Book Review on Halo: The Fall of Reach

Independent Reading Book

David Leonard


The book I read was called Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric S. Nylund. This book based off of the award winning Xbox game Halo: Combat Evolved. The book was published in 2001. The book was not on the NYT bestsellers and is not a movie in the making.

The book is about a lady named Dr. Catherine Halsey who kidnaps 75 kids from human controlled planets (also called UNSC) and experiments on them to create an army of super soldiers to end a rebellion within the human colonies. Shortly after the human race goes to war against an alien race called the Covenant and the super soldiers (also called Spartans) are the only hope for Humanity’s survival. Within a decade Humanity lost most of the outer colonies. Then the Covenant starts to take the inner colonies and there most important before Earth is called the Planet Reach.

The main characters are Dr. Catherine Halsey, John- 117, and Capt. Jacob Keyes. Capt. Keyes is one of the UNSC’s best and commands a fleet to defend UNSC planets. John- 117 is the leader of the Spartans and one of the last surviving ones. Dr. Halsey is the UNSC’s best scientist and creator of the Spartans. My favorite character is John- 117 because he is in the video game as well.

I cannot relate to any of the characters. I never felt some of the same things that the characters felt. I could not relate to any of the characters because I never experienced anything like the characters. I also never been experimented on by people or anything like it.

I somewhat liked this book since it was based off one of my favorite video games. One of the strengths was the book gave the time and date of each chapter so the reader knows how much time has passed in the book. One of the weaknesses was the book didn’t explain much of the battles or some characters in the book. If I could change something in the book it would be for it to explain more of the battles and characters in the book.

I would recommend this book to other people because it is descriptive with the main points. The book also doesn’t get off topic with any of the main characters. It does describe most of the conflict. Finally, if you like the video game the book helps explain the history.

Comments