To prepare for the 13th Anniversary of the Book and also the Master chief collection. I would like to invite you all to reread Halo: The Fall of Reach with me. While we go though the 6 sections of the Book(so discussion can be had with new comers and old alike). I would like to point of that it doesnt matter what version of the book you have old or new, as long as you have a copy and want to read it. Then join in.
This thread will be done in sections though I am not forbidding any discussions about later parts of the book. Newcomers beware of spoilers ok.
For those who have read the book recently or remember it please be careful. ^^
Also after the book has been finished this thread will be locked in 2 weeks after.(only to allow discussion to flow into the next book we decide to do)
Here is a link to the organization thread for if you have any advice or want to help organize this. The Halo Book Club Hub
> Here are the rules for a general reminder:
> 1. Participation is optional and open to all forum members.
> 2. Standard forum rules apply (brush up on our forum guidelines here).
> 3. Participants are expected to keep discussion on-topic and relating to the books or future links only.
> 4. Please do not address your questions to 343 Industries or authors but instead direct them to fellow Halo Book Club participants.
> 5. Have fun
> 6. KEEP IT CLEAN
Now what we waiting for lets get reading!!!(also for anyone curious I will start reading as soon as I post this thread)
Well to get started I will just say my thoughts on the Prologue
The Prologue I always thought was a brilliant way to start the book, it went straight to the action showing a preview of what is to come. It was chilling to read when the Chief talks about how they are other places to fight for after having to evacuate and Kelly says “will there?”. That always brought a chill down my spine showing even Spartans had doubt.
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> Well to get started I will just say my thoughts on the Prologue
>
> The Prologue I always thought was a brilliant way to start the book, it went straight to the action showing a preview of what is to come. It was chilling to read when the Chief talks about how they are other places to fight for after having to evacuate and Kelly says “will there?”. That always brought a chill down my spine showing even Spartans had doubt.
Curious that my opinion is quite different.
It was my first halo book and as a person who likes reading I was skeptic about books based on video games. Thought they could be low quality and didn’t know what to expect.
The prologue made me think they weren’t an interesting thing to read, I think I left it there and took it back many times, not managing to go through those first pages. I thought it was all about combat, like the writing of what you do during the game. I still don’t enjoy most the pure combat episodes, in books, comics, or anything. But I was wrong about the Halo books and fall of reach, that is my favourite:
When I got to Halsey and Keyes everything changed. That was the military science fiction I was looking for, with Navy, space, secret organisations and spies. And morally grey, high technological and expensive special projects. I loved the time setting, taking us back to before the covenant. I loved everything. I understood the prologue was a flash forward and then appreciated more, it’s not bad at all, but this was my first impression and I can’t lie about it.
I think my only problem with the Prologue is how it states that Grunts are tenacious and usually weren’t armed. Even outside of the games, where this is obviously not true, I don’t think these traits have ever been attributed to Grunts ever again in expanded media.
> 2533274836874363;2:
> Well to get started I will just say my thoughts on the Prologue
>
> The Prologue I always thought was a brilliant way to start the book, it went straight to the action showing a preview of what is to come. It was chilling to read when the Chief talks about how they are other places to fight for after having to evacuate and Kelly says “will there?”. That always brought a chill down my spine showing even Spartans had doubt.
I agree and disagree at the same time it just seems a little far fetched
The prologue to Halo: The Fall of Reach was my introduction into the Halo universe. At the time, my older brother had just bought Halo PC and picked up The Fall of Reach. Being an older brother he ended up not letting me play the game until he had beaten it, so I decided to sit down and read the book while I waited. After reading that prologue, I got sucked into the Halo universe and have loved it ever since. Most people started their Halo journey with the games, I started mine with this book so it has a special place in my heart.
The prologue does a fantastic job setting the stage for the rest of the novel. We get to see just how effective the Spartan IIs operate out in the frontlines and where humanity stands at in the Covenant war. They were well coordinated and could win numerous isolated battles, but they were outmatched when it came to the Covenant’s powerful technology. It perfectly conveys what the Halo trilogy was all about: Humanity fighting for survival with their backs against a wall.
I wasn’t the largest fan of the first half of the prologue, I feel starting straight from half way through the prologue would have been a better intro to the novel. The setting it sets, which is almost hopeless, is a great way to set the tone for the rest of the novel, but jumping feet first into a firefight wasn’t the best idea in my opinion.
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> I wasn’t the largest fan of the first half of the prologue, I feel starting straight from half way through the prologue would have been a better intro to the novel. The setting it sets, which is almost hopeless, is a great way to set the tone for the rest of the novel, but jumping feet first into a firefight wasn’t the best idea in my opinion.
Yeah. It’s really hard to get into that “hopelessness” feeling when we’re constantly with a super soldier with Bollywood levels of crazy physical abilities and watch him and his friends just decimate entire armies with little effort.
It doesn’t really come off as “Oh man, Humanity has no chance of survival!!” so much as: “Oh man, the Navy really needs to get better ships.”
