Halo: The Flood

For travel interrupted reading, a mindless pulp-ScFi is my preferred choice. You can break the read and move in deep transit at a moment's notice. You can read it in uncomfortable position for hours. This stuff, for me, is a travel misery placebo. Bill Dietz is perhaps the best sci-fi military genre writer on the planet. Besides a mind altering purveyor of high action future war, Dietz reveals the style of the craft refined, professional author. His novel writing skill is a pure application of talent to paper. Not a page, not a paragraph, not sentence is rendered without aggressive forward moving action. I've never seen Halo played. I've read no other books that readers may be enjoying in saga. Dietz as the author was all that attracted me to the book. I had no idea what to expect. If Dietz hadn't written this installment I'd have no desire to read an imagined narrative around a first-person shooter video game. But, to my pleasant surprise, Dietz possess the Master Chief in this story. I assume the Master Chief is the player controlled `shooter' in the video game. Perhaps it is the video game link that Dietz uses to reveal the merciless, real world, show stopping, reality of `running out of stuff' that makes this combat sci-fi compellingly `realistic'. Great story. Great writing. Great Author. "The Flood" is a fully self-contained story.

I was a bit wary because the first book set a high standard and with it being a different author I was concerned it wouldn’t live up to it. That uncertainty turned out to be completely unnecessary as Dietz did a fantastic job. 10/10.

I love Sci-Fi and the Halo series of books are some of my favorites. I purchased the Kindle version, the paperback version and the Audible version of this book. I have read or listened to it multiple times. For me it never gets old. I like this book a lot but there are several things that bother me. The audio book and the Kindle version do not agree word for word. It is like the Audible version has been corrected and updated while the Kindle version has not. Words, sentences and paragraphs have been added in the Audible version while the Kindle version is incorrect. The other item that bothered me is the weapons used in the book by the humans and the effect they had on what was shot. The Master Chief use a shotgun a lot and the Kindle book said it was an 8 gauge shotgun and it was a 12 gauge. Parts of the Audible version were corrected while the Kindle book is still incorrect regarding the gage of the shotgun. In addition the book always talked about the assault rifle blowing large holes through the aliens that were shot. High velocity assault weapons and 7.62 bullets don't do that. They pass though the body. I also wondered how many magazines the master chief could carry. He must of used many thousands of rounds of ammo. Don't get me wrong but I still like the story. It is just that being a shooter I could not relate to incorrect information regarding the weapons. I like the book and I rated it 4 stars. It would have been 5 stars if the storyline moved faster and the above mentioned items were correct. I don't play the game but the story line, of the book, was entertaining for me and I liked it. Like I said, I have read and listened to the book multiple times.

I must admit that I am a huge fan of the Halo game franchise. The universe, story, characters, and the game play/multi-player is something to love. There is one thing that a game just can't cover. Details. Playing through the game gives you a story line seen mostly through they eyes of Master Chief and his AI Cortana. I would always wonder what else was going on when I played the game. The book allows you to see everything from multiple characters, even the Covenant. Details that in my opinion, bring the story together perfectly. There is an abundance of fighting which seems somewhat redundant,but you have to remember, it's Halo. There are so many other side stories that fill in the gaps for people who play the games. It's pretty cool to be reading the book and trace you own steps and experiences that you had in the game. You can literally picture every turn and remember the enemies and the situation at that time. I certainly makes the book very enjoyable. I did notice that the enemies in this book seemed inconsistent with the enemies from The Fall of Reach as far as how tough they were. Like someone had said in a review I read, if these books had a difficulty level, The Fall of Reach was legendary and The Flood was normal. Regardless, I enjoyed the read and I am very eager to continue reading the other books!

In this chapter of Halo, we follow the Chief almost literally through hell. Of course, there are the usual Covenant types he faces, but there is a new threat in this chapter that makes it a lot more interesting. And deadly. I thoroughly enjoyed this read & look forward to pressing onto the next chapter!! Recommended

