HALO: First Strike

HALO, Book 3

By: Eric Nylund

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

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

It's 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 supersoldier 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. 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....

©2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

Great story, horrible narration.

Todd McLaren insists on wild mispronunciations and extremely jarring voice overs for most characters in this book and the others that he narrates.

One of the stronger Halo books in the series

Very enjoyable read for Halo fans or sci-fi lovers. I have been reading the books in order and I'm enjoying them more and more as I go through them.

4.9/5

A great continuation of the Halo story. My only fault is the continued mispronunciation of "Mjolnir" and "ONI" this far into the series.
Otherwise the narrator does a great job.

Love the Halo Franchise

Other than pronunciation, especially Mjolnir, its read well. You definatly get more details when it is read to you than when you first read it.

Fantastic

Reeally great listen and the voice actor is truly amazing. would definitely recommend to anyone.

loved it.

love this book learning a lot about Halo going to try to read them all before the new Halo game comes out.

Slow and Purposeful (Spoiler-free)

Of the first three Halo novels, I found First Strike to be the least interesting. While not a bad story by any means, it falls short when compared to the thrilling tales of The Fall of Reach and The Flood. Heavy on dialogue with sporadic action throughout, First Strike is at its strongest in the beginning and end. I don't regret listening - far from it - but this is a much more technical look into the Halo universe, its technology, and the people who use it in the war against the Covenant.

First Strike is wonderfully written and the narrator does a excellent job of bringing the characters to life. As this book picks up where The Flood leaves off it is a critical part of the Halo mythos; the events and battles within are just as important - if not moreso - than the Master Chief's deeds on Installation 04.

Happy listening!

awesome

loved the details in the story I play the games and hearing the books bring more lore in to my knowledge love it

worth your time

loved it
the whole series is worth your time. and i have three more words remaining

suprising

I never knew all this was happening between Halo 1 and 2.
and what the hell how come Grace got a covenant squad and master chief got an unarmed brute.....
poor Grace not fair.

Shame about the music theme

The whole audiobook is amazing, but the only thing that bugged me was use of Halo 5 music, instead of original Halo theme.
Seems trivial but come on hearing anything else than that epic Halo theme in the original Halo audiobook seems not right.

But that’s the only bad thing I can say about this audiobook, it is truly great and I liked it a lot.

A masterpiece...

First Strike follows on from the First Halo game and Halo The Flood book.
It gives more back story to what happened on Reach and how Chief got away from the Halo ring.
If you only played the games, this gives alot more lore to the Halo Universe and will fill in those gaps within the Halo timeline.

Superb

A really big fan of Eric Nylund, read the book years ago and it's great to hear it as an audiobook

Must read for any Halo fan

Answers questions left hanging between Halo 1 and 2. How did the Chief make it back to Earth? How did Sergeant Johnson survive? The performane is great with only minor exceptions (mispronunciation of Mjolnir, Admiral Hood suddenly becoming Sean Connery when the version in game is played by Ron Pearlman not doing a Scottish accent). A great listen.

Nyland and McLaren knock it out of the park!

Another enjoyable halo book! Fantastically written, and then brilliantly brought to life in audio book format. Great time :)

a truly epic tale

i love this book might actually be my favorite so much happens and it's easy to keep up with it answers so many questions i had about the halo universe and more, i truly love and highly recommend this book to all who enjoy or love halo

Gripping story, a definite for a Halo fan

Love these stories, the detail is incredible and if you've played the games it an eye opener to say the least

phenomenal

fantastic in all senses, chock full of action! answers all the questions between halo and halo 2. Highly recommend

halo

would make a great game I would do it if I had the skill and knowledge to doit there is a lot of games that can be made oot of the rest of halo books a true halo fan played all the game's and working on all the rest of the books

amazing

any halo fan needs to get these series of books, absolutely phenomenal! very happy with my purchases!