Actually, one kinda wonders why the UNSC just doesn’t make SMAC ships. According to Halopedia, which cites First Strike, it took seven groundside generators to power twenty Defense Platforms. That means one generator can power almost three cannons. Surely you could get a small enough generator to power a single SMAC, and then just build a ship around it.
I really love the opening few paragraphs of the prologue, particularly:
> The four Spartans that composed Blue Team covered his back, standing absolutely silent and immobile in their MJOLNIR combat armour. Someone had once commented that they looked like Greek war gods in the armour… but his Spartans were far more effective and ruthless than Homer’s gods had ever been.
Right off the bat, we’ve got the Greek mythological parallels which are still relevant in the storytelling to this day. And, of course, in the very first piece of canonical Halo media, we have Blue Team.
It sets up some interesting expectations, I think. Nylund likes to begin in medias res, like in Ghosts of Onyx where the prologue is an account of Operation: TORPEDO on Pegasi Delta. It lends a cinematic kind of storytelling to the writing, which makes it very easy to get into and brush over the fact that the writing itself is lacking a bit of substance in some places. It’s easy to follow, and Nylund writes some really great action scenes. Then, it moves on to being more of a character piece as it explores the Spartan-II project’s origins and adds some crucial backstory to the Halo universe.
This is the book that started it all, it’ll always have that nostalgic value for that.
I honestly enjoyed the prologue, though it wasn’t the best ever.
I wish I could do this read along thing but my Brother has my copy of the book and I don’t know when I’ll get it back.
I will put this link down in preparation for tomorrow. When we go on to Section 1 Reveille. Just a reminder discussion can still be had on the Prologue just the main focus will be Section 1.
I find it interesting to see just how dated this book is. It’s nice that it’s still relevant 14 years later, and funny to see what has been phased out and/or retconned.
Section 1 discussion time. I will pose some questions. You can answer and also put your own thoughts to the chapters thenselfs
Well to start off with. I played that song earlier because it was the song that Halsey made Toran play during her and Keyes first meeting. Hopefully some of you got that ^^
Halseys speech that has the line “You have been called upon to serve” to me it is one of the strongest speeches in Halo canon. That its something I can never forget.
I will ask some questions. These are just to make you think of some stuff while you read the chapters.
Is John-117 really lucky?
What sort of person does Katherine Halsey come out as?
Do you feel sorry for the Kids?
I’ve always found Halsey’s taste in music quite interesting. The pieces she chooses are epic, belliquous and unresting. And she listens to them while performing tasks that require calm and concentration (Piloting the shuttle, doing surgery on Kelly while under siege…)
I wonder what that tells about her…
Besides that point, I think that Catherine Halsey is, with both Didacts, among, if not The most complex, multidimentional and gray character and that is impossible to judge her actions in any sort of conclusive nor constructive fashion. Condemning her about the program, besides making her the scape goat K5-style, is denying the undeniable fact that her work saved humanity from extinction And praising her for that would be advocating the suffering she inflicted to the children and their families…
In short, what happened happened, and there is nothing that we should do about it, because the implication are far beyond what we can handle. And I like that.
About the concription speech, I found it rather underwhelming and poorly put (albeit some powerful individual lines…), but I agree it is the strong by contrast, since it’s the only formal “motivational” speech in the series (not counting Didact’s one, which I find much stronger)
I personally really enjoy the information on how the spartans became the soldiers we know them as, and how many of them died. My favorite part is of them training and up through till mjolnir.
The Spartan-II training has always confused me. Like, here, it’s shown that all 75 children were trained to be this highly efficient single unit, with John as their “squad” leader. Pretty sure 75 people is not a squad, but whatever.
But in other depictions of Spartan-II training, notably Bloodlines, Cole Protocol and Ghosts of Onyx (when John mentions how Kurt’s Green Team always bested his Blue), it seems like the Spartans were divided into permanent teams that would often compete against each other, and seemed to carry over into their actual deployments.
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> The Spartan-II training has always confused me. Like, here, it’s shown that all 75 children were trained to be this highly efficient single unit, with John as their “squad” leader. Pretty sure 75 people is not a squad, but whatever.
>
> But in other depictions of Spartan-II training, notably Bloodlines, Cole Protocol and Ghosts of Onyx (when John mentions how Kurt’s Green Team always bested his Blue), it seems like the Spartans were divided into permanent teams that would often compete against each other, and seemed to carry over into their actual deployments.
Oh teams were probably used. Nothing to suggest teams werent allocated. We can assume there was group exercises as well as team exercises. ^^
Cause they wouldnt be a group of 75 forever. Also we dont see the full training. Only glimpses. We could probably fill a whole book on their training if that was allowed.
One being on the 24th September 2524 and another being on the July 12 1519. And I bet there was a lot more training than that.(I only used the pre augmention training but you get my point)
They were split into teams the first time they did the obstacle course, so it’s safe to assume at least some of their training was fire-team based. Aside from classroom, I’d imagine training with the entire group working together would make up a minority of training. It works the same way in today’s military mainly because training requires observation and correction which is more difficult with one big group.