...and I do mean if you're a BIG fan of the series. I'll say up top that this book definitely isn't for people who aren't into the series on a "I consume the expanded lore" level. Not because I'm trying to gatekeep, or because only people well acquainted with the lore will understand the plot; but because, to put it frankly, it kinda drags for most of its read-time. As a direct novelization of the game Halo: Combat Evolved, most of the plot in the book is re-treading the exact plot of the source material. And by direct, I mean direct. Where in a video game, repeatedly shooting aliens in hallways can be loads of fun, it is much less interesting to read about someone shooting aliens in hallways. And this is often handled in such a way that the words start blurring together. The chapter that covered the level "The Library" was particularly grueling, with pages of text that all could be summarized as "He shot the enemy, then moved forward and shot more enemy." Almost all of the parts covering events in the source material read this way, which admittedly can be neat at times - particularly in how some events and environments are described in ways that make me go "oh, I remember that exact room/combat encounter/etc." But overall, most things dealing with Chief reads like a play-by-play of someone's playthrough of the game, which is less than interesting. This is contrasted, however, by the parts not focusing on events presented in the game, which are well written and fun to read. They don't always hit spot on, and in particular the scenes of fighting tend to get bogged down, but William Dietz's capabilities as an author shine much brighter when he's unshackled from pre-established events. Of particular note are the side plots concerning Yayap, a grunt working for an elite headhunter with a mission to hunt down Chief, and Lt. Melissa McKay, a marine leader coordinating and fighting in the resistance against the covenant. Both are quite fun, and I enjoyed them a lot. Another thing of particular note is the personality given to the characters, and the overall energy and tone of the book. They all feel particularly "mean" or "angry" or just "off" in some way or the other. Its Halo, so of course death is a common occurrence, but a lot of the killings feel mean-spirited or particularly cruel in how they're described, which is an odd thing to hone in on for a book about war, but I noticed it a lot over my read and it really didn't feel to be in the same vain is the more serious action in books like "Fall of Reach" and "Contact Harvest" or the more fun, not-afraid-to-be-playful feel of the games like Halo 2 or 3. Well established characters like the Master Chief and Cortana also seem "off-model" so to speak in their characterizations, with the duo's relationship feeling more full of anger toward each other rather than the sarcastic, yet supportive rapport they are known for having. I can't really blame Dietz for his mischaracterizations too much though, seeing as how this was quite literally the third piece of major Halo media ever released. There just wasn't that much there to guide things like tone and personality, and while the gleeful violence seems more Doom than Halo - and definitely not to my liking - I can respect the situation the author was in when this was written. Overall, while I like a lot of the additions to the story of Halo this book brings, the overall package isn't something that I can see people enjoying too much unless they're looking for those additions in particular. If not, you're better off playing Combat Evolved. CONS: - The action is monotonous and boring. - Lots of telling you what happens instead of showing. - The tone is weirdly angry and cruel. - The established characters don't really feel like themselves. - You've already seen the main plot if you've played Halo: CE. PROS: - Some of the side characters and their stories are interesting and fun. (This is what made me choose 3 instead of 2 stars, by the way. There are some very good times to be had in the B plots, just not enough to make the whole package good instead of mediocre.) - We get to see a more complete view of the battle that takes place in Halo: CE. - It is canon that Chief drives the warthog into the building in "Silent Cartographer."

Have played some of the games, the story and the pictures in my head made for a great experience. Nothing like the tv series.

This Halo novel covers the time period of the actual gameplay covered in the first Halo game. But the novel tells so much more about the other heros involved in this epic story. The Halo universe, games and novels, tells one of the top 5 greatest sci-fi stories of all time, in quality and quantity. This is a must have for TRUE Halo fans, and simply a really good sci-fi novel for those that aren't. This novel and all of the others in the Halo universe are fantasically written and are very easy reads. Each novel tells a truly awesome story and blends the action, drama, and even comedy very well. Kudos to this author and the others that have contributed to this amazing tale. I hope the Halo franchise and universe continue to evolve for a long long time.

Liebe an Halo! Bestes Buch! (Habs noch nicht gelesen, aber ist Halo also kann es nur geil sein)

Tengo el resto de libros de la colección. Imposible de encontrarlo físicamente, o por poco interés de las librerias o una edición escasa, es una de las novelas de la saga más movido, las batallas son tremendas y supera con creces al videojuego en el que se basa. Lastima que se acabe tan pronto.

Llegó rápido y está en perfecto estado 👌 Hace mucho tiempo que quería leer este y el resto de libros de la saga.

Excellent book. Have played the game. But this book described the game very well and gave me a different perspective.

Great adaptation of Combat Evolved with new perspectives. Explains a lot like how (SPOILERS) Keyes was captured and more.