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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This is book 8 of the 12 books for 12 months recommended by friends.
I never.. expect too much when it comes to books from video games. Boring, line-for-line of the game, not-canon, makes no sense, or all of the above is what you usually get from them.
This wasn't one of those. It was good.
Not my favorite, but it was an enjoyable read. The characters were interesting. Had me rooting for more than one side.
Sif and Mack were my favorite characters. :]
I never.. expect too much when it comes to books from video games. Boring, line-for-line of the game, not-canon, makes no sense, or all of the above is what you usually get from them.
This wasn't one of those. It was good.
Not my favorite, but it was an enjoyable read. The characters were interesting. Had me rooting for more than one side.
Sif and Mack were my favorite characters. :]
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There was a lot good about this story, but there was also an equal amount of things that frustrated me...while reading this story.
This is a prequel...and we get to see the beginning of the nightmare of the Covenant and what they do...when they want a planet...even though the humans on the planet are not doing anything wrong, but just existing. The Covenant does NOT care.
So, it was sad to watch the naive human government of the planet Harvest...when dealing with the Covenant.
The people that survived this first encounter...are people that we know and love.
What we hadn't known up till now, was ALL the people that died...to forge these heroes.
It was also interesting to peak behind the curtain and watch the different races and characters that inhabit the Covenant, but that in turn also made them more relatable in a weird way. We are NOT supposed to know WHY they do what they do...so, in learning it, it made them less terrifying, but more stupid IMO.
I think it would've been better to leave THAT mystery within the heads of the readers...to always want to know, but to be shut out. Oh, well...cat's out the bag now.
Overall I'm still enjoying my time in this world/universe.
This is a prequel...and we get to see the beginning of the nightmare of the Covenant and what they do...when they want a planet...even though the humans on the planet are not doing anything wrong, but just existing. The Covenant does NOT care.
So, it was sad to watch the naive human government of the planet Harvest...when dealing with the Covenant.
The people that survived this first encounter...are people that we know and love.
What we hadn't known up till now, was ALL the people that died...to forge these heroes.
It was also interesting to peak behind the curtain and watch the different races and characters that inhabit the Covenant, but that in turn also made them more relatable in a weird way. We are NOT supposed to know WHY they do what they do...so, in learning it, it made them less terrifying, but more stupid IMO.
I think it would've been better to leave THAT mystery within the heads of the readers...to always want to know, but to be shut out. Oh, well...cat's out the bag now.
Overall I'm still enjoying my time in this world/universe.
adventurous
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It's exactly what you would expect. Good world building and solid storytelling.
adventurous
Some Halo books are good, some are not so good. This one was great! Even though it came out after Halo 3 and we knew all the "new" info. It was a very enjoyable read. Not just for Halo fans. But you would probably have to know something about their universe. Or at least a Sci Fi fan.
This isn't just the start of the war. It's the start of the Covenant as we know it.
I absolutely loved this book, but for reasons I didn't expect. The fact that our beloved Sargent Johnson was a key character was probably supposed to be a big selling point for this novel. I was eager to know more about this character and his background. Surprisingly that turned out to be the least interesting thing about this novel.
I should probably put a big disclaimer and say that I love anything about the Covenant, and that's my main draw to the franchise, especially when it comes to the Sangheili (Elites). While there are no key Sangheili in this story, there is a much needed spotlight and development on characters of the other species.
Joseph Staten... Wow. I don't think any writer could have been more suitable for this, because he just seems to get the Covenant. This is one of the few stories where the different species aren't cardboard cutout characters that all feel the same. The alien characters feel fleshed out here. They have opinions, goals of their own, attachments. One of the most surprising things about the novel was the unlikely friendship between a Unggoy (Grunt) and a Huragok (Engineer).
Don't get me wrong, Sargent Johnson is a great guy, but I just didn't get the same feel for him in this book. His personality didn't match up with the games. He's a lot more serious, and a lot less sassy. Although I have a feeling that can be blamed on the fact that these are very early days for him. Still, his experience on Harvest gives important insight for those Halo geeks who want to know how the fight all started.
There are many surprises and insights in this book, so while I wouldn't recommend this read because of Johnson alone, if you have any interest in the events that took place or any interest in the Covenant, this book will hold a lot of treats and twists for you.
I'm not joking. My jaw literally dropped at some points. ;)
I absolutely loved this book, but for reasons I didn't expect. The fact that our beloved Sargent Johnson was a key character was probably supposed to be a big selling point for this novel. I was eager to know more about this character and his background. Surprisingly that turned out to be the least interesting thing about this novel.
I should probably put a big disclaimer and say that I love anything about the Covenant, and that's my main draw to the franchise, especially when it comes to the Sangheili (Elites). While there are no key Sangheili in this story, there is a much needed spotlight and development on characters of the other species.
Joseph Staten... Wow. I don't think any writer could have been more suitable for this, because he just seems to get the Covenant. This is one of the few stories where the different species aren't cardboard cutout characters that all feel the same. The alien characters feel fleshed out here. They have opinions, goals of their own, attachments. One of the most surprising things about the novel was the unlikely friendship between a Unggoy (Grunt) and a Huragok (Engineer).
Don't get me wrong, Sargent Johnson is a great guy, but I just didn't get the same feel for him in this book. His personality didn't match up with the games. He's a lot more serious, and a lot less sassy. Although I have a feeling that can be blamed on the fact that these are very early days for him. Still, his experience on Harvest gives important insight for those Halo geeks who want to know how the fight all started.
