The Energon Pub

Hey there guys!

I've been stocking up on Halo today by listening to the soundtrack, and was thinking to myself: are the books as good as they sound?

I have seen them in Barnes & Noble and wondered what they were like, so I ask you:

Are they worth the money to buy?

I follow criteria in buying books: (I am picky. )

An entertaining book that you can read for hours. (Like Jurassic Park by Michael Chrichton.)

I would prefer to keep the language to a minimum, for instance, one book I read was so bad, there was almost one in every paragraph. (Fragment)

Descriptive; MUST HAVE! The last one I read was like licking a mummy. (Dracula)

Length would be preferable, for it keeps it fueled instead of drawing all of this momentum at the start, and have a short ending.


Do the Halo books provide these? Or should I get Exodus instead or along with them?

Halo: Fall of Reach. It details pretty much everything leading up to the first game, and it's definitely worth a read. And in case you're wondering, the only thing it has in common with Halo: Reach is that they both take place during the battle.

Tons of details are different in the book, though--Cortana was on the Pillar of Autumn long before the battle started, they knew about the Covenant invasion just before it began, Pillar of Autumn took part in the space battle, etc. Not that there's a problem with that, the book prefers more realistic military tactics rather than running-and-gunning from the games. Not that I have a problem with the games.

Shadowman wrote:Halo: Fall of Reach. It details pretty much everything leading up to the first game, and it's definitely worth a read. And in case you're wondering, the only thing it has in common with Halo: Reach is that they both take place during the battle.

Tons of details are different in the book, though--Cortana was on the Pillar of Autumn long before the battle started, they knew about the Covenant invasion just before it began, Pillar of Autumn took part in the space battle, etc. Not that there's a problem with that, the book prefers more realistic military tactics rather than running-and-gunning from the games. Not that I have a problem with the games.

Great!

How's the language?

#Sideways# wrote:

Shadowman wrote:Halo: Fall of Reach. It details pretty much everything leading up to the first game, and it's definitely worth a read. And in case you're wondering, the only thing it has in common with Halo: Reach is that they both take place during the battle.

Tons of details are different in the book, though--Cortana was on the Pillar of Autumn long before the battle started, they knew about the Covenant invasion just before it began, Pillar of Autumn took part in the space battle, etc. Not that there's a problem with that, the book prefers more realistic military tactics rather than running-and-gunning from the games. Not that I have a problem with the games.

Great!

How's the language?

Not particularly bad. About the same as the games, I think. A swear here or there but nothing that would net it an R rating by MPAA standards.

#Sideways# wrote:Descriptive; MUST HAVE! The last one I read was like licking a mummy. (Dracula)

Wait a sec... Are you saying Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is no good?

Plaything wrote:

#Sideways# wrote:Descriptive; MUST HAVE! The last one I read was like licking a mummy. (Dracula)

Wait a sec... Are you saying Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is no good?

No, it was good, but since the book was completely diary entries, it was not descriptive, making it a hard read to get into at first.

Halo: Fall of Reach is legit. It gives you the background on the creation of the Spartans and is pretty intense.

Halo: The Flood was the weakest for me. It was basically a summarization of Halo: CE. It used the game as a skeleton.. and I don't recall it ever expanding the dialogue from the game. I'd avoid it if you already played Halo: CE because it's just.. meh.

Halo: First Strike is my favorite. Follows John (Master Chief) post Halo: CE. He meets up with the few remaining Spartans and give the Covey a hell of a fight. It's just fun to see all of the Super soldiers together... Linda is a just a sniping goddess. The novel then leads up to Halo 2

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx follows the remaining Spartans, sans Master Chief... post Halo 3? The Spartan-III's are a major focus of this novel, who is led by one of MC's buddies, Kurt. It's the farthest part of the Halo timeline IRC, and it's wicked.

Halo: Contact Harvest follows Sgt. Johnson and the first interaction with the Covenent. Was sort of boring because of no Spartans.

Halo: The Cole Protocol follows the Grey Team Spartans as well as Keyes, before coming the head of the Pillar of Autumn. It's one of my favorites as well, because Grey Team is a behind the lines team and is so sneaky.

Halo: Evolutions is a bunch of short stories and is just bleh for me.

Halo: Cryptum builds on the Halo lore and focuses on events way way way pre-Halo. No MC/Spartans = Boring.


In summary, get FoR, First Strike, GoO and TCP. Master Chief's not featured in GoO but the flashbacks are just epic.

Blurrz wrote:Halo: Fall of Reach is legit. It gives you the background on the creation of the Spartans and is pretty intense.

Halo: The Flood was the weakest for me. It was basically a summarization of Halo: CE. It used the game as a skeleton.. and I don't recall it ever expanding the dialogue from the game. I'd avoid it if you already played Halo: CE because it's just.. meh.

Halo: First Strike is my favorite. Follows John (Master Chief) post Halo: CE. He meets up with the few remaining Spartans and give the Covey a hell of a fight. It's just fun to see all of the Super soldiers together... Linda is a just a sniping goddess. The novel then leads up to Halo 2

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx follows the remaining Spartans, sans Master Chief... post Halo 3? The Spartan-III's are a major focus of this novel, who is led by one of MC's buddies, Kurt. It's the farthest part of the Halo timeline IRC, and it's wicked.

Halo: Contact Harvest follows Sgt. Johnson and the first interaction with the Covenent. Was sort of boring because of no Spartans.

Halo: The Cole Protocol follows the Grey Team Spartans as well as Keyes, before coming the head of the Pillar of Autumn. It's one of my favorites as well, because Grey Team is a behind the lines team and is so sneaky.

Halo: Evolutions is a bunch of short stories and is just bleh for me.

Halo: Cryptum builds on the Halo lore and focuses on events way way way pre-Halo. No MC/Spartans = Boring.


In summary, get FoR, First Strike, GoO and TCP. Master Chief's not featured in GoO but the flashbacks are just epic.

Wow, Thanks!

I'll see if I can pick those up with Exodus if I can find it; I've been itching for a book lately.

Ugh! If there was a good Pokemon book that didn't follow the Anime, the world would be a better place...

#Sideways# wrote:Ugh! If there was a good Pokemon book that didn't follow the Anime, the world would be a better place...

Well, Pokemon Adventures (Which is a manga and thus technically counts as a book in that it has pages with words on them) was described by Satoshi Tajiri as "the comic that most resembles the world I was trying to convey." So there's that.

Shadowman wrote:

#Sideways# wrote:Ugh! If there was a good Pokemon book that didn't follow the Anime, the world would be a better place...

Well, Pokemon Adventures (Which is a manga and thus technically counts as a book in that it has pages with words on them) was described by Satoshi Tajiri as "the comic that most resembles the world I was trying to convey." So there's that.

Eh. I'm not too terribly into the Manga stuff, not really my thing.