Halo: The Fall of Reach

I'm a bit of a Halo fanboy. It all started with Halo 3 on the XBox360, after which I tackled Halo Reach and recently finished Halo Combat Evolved, the Anniversary Edition. There's still a box with Halo 3 ODST shrink wrapped waiting for a go... soon now, very soon.

I love the Halo games. It's a fast paced FPS with a descent and intriguing story board to drive every installment to its surprising conclusion. Being new to the Halo universe, Halo 3 was a bit of a shock but the tantalizing experience made me wanting for more.

After finishing Halo Reach I dug into Amazon to find some books that hopefully would satisfy my hunger and tell me the background stories on Master Chief, the Spartan program, Cortana, the Covenant, the Flood and all the other characters and story lines that intertwined in the different episodes.

So I started with the first book "Halo the Fall of Reach", written by Eric Nylund. And there it was, carefully laid out, filling all the gaps and answering the numerous questions I had. Nyland did a wonderful job in creating a believable Halo Universe in which he tells us how little John was taken from his home world to be transformed into John-117 better known as Master Chief.

The shady Spartan program, initially conceived as a means to control rebellious worlds, turns out to be humanity's best hope against the ruthless invasion of the Covenant. The book ends where Halo Combat Evolved, the first game starts, on board of the Pillar of Autumn with the Halo world in sight and the Covenant at its tail. By then, the Spartan program is reduced to one man, John-117 better known as Master Chief.

Time to put that book down and grab a controller.

Halo: the Fall of Reach
written by Eric Nylund
ISBN 978-0-7653-6729-7
Find it on Amazon.com - Find it on Amazon.co.uk

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