There are many surprises and insights in this book, so while I wouldn't recommend this read because of Johnson alone, if you have any interest in the events that took place or any interest in the Covenant, this book will hold a lot of treats and twists for you.
I'm not joking. My jaw literally dropped at some points. ;)
This one dragged on for a while. I enjoyed the glimpse into first contact with the Covenant, as well as an inside look at the Covenant itself. I also enjoyed seeing into Johnson's past, but the whole story line with the AIs didn't really do much for me and this book kind of just fell flat in the end. There was just too many characters I couldn't keep track of or didn't care enough to remember, and there being 3 or 4 story lines all going at once with varying degrees of quality made this book harder to get through than any previous one.
A good story, even though it's about Sgt. Johnson rather than the Master Chief. The writing is very well done, excellently descriptive and very entertaining. My only complaint about the book is the unwarranted and absolutely unnecessary gratuitous sex scene at the end of the story, in the epilogue of all places. The tale was over, and it was a good one. There was no need whatsoever to tack this filthy scene onto the end of. It served no purpose, didn't add any sort of closure at all as there was none needed, and didn't lead into anything else. It was completely pointless, except maybe for Joseph Staten to try his hand at romance writing. If you read the book, which I do recommend, do not read the epilogue. It will only waste your time.
Halo: Contact Harvest, doesn't have Spartans, or the forerunners (at least not in forefront). But it manages to recapture that familiar elements which made the series beloved (sans a 7 ft. tall, half a ton weighing walking tank).
As the title suggests, contact harvest tells the tale of Humanity's first formal contact with the alien collective known as the Covenant, who were hell bent on genocide at a galactic scale. The story is largely told from the POV of the beloved Sergeant Avery Johnson, back when he was kicking ass of the Innies. For the covenant side we have yet again a bunch of one off characters, who, as the convention goes are dead by the end of the book. So goes the tradition of Halo books, giving interesting arc to the lowliest of the Unggoy, literally the grunts, and killing them off, just as fast as their meat shield brethren in the games.
On a similar note, is there some rule which says that the UNSC AI introduced in the story need to be killed off by the stories end? Seeing the unfortunate end of the two Harvest administrative Ai Sif and Mack/Loki, that seems to be the case.
Johnson is not his usual gung-ho, one line spewing smartass we've come to expect; rather a more somber soldier who is mulling over the consequences of the lives he has had to take. Though he is still a force to be reckoned with in the battlefield. In that respect, the arrival of the covenant, gave him a clear picture as to what he, they were all fighting for. Rather than wars borne out of political or ideological differences, this was a clear case of us versus them, them being the much more unlikeable aliens.
On the alien side, we get to see a much more detailed look into the history and working of the covenants, as well as the three San-Shyuum officials who would eventually rise to be the Prophets Truth, Regret & Mercy.
Even when we know how bad, the diplomatic efforts between humans and covenant will go, and the clusterfuck that will be the human-covenant(-flood) war, the opening engagements still makes you wish if only things would've gone different.
Towards the end, As the dust of the initial battle for Harvest, and the subsequent evacuation settled, we also have the sobering knowledge that this was but the first salvo in a decades long war, where the UNSC and humanity were pushed to the brink of extinction.
All in all, Contact Harvest succeeds as a military science fiction thriller, playing to the strengths of the series to make a pretty much self contained story, which nonetheless connects to the larger events in the lore.
As the title suggests, contact harvest tells the tale of Humanity's first formal contact with the alien collective known as the Covenant, who were hell bent on genocide at a galactic scale. The story is largely told from the POV of the beloved Sergeant Avery Johnson, back when he was kicking ass of the Innies. For the covenant side we have yet again a bunch of one off characters, who, as the convention goes are dead by the end of the book. So goes the tradition of Halo books, giving interesting arc to the lowliest of the Unggoy, literally the grunts, and killing them off, just as fast as their meat shield brethren in the games.
On a similar note, is there some rule which says that the UNSC AI introduced in the story need to be killed off by the stories end? Seeing the unfortunate end of the two Harvest administrative Ai Sif and Mack/Loki, that seems to be the case.
Johnson is not his usual gung-ho, one line spewing smartass we've come to expect; rather a more somber soldier who is mulling over the consequences of the lives he has had to take. Though he is still a force to be reckoned with in the battlefield. In that respect, the arrival of the covenant, gave him a clear picture as to what he, they were all fighting for. Rather than wars borne out of political or ideological differences, this was a clear case of us versus them, them being the much more unlikeable aliens.
On the alien side, we get to see a much more detailed look into the history and working of the covenants, as well as the three San-Shyuum officials who would eventually rise to be the Prophets Truth, Regret & Mercy.
Even when we know how bad, the diplomatic efforts between humans and covenant will go, and the clusterfuck that will be the human-covenant(-flood) war, the opening engagements still makes you wish if only things would've gone different.
Towards the end, As the dust of the initial battle for Harvest, and the subsequent evacuation settled, we also have the sobering knowledge that this was but the first salvo in a decades long war, where the UNSC and humanity were pushed to the brink of extinction.
All in all, Contact Harvest succeeds as a military science fiction thriller, playing to the strengths of the series to make a pretty much self contained story, which nonetheless connects to the larger events in the lore.