Halo: First Strike

Eric Nylund

Jan 2019 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this eBook

The New York Times bestselling aftermath of Halo: Combat Evolved featuring the Master Chief—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series!

2552. The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant is showing no mercy as it continues to assault every human world it encounters, but in the way lies humanity’s greatest champion, the super-soldier Spartan John-117—the Master Chief. Together with his AI companion Cortana and the last remaining Spartans, the galaxy-spanning fight rages on two fronts following the destruction of the human military stronghold Reach by Covenant forces and the mysterious artificial ringworld known as “Halo” at the hands of the Master Chief.

One faction—a squad of Spartans lead by Blue Team’s Fred-104 and Kelly-087—is trapped on the glassed surface of Reach, the only planet they’ve ever known as home. And beneath this ruined world, Dr. Catherine Halsey has discovered an ancient secret...one that could alter the course of the war. Meanwhile, the Master Chief and Cortana lead a second group toward a gathering of Covenant warships, as the United Nations Space Command’s worst nightmare has finally come true: the Covenant has discovered the location of Earth and is forming a massive fleet to utterly destroy it, as well as all who oppose the indomitable will of the Prophets…

Ratings and reviews

After a request from my sons I'd sceptically read with them, and was impressed by, Halo: The Fall of Reach. I enjoyed it enough that we continued the series and read Halo: The Flood. As I stated in that review, these books are entertaining, appropriate (albeit lots of violence), low brow fiction. Halo: First Strike, was a great addition to this series, a quick easy read, and we enjoyed the book just the same as the others.

As the third book I had ever read in the Halo series, I must say this one is my favorite of the first trilogy. The stuff the games never got. Just give this a read. If you've read the "the fall of reach" and "the flood" and you enjoyed those? Then you owe it to yourself to finish this last one at the minimum.

Any Halo book is a great read, and This one is no exception.

About the author

Eric Nylund is the author of many novels, including the New York Times bestselling works Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and the World Fantasy nominated Dry Water. As a writer for Microsoft Game Studios, Nylund helped develop such game franchises as Halo and Gears of War. He has also helped shape the intellectual property for some of the world’s best videogame developers, including Bioware and Epic Games, and also worked with Amazon’s game studios. Nylund lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, award-winning science fiction/fantasy writer Syne Mitchell, and their son.