Halo: First Strike Review (6/10)

The third in the Halo tie-in novels, First Strike takes place after the original Halo game, showing Master Chief that there were a few Spartan IIs who survived the Fall Of Reach (which is a slightly better book at 8/10), and convincing him to take revenge on the Covenant for the fallen Marines killed on the Halo ring in the video game. Problem is, the aformentioned "First Strike" doesn't occur until the last 100 pages, by which point you'll probably be bored enough of the Chief's in-between-game antics to care all that much, only reading the 'final battle' for the sheer heck of finishing the book. Though the reuniting of the Spartans is nice given its context to Reach, it all feels a little unlikely, and the lead in to the next book, Ghosts of Onyx, isn't made very clear or emotional as for whatever reason the other Spartans leave the Chief. All in all, while it's by no means terrible, and serves as a nice bridge between Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, First Strike is definitely by no means essential, so should be approached with extreme caution regarding tedium.