All fantastic except...

Have been really enjoying the performance, I’ve been a Halo fan for years, played all games, read and re-read all the books. Fall of Reach being a favourite, and Todd McLaren does a great job...except...one thing that frustrates me as a fan is the pronunciation of Johns Spartan designation number - within the canon it is “one, one, seven”, however here it is being pronounced “one, seventeen”...I know this is a minor detail, but it’s one that sticks with me after playing the games with “one, one, seven” being used. But, that one point from a big fan aside...a great performance, really enjoyable, cannot stop listening to it!

11 people found this helpful

Great reading but wrong dates of events

The story is as great as ever and love hearing the origins of the Master Chief, however some thing that unsatisfied me was that the dates for the Battle of Reach were wrongly read out - the narrator (who did do a great job of reading this) read the year as 2542 everytime, even though the actual year of the event was 2552. But still a great reading!

6 people found this helpful

Contradicts better pieces of the Halo EU, boring writing and is loved only for its nostalgia.

I decided to listen to this as my first Halo book instead of Contact Harvest, contact harvest being from what i’ve heard a more interesting and well written book then the Fall of reach, as it was impressed upon me the fact that this was the start of the Halo EU and therefore necessary in order to understand it as a whole. After listening I doubt this is the case. Before I go into the bad i’ll lay out the good... The space naval battles are very interesting to listen to, especially once you have a knowledge of how these ships look and operate from the games. The narrator is very good. He really brings forward that militaristic style Halo is known for. Although even here there’s problems with pronunciation of one or two things that will take someone familiar with Halo out of the experience. Now for the bad... The titular ‘Fall of Reach’ does not feature heavily in this book, more a third act finale, and the perspective you get is far less interesting then the Halo: Reach game. In fact, this book although I understand it was written before the development of Halo: Reach, contradicts the game at every turn and leaves anyone who has played the game, or any of the games really, baffled and confused. There is also a typo that is persistent throughout the book that adds to this confusion and frustration for anyone who has played the games. This typo relates to the year 2542 which should be 2552; an annoying realisation at the beginning of the third act for anyone who has played the Reach game and can tell the mistake at that stage. The writing is bland and the structure is all over the place. This is a story with a foregone conclusion and the plot suffers because of it, resulting in the plot being mostly an excuse to explain the Chief’s background and the background of the other characters of Halo: CE . Due to this it relies heavily, in my opinion, on the reader having already played the game to have somewhat of an emotional connection to these characters. The plot also suffers from this lack of direction in that it darts everywhere and leaps from one character to the other until you are unsure who the protagonist of this book is. Master Chief ultimately being so, but Keyes being the better option as Keyes is the only character you end up having a slitter of an emotional investment in. In relation to this protagonist problem there’s a POV chapter from a new character at the beginning of the second act, which seems like a nice once off. Once that character comes back however, a few chapters later, you assume this character will have more to say/do or perhaps become the book’s protagonist as we have seen this world through his eyes and spent time elaborating on his unique back story and exceptional abilities, but no, he is just brought back for no apparent reason and becomes a background character never to be heard from again. I looked up people’s thoughts on this book and was amazed at how many good reviews it has. I can only equate them to nostalgia. I was not expecting literature here, I knew what I was getting into, a pulpy sci-fi war novel to complement a 2001 game. The Fall of Reach is so poor it actually undermines how great of a game Halo: CE is. There are emotional events that happen to the character’s of CE in this book,directly before the game, that make their portrayal in the game somewhat off. This book doesn’t complement Halo: CE instead it makes me want to play it again to forget how bland this book portrays it’s world. I also seen that, apparently, Bungie tried to stop the release of this book for reasons I don’t know but after reading the book I don’t think that would have been a bad thing. This is not an interesting read and it is not a necessary read to understand the world of Halo. I’m sure there are other books in the canon that explain the parts of the lore this book poorly covers. In fact this book will probably confuse you more, as better pieces of the Halo EU contradict this book. At best The Fall of Reach needs a massive revision to realign itself with the Halo EU; at worst it needs to be decanonised.

3 people found this helpful

Great story, decent reading

The book is interesting and well written, and a must read or listen for any Halo fan. The only gripe I had was the reader. The company that produced it had either not done their research or simply not informed the reader about the pronunciation of several of the terms, such as ONI (pronounced: "Oh-knee") or Mjolnir (pronounced: "Mole-near"). Aside from that it's very well done. I haven't listened to the other audio books yet so I am not sure if the pronunciation situation has been addressed.

2 people found this helpful

Superior compared to the TV Show

I got the book to see what's the difference between the show and the the games story. And I have to say the 2 is barelly similar and the book is the superior medium.

1 person found this helpful

m-yoll-near

cringed every time the narrator tried to say mjollnir but apart from that it was good

1 person found this helpful

Self-isolation answer!

Whether or not you’ve played the Halo games, this novel is incredible! Lots of interesting lore, excellently read and written. Onto the next one!

1 person found this helpful

Great halo book

Being a big halo fan of all the games and already having most of the paperback books.
I love this story because you get to find out about how the spartans came to be and best find out more about spartan 117 John the Master Chief before the first halo combat evolved game.
5/5 I like reading but sometime I like to lay and relax Whilst listening anyone that likes halo give it a go

1 person found this helpful

loved it

loved the story, filled in some of the blanks from the games. I've been listening to this the last few days at work so it's made my shifts fly by. Looking forward to listening to the rest of the books.

The only annoyance I had was the narrater pronounced a few words wrong. The first few times annoyed me but after a little while I began to notice it less.

Great Listen.

Loved the origin story of Master Cheeks. The narrator's voice sent me into a stupor.