Halo: Contact Harvest

Always looking for good sci fi on Audible. This book's got everthing I like in the genra; high tech gadgetry and theories, likeable characters (including the aliens), and storyline.

I almost didn't buy the book because I'm not a big fan of video games. But I'm glad I gave it a chance.

I recommend it.

I love this series. But the biggest problem I have run into is the read order. Now that I am on #6 I can share with certainty.

Halo: Contact Harvest
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Halo: The Fall Of Reach
Halo: The Flood
Halo: First Strike
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

Once I have finished the available books I'll update the list.

This is the book that starts it all and lays the footings for the Human - Covenant war. It is the story of first contact between races, and its a good listen.

I am a big fan of the game so i was realy looking forward to hearing this book.They did an awesome job of telling the store. I hope that they do the same for the first 3 books!! Great job and please keep up the great work.

This is a great story of Sgt. Johnson's life before Halo. Also very current events with the insurrection that he's fighting. No Spartans in this one, but it doesn't suffer for that.

PARENTAL WARNING! You may want to edit out the last five minutes of this story. There's a sex scene at the end. While not very graphic and not unbelievable it's still very obvious what's going on. If you miss it and this is your kid's first introduction to sex, it's not bad either. They actually care about each other.

Its a great book and very intresting.

If you have read/listened the other halo books this is a great addition to your colletion as it explains a lot about the history between human kind and the covedant.

If you love halo? You will love this book!!!!

When I was a teen, I would plow through Star Trek and Star Wars novels, and loved them. Now in my 30's, I shy away from novelizations of established film and game series, because looking back honestly, a lot of them tended to be embarrassingly "fan fiction-ish". I gave this a shot though, since I had a credit to burn and was genuinely curious about humanity's first contact with the Covenant.

That said, I am actually very glad I got this book. It was well written, and served as a good prologue to the coming tragedies of the human-Covenant war. Kind of sad how the whole war could have been avoided but for a dash of random chance, coupled with an overly ambitious Brute and a couple power-hungry Prophets.

While I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the story, I was a let down by the narration. Jen Taylor voices Cortana in the games, how on earth is she such a terrible narrator? She over-enunciates and over-sells nearly every word and line. Think of a first grade teacher reading aloud to her class, and you'll have the idea.

Holter Graham was a little better, but still not a great performance. I loved his over-the-top brogue for SSGT Byrne, and his SSGT Johnson was good enough. Problem is, he only had one other voice for all other humans, and one voice for every Covie, regardless of character or species. Made conversations between Covenant characters harder to follow than necessary. The nasally, halting, unsure tone is fine for Grunts - they are supposed to be morons. Makes a lot less sense coming from a Brute or an Engineer.

One last comment. Johnson seems like a capable leader - how the heck is he still a Staff Sergeant for 20+ years. This book takes place just after the year 2500 rollover. He's a SSGT. Halo 1 takes place in, I believe, 2525. You're telling me he hasn't had a single promotion in over 20 years?!

I enjoyed the book a lot it just seemed to lack the ability to keep me interested. The sex scene seemed a bit unnecessary at the end as well.

I would rank this book as one of the worst audio books I have ever heard. The story line reminded me of a fifties B rated monster movie. Unreasonably long in explaining a simple concept and the conversation makes you feel like you just got mugged by an inept English teacher. This book is such a long ways from such good science fiction books as the Starship Troopers and the Dune series that you cant see it. I reference these books, because I believe they tried mimic the style and feel of these popular science fiction classics and failed.