Halo: The Flood

William C. Dietz

Oct 2010 · Macmillan

About this ebook

REACH HAS FALLEN.

THE COVENANT WAR MACHINE RAGES ON.

HUMANITY'S LAST HOPE LIES WITH THE CREW OF THE PILLAR OF AUTUMN—THE INDOMITABLE CAPTAIN JACOB KEYES, STAFF SERGEANT AVERY JOHNSON, THE AI CORTANA, HUNDREDS OF FEARLESS MARINES . . . AND SPARTAN 117, THE MASTER CHIEF.

Having barely escaped the battle for Reach, the crew of the Pillar of Autumn is forced to make a jump into Slipspace in hopes of evading the vast alien alliance hell-bent on wiping out humanity. But their destination brings them to an ancient mystery and an even greater struggle.

In this far-flung corner of the universe floats a magnificently massive artificial ring world . . . a construct from a long lost race. The humans' only hope of survival is to crash land on its surface and take the battle against the Covenant to the ground.

But they soon discover that this enigmatic ring world is much more than it seems. Built 100,000 years ago by a civilization known as the Forerunners, this "Halo" is worshipped by the Covenant---a sacred artifact that they hope will complete their religious quest for supposed transcendence. They will stop at nothing to control it.

Engaged in a fierce ground battle, Master Chief and Cortana go deep into the Halo Construct to uncover a dark secret; this enigmatic ring world is also the universe's most dangerous weapon. Its purpose: the destruction of all sentient life. For the Forerunners built the Halo to battle the universe's most vicious enemy---a virtually unstoppable and suddenly reawakened force known as The Flood.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

Easily the weakest book in the series. There's only so many ways to describe The Master Chief shooting stuff before it gets boring. The other novels succeed because the writers have more freedom, but cudos to the writer for trying to add some side stories to flesh it out a little. At least lessons were learned, and no other game-specific novelisations have been attempted since. Skip this one and just play the game.

I really liked the author's style of fitting in several side stories in each chapter, it was an interesting change compared to the first Halo book and I think it was executed very well. The Flood's capture of Captain Keys was fascinating and it really emphasised the struggle that he had to go through before the Chief found him, in addition to that a lot of other unanswered questions are revealed. Overall this book was an excellent read.

As many people have said, this book is the story of Halo 1. I kind of feel like the author got the short end of the stick being stuck with a plot everyone already knows. He did keep it interesting though through parallel storylines of characters such as enemies of the Chief. That and the author's sci-fi writing style are the books most redeeming qualities.

About the author

William C. Dietz is the best-selling author of more than thirty novels some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, spent time with the Navy and Marine Corps as a medic, graduated from the University of Washington, lived in Africa for half a year, and has traveled to six continents. Dietz has been variously employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, news writer, television producer, and director of public relations and marketing for an international telephone company. He and his wife live in Washington State where they enjoy traveling, kayaking, snorkeling, and not too surprisingly, reading books.