Halo: The Fall of Reach
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
Halo: The Fall of Reach is the prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, and is also the first Halo novel to be published. It was written by Eric Nylund, and published on October 30, 2001.[1]
The novel was reportedly finished in seven weeks[1], eventually becoming a Publisher's Weekly bestseller with nearly 200,000 copies sold in the United States and United Kingdom.[2]
The novel, along with The Flood and First Strike, will be reissued in August 2010 by Tor Books, with the new version including some content updates.[3] In addition, a comic book adaptation, Halo: The Fall of Reach - Boot Camp will be published by Marvel Comics with 343 Industries.[4]
HALO REACH ES UNA SAGA SACADA PARA PUBLICO ABIERTO EN LA CUAL LA PALABRA REACH NO ES PLANETA
Characters
- Dr. Halsey
- CPO Mendez
- Ensign William Lovell
- Colonel James Ackerson
- Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson
- Captain (Navy) Jacob Keyes
- Spartan-II Master Chief Petty Officer John-117
- Lieutenant Commander Fhajad-084
- Petty Officer Second Class Linda-058
- Petty Officer First Class Frederic-104
- Petty Officer Second Class Joshua-029
- Petty Officer Second Class James (SPARTAN-II)
- Petty Officer Second Class Samuel-034
- Petty Officer Second Class Kelly-087
- Hieronymus Michael Stanforth
- AI Cortana
- Déjà
- AI Toran
- Lieutenant Dominique
- Lieutenant Aki Hikowa
- Lieutenant Hall
- Lieutenant Jaggers
Reception
Critical reception to Halo: The Fall of Reach was mostly positive, though with a few negative comments. Gene Park, from Game Critics, stated that it "...exceeds expectations by being an intelligently written and well-paced story with enough imagination to improve on the original Halo mythos."[5] Many reviewers praised Nylund's writing skill, saying that it was "solidly written" and had many "vivid" details.
Trivia
- In page 306, the Master Chief, Linda, and James are preparing to board a space station in order to destroy the navigation data on board the Prowler Circumference. Master Chief tells the Spartans to secure their harnesses onboard the Pelican. In the book, however, it says, "'All secure!' Kelly shouted." Kelly isn't on the Pelican; at this time, she is inside another Pelican with Fred to go down to Reach.
- The upcoming game Halo: Reach will be set in the later time period in this novel.
- The Banshee on the front cover of the book is projecting the same "energy beams" that the Banshee is on the front cover of Halo: Combat Evolved.
- An excerpt from this book, along with excerpts from Halo: The Flood and Halo: First Strike, were included in a directory on Halo PC. It is found on the disk, in the "Goodies" section.
- Interestingly, the first section of this book is titled "Reveille" and involves characters emerging from cryo-sleep. The first section from Halo: Combat Evolved is also appropriately titled "Reveille", and also involves someone waking from cryo-sleep. Reveille is a traditional bugle call of the U.S. Military, which is sounded at the start of each day on military installations, to wake up the troops. Also, "Reveille" translates in French, to "Awaken."
- From the section Sigma Octanus, the datestamps appear ten years behind. Sigma Octanus, Reach, and the Halo trilogy occured in relatively quick succession, but The Fall of Reach states that Sigma Octanus, Reach, and Installation 04's events occured close together ten years before they were supposed to.
- In Halo 3, Cortana states several quotes from this book during Cortana moments, all of which are Dr. Halsey's. Such as: "Can I speak with you please? What's your name? It's very nice to meet you. You like games? So do I.", "You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained...and you will become the best we can make you. You will be the Protectors of Earth and all her Colonies.", and "Could you sacrifice yourself to complete your mission? Could you watch him die?" (In the game, "yourself" and "him" are changed to "me", referring to Cortana) However, this may be because she was malfunctioning, since Cortana was "spawned" (created) from Dr. Halsey's mind.
- During the battle of Sigma Octanus IV, the Pelican that is used to evacuate Blue Team from Cote D' Azur is carrying fourteen Marines and four Spartans, eighteen total. However, the Pelican is only capable of holding fifteen passengers and in Halo: The Flood it is stated that fifteen is pushing the limit as it is. Despite this inconsistency, the Pelican is stated as taking off normally and moving off at maximum speed, even though it is overcrowded and overloaded, especially since the Spartans each weigh around half a ton.
- During the beginning of the book, the Grunts are said to sound like dogs and their speech could not be translated. Yet in all the Halo games, with the exception of Halo: Reach, the Grunts speak English and they do not sound like dogs at all. This is because the prelude to the book takes place nearly twenty years before the events of the games, before advanced translation software was invented and utilized by the UNSC armed forces.
- The book states that the Pillar of Autumn has a command chair, but in Halo: Combat Evolved, this chair is absent.
Gallery
- Fallofreach.jpg
The original book cover, used from 2001 to 2010.
- TFoR 2010.png
The full cover art of the 2010 Tor Books reissue.
