Reviews

Halo: The Flood by William C. Dietz

thebookslayer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 Halo: The Flood is by far the best book in the Halo book series. Halo: The Flood follows the events of the video game Halo: Combat Evolved. In which the events of the game are novelized and are viewed form the eyes of the main characters, Master Chief, Crotona, Captain Keyes, along with some new characters written for the book that add life to the story. It even adds for the first time, a look into the Covenant side; of the Human- Covenant War. In which William C. Dietz ends up setting the stage for Halo 2 and the Arbiter story line.

sverremikael's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

alsostef's review against another edition

dark sad tense

4.0

graff_fuller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I was hoping for a BIT more from this author. I own a few of his books (unread), but for some reason...I just didn't connect with this story...as much as in the first book

The only two characters that I cared about...were two of the characters that are holdovers from the first book, Master Chief/Spartan 117 and Captain Keyes.

The new characters seemed flat and boring (TBH), and I just wanted to get back to the above characters...and there just didn't seem to be ENOUGH of that. Unfortunately.

Now, that does NOT mean I didn't enjoy the overall story. It was good. We had a LOT of world building. Actually a LOT more POV characters/storylines with the Covenant (more than I thought we'd get). 

I am now getting to understand how dire the situation is for humanity...and what they are actually up against. The Covenant is an Empire...and humanity seems so small and defenseless compared to them...espeicially without the Spartans. Master Chief is really "their ONLY hope".

I will continue to explore more stories within this universe. Still excited. I hope that it was just a blip...and not a trend downward.

dsollick's review against another edition

4.0

This book is too chaotic, and while it has many cool events in it with a diverse amount of characters, sometimes it's hard to follow exactly what's going on. I've always noticed that with books by Deitz...

afesant's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

3.25

throb_thomas's review against another edition

adventurous

3.0

blindchoice's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.25

fandom4ever's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Halo: The Flood is the novelization of the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved and the only game to receive such a novelization. I have played co-op the first three games of the series and read The Fall of Reach prior to this. And for someone like me who isn’t very knowledgeable about the series, unlike my co-op partner who knows the world inside out, I found this novelization very helpful to further sort out the story and explain parts while I’m not being shot at. 

I feel it’s unfair to say that this book is basically a play by play ‘script’ of the game. In the game you play solely as Master Chief and don’t get to see events from other characters. This novel, on the other hand, switches viewpoints often from the likes of Master Chief, Captain Keyes, other UNSC officers, and the Helljumpers, to even the Covenant in certain Elites and Grunts. I felt that this really helped to flesh out certain aspects of the story, like why the Covenant would become fixated on ‘the solider in the special armor’ and what the human soldiers’ reactions were when the Flood started showing up. It even gave information on what people feel when they’re being taken over by the Flood! 

That being said I do wish we could have seen more of the Flood from the Covenant point of view, as they seemed to know at least something about it and are rightly terrified. Along with that I think there could have more information on the backstory of Halo and its monitor, 343 Guilty Spark like with the terminals that you could find in the game. However, as the terminals didn’t factor in until the anniversary edition ten years later, I’m not sure how much info they had on the Forerunners during the first game. 

All in all, I think this novelization is worth the time of any Halo fan; particularly if you’re looking for the information in written form to help you understand further what you witnessed while in game. Sure, it wasn’t as strong a book as The Fall of Reach but as the author was only given ten weeks to write this novel (and he was the one who pushed to add the other viewpoints!) I think he did a pretty good job. 

monsimouse's review against another edition

3.0

The first book was a definite 5 star read for me, but this one just missed the mark in my opinion. I still loved the story (even though it was a an exact replica of the first game), but I feel like the writing just didn't grab a hold me like the first book did.

To start I found myself getting confused and increasingly frustrated with how many POV jumps we had. The first book also had different POV's but it was more contained, this one was jumping between so many characters that I found myself wanting to get done with certain characters so I could go back to others.

The second issue I had was that the entire book was a constant battle scene. I don't mind the battle scenes, but unlike the first book it was just overwhelming the book. I would have loved some more character development and interactions, but since it was supposed to follow the first game I can understand that it may have been difficult to add interactions.