of the Flood.
This story starts in the year 2552 so it is about 500 years in the future. The Covenant a collection of alien races has taken the plant of Reach while the Pillar of Autumn their ship travels through slip space to a unknown location due to the Cole protocol. They soon ...more
This story starts in the year 2552 so it is about 500 years in the future. The Covenant a collection of alien races has taken the plant of Reach while the Pillar of Autumn their ship travels through slip space to a unknown location due to the Cole protocol. They soon ...more

This book is the second in the series and not nearly as good as the first. This is not unexpected. This book, The Flood, is the novelization of the award-winning first-person-shooter (FPS) video game Halo. The first book was a prequel that gave the backstory and events leading up to the video game. It was able to cover a range of events such as the creation and training of the SPARTAN soldiers, ground battles, space battles, and character development. The Flood, however, has no choice but to fol
...more

I much preferred the writing style in The Fall Of Reach, I felt that it was easier to immerse myself in, and I also felt the qaulity of dialogue was higher. It seemed Master Chief spent much time running from battle to battle, there were few back stories, and the whole book seemed less of a sequel and more of a half enthusiastic diversion to The Fall Of Reach. Overall, the character development were manageable (but in places alarming nonexistent), the setting were okay at the beginning but becam
...more

I felt that the Master Chief character deviated too much to the one created by Eric Nylund. Eric's Master Chief was more of a silent leader type but William's is more of a cocky gun-ho type.
The story is full of actions and plenty of supporting characters but seemed to be jumping around too much when telling the story from multiple points of view. I've never played the Halo game but I can imagine how the scenes play out on TV screen.
On the whole I thought this was a worthy read. On other rating s ...more
The story is full of actions and plenty of supporting characters but seemed to be jumping around too much when telling the story from multiple points of view. I've never played the Halo game but I can imagine how the scenes play out on TV screen.
On the whole I thought this was a worthy read. On other rating s ...more

HALO: THE FLOOD is an adaptation of HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED or the first Halo game. It's interesting that a game which consists primarily about Master Chief blowing up hundreds of Grunts, Elites, and Jackals is expanded into a military science fiction novel I really enjoyed. William C. Dietz is a favorite science fiction novelist of mine and I absolutely loved his work on Starcraft: Heaven's Devils.
The premise of the book is pretty much the one of the games. Master Chief and the crew of the Pillar ...more
The premise of the book is pretty much the one of the games. Master Chief and the crew of the Pillar ...more

Definitely a disappointment after reading "The Fall or Reach" still not bad though. This is a direct adaptation of the original Halo game, so in that context this book is pretty neat. You get allot of extra Povs from the UNSC and even the covenant. I dont think the all the extra stuff is interesting enough to warrant buying this book though. At the end of the day, it's the same story from the video game just with a few extra details. I'm excited for the next book though, since its author is the
...more

Don’t read it. Glad this shitfest ist over.
It’s Halos short story without the gameplay. It also doesn’t fit the style of “The Fall Of Reach” which actually tried to give every story relevant character some depth and emotional range. This shitshow is just shooty bang bang and too much detail on rooms, locations and explosions. Rooms and rooms of firefights. Just play the game.
It’s Halos short story without the gameplay. It also doesn’t fit the style of “The Fall Of Reach” which actually tried to give every story relevant character some depth and emotional range. This shitshow is just shooty bang bang and too much detail on rooms, locations and explosions. Rooms and rooms of firefights. Just play the game.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

Meh.
I mean, look, I get it. It's a book based on a video game, and it's hard to write compelling stories about killing a lot of Flood.
But I think there could've been something more interesting. The plot was barely there, it was mostly just shooty shooty bang bang.
I feel like the setting is great, and it would make a brilliant original setting for a book. But this just felt very meh.
I have heard First Strike goes back to the vibe of Fall of Reach, so I will definitely finish the trilogy off. I r ...more
I mean, look, I get it. It's a book based on a video game, and it's hard to write compelling stories about killing a lot of Flood.
But I think there could've been something more interesting. The plot was barely there, it was mostly just shooty shooty bang bang.
I feel like the setting is great, and it would make a brilliant original setting for a book. But this just felt very meh.
I have heard First Strike goes back to the vibe of Fall of Reach, so I will definitely finish the trilogy off. I r ...more

This is the second book in the Halo series. This one is by William C. Dietz. This one starts where Fall Of Reach left off. Reach has been destroyed and the only ship to escape is the Pillar Of Autumn with the Master Chief and Cortana, the super intelligent A.I. Also on the ship is Captain Keyes and his Navy crew and a contingent of Marines. This book starts out as a really good read with the story of the Pillar of Autumn's flight to escape Reach and their arrival at "Halo". Halo is a ring type a
...more

Jul 13, 2012
Steven
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reviewed,
science-fiction
It seems to be a novelization of the first Halo game (Halo - Combat Evolved), the only one I'd ever played. The plot involves an Earth-military spacecraft engaging an alien enemy known as the Covenant. The story flows much in the way as events in the game. Discussions about the science project that made Master Chief are explored, and a good deal of detailed warfare against the Covenant. The Halo ring in space contains a biological weapon known as the Flood and its presence in combat can tip the
...more

supposedly this is the second book in the series. (The Fall Of Reach was the first one). It and the other books in this series are full of action and don't have a dull sentance in them. Ok maby one or two dull sentances but they are exciting books. These books are great for reading when you are stuck at home and board out of your mind. Or when you have a strong craving to play the game but can't.
...more

After a very well written first book in this series, I was seriously disappointed in this book. The writing is so flat and unemotional. It seems like Dietz watch someone play Halo and just reported what he saw on the screen. Even the parts not in the game felt tacky and thrown in for fun. Not a good book.

The Halo novels have been my first foray into extended universe reading. I have always toyed with the idea of exploring the worlds of my favourite fiction, but I've held back.
In some ways, it felt like a new, unexplored tier of my own geekiness. While I am an unabashed nerd, there are levels here, folks, and even I had balked.
I took the plunge last year when I picked up the first of the EU Halo novels, and realized that the shame was unwarranted. I also knew that the joy of reading about the Mat ...more
In some ways, it felt like a new, unexplored tier of my own geekiness. While I am an unabashed nerd, there are levels here, folks, and even I had balked.
I took the plunge last year when I picked up the first of the EU Halo novels, and realized that the shame was unwarranted. I also knew that the joy of reading about the Mat ...more
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New York Times bestselling author William C. Dietz has published more than fifty novels, some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, served as a medic with the Navy and Marine Corps, graduated from the University of Washington, and has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, and television news writer, director and prod
...more
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