This is the prequel the best-selling and award winning Xbox title, Halo. This novel starts with how the SPARTAN program is started as well as their training as children to their first mission against pirates in the Eridanus system. It is after this mission where the SPARTANs learn from Admiral Stanforth about the loss of the Harvest colony to an alien race known as the Covenant. The SPARTANs are then given their armor and the war starts. At Sigma Octanus, Commmander Keyes wins a victory for the UNSC against amazing odds. One UNSC destroyer against four Covenant warships. The Carrier was all that escaped from the Covenant battle group, but it sent down foot soldiers to planet. The SPARTANs are dispatched. They save civilian lives, recover what the Covenant was after (a mineral sample), and they nuke the city taking out all Covenant ground troops with it. The UNSC saves Sigma Octanus IV. It is after this that the SPARTANs are given their most important mission: to capture a Covenant ship, infiltrate Covenant lines, and capture one of their leaders, a Prophet. However, before the mission is started, the Covenant attack the military stronghold of Reach. Captain Keyes tells the Master Chief that a ship docked at an orbital station still has intact NAV data which could lead the Covenant to Earth. He takes two of his SPARTANs with him and the rest go down the Reach's surface to protect the generators powering the orbital guns. Two SPARTANs are lost in the orbital stion, the Master Chief being the only one who returns. The rest of the SPARTANs are lost with Reach which is glassed when the defenses fall. The Pillar of Autumn jumps into slipspace and arrives at a mysterious artificial ring world called Halo.

This is a good book for anyone interested in Halo, an alien war, a war novel, or a godd sci-fi novel.

I liked when the SPARTANs nuked the city and killed all those Covenant troops.

I didn't like the fact that all SPARTANs but the Master Chief were lost.

When I finished reading, I wanted to go to the store and get the following books, Halo: The Flood and Halo: First Strike.

The author, Eric Nylund, really brought out the character of the Master Chief and exposed a story to Halo that was never told.

I recommend this book because it was exciting and fascinating at the same time. (It had me thinking if something like this is possible in 2552)

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Created Aug 09, 2005 at 10:50pm • Submit your own review...