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I’ve just finished reading The Flood, which is the second book in the Halo series. I had previously read and written up a small blurb about The Fall of Reach — the prequel to this book.

I’ve got to say that I wasn’t nearly as impressed with this book. I thought the pace throughout was just way too slow. I suppose it is probably difficult for a writer to take what you do in an exciting first person shooter game and adapt it to a novel, but I thought this effort was lacking. Sometimes I just couldn’t wait for a gun battle to be over because of how much unnecessary detail there was. For some reason, Bungie jumped authors and let William C. Dietz have a crack at this book instead of having Eric Nylund pick up where he left off after The Fall of Reach. Nylund did however write the third book in the series titled First Strike, which I haven’t yet begun to read.

This book was based entirely on what happens in the game. You begin and end in the same spot as you do in the game. I really enjoyed the plot of the game, perhaps I would have liked the book more had I not already been spoiled by being in the middle of the story when playing the game.

After all that, I’d say that this book really is still worth reading. There are many things happening simultaneously and the author jumps between what the Chief is doing, what missions the Marines are accomplishing, and you even get a glimpse into the Covenant mind. The missions the Marines went on and the battle strategies they employed were interesting.