Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #291312 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Customer Reviews

Great read.....
Im a fan of the whole halo series not just the games, so this book was a must for me.
Set before any of the other books or games, in short, the book is based around Sergant Johnson, who is right on the front line of the insurrection, a human civil war. He is then reasigned to the planet Harvest to train recruits. This is then the 1st planet the covenant attack.
It starts slow and you have to stick with it until it picks up pace. When the book gets into it, its an addictive read, and i felt had alot of depth to it, espeically near the end.
Its a great addition to the halo series and its nice to have a good idea of the games or other books as you find out the origin of certain things, but its by no means vital.
:)

Bloody brilliant
For all of you who yelped in dispear when SGT.Johnson was killed (sorry if you didnt know, but honestly you should by now!) fear not because Avery is back in this fantasic novel. Set at the very begining of the Halo universe, it goes way back the to the first contact with the covenent on planet harvest (as the name suggests) and how Sgt.Johnson got to be there. This book, like the others had me hooked all the way through and there is an awsome scene where sarge uses a portable Gauss Railgun. It also answers alot of lot questions that have been speculated about for some time. So overall if there are any Sgt.Johnson fans out there or obviously any Halo fans, this is a MUST read.

The best so far
of the four Halo novels I've read. This is as it is a departure from the mainly linear Master Chief novels and instead takes a more 'Halo 2' approach to the story with the plot developing from multiple human and Covenant angles. This results in a more interesting story and also fleshes out the Covenant to more than just bullet magnets.

As with any Halo book its most important purpose is to expand on the Halo universe and it certainly does that more than any of the first three novels. My only criticism is that there is rather a major revelation that involves the Forerunners that made me think I had misread some of the book as it has never been mentioned in any other game/novel/comic. From a bit of research it seems I did read it correctly, but that makes it a strange and rather large oversight up until now.

Avery Johnson is the main character, supposedly at fans requests, and my only other gripe of the book is that it raises him to near mythical status. Not only is he the only man to have survived the Flood but it also turns out he is also one of two men to make first contact with the Covenant and escape from the first planet they glass. There isn't any indication he is also a Spartan, but it made me wonder. This god like status makes his luck running out in Halo 3 even more surprising.

But these things are minor and what this book adds to the Halo universe and the refreshing multiple race narrative more than makes up for this and I would highly recommend it. Just brace yourself for a very out of place sex scene involving Johnson in the last few pages of the book. What, where did that come from?