Halo: The Fall of Reach

Template:Ratings Template:Book Info Halo: The Fall of Reach is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved and is also the first Halo novel to be published. Written by Eric Nylund and published on October 30, 2001.

The novel was reportedly finished in 7 weeks eventually becoming a Publisher's Weekly bestseller with nearly 200,000 copies sold in the United States and United Kingdom.

Summary

The book tells the story of the very beginning of the elite military division known as the Spartan IIs were trained; as well as all of the events leading up to the start of Halo: Combat Evolved. It also gives a brief view of John's childhood. Later on in the book the Office of Naval Intelligence receives a transmission sent by a new threat, the Covenant. The Covenant is a large group of aliens who stumbled upon a human merchant ship, attacked it, and eventually led to a battle between a few of the covenant species and a group of marines, including Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson. This leads to the following conflicts. The Covenant later attacks the human colony planet "Harvest". The first message the humans recorded was transmitted after the attack on Harvest in English and was: "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument!" This message was also in Halo 3's E3 demo as well as in the finalized game. The Prophet of Truth says this in the beginning cut scene of the level Crows Nest. Armed with state-of-the-art weaponry, Master Chief and his Spartans seek to destroy the Covenant and to keep Reach under the control of the Human race. The book details the following engagements: the Battle of Harvest, the Battle of Jericho VII, the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, the Battle of Chi Ceti, the Battle of Reach and Operation: TREBUCHET.

DATE: October 10, 2517 - August 30, 2552

==Story Synopsis==at Sigma Octanus IV there is a typo which records all events as occurring 2542 instead of 2552.

• 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, sounded at the start of each day on military installations to wake up the troops. Also, "Reveille" translates in French, to "Awaken"
• The power of the energy shields on the Covenant ships is inconsistent following the canon of the universe and this book. In one instance, a ship hit with nuclear warhead is still functional, actually appearing to shrug the explosion off. However, during a battle with Keyes using a pair against two Covenant ships (which were larger then the one from the previous instance), the EMP from the warheads knocks out the shields on the ships through the potent blast. Though it could be explained that in the years following the first Nuke attack on a Covenant ship, the UNSC might have upgraded its nukes. Or that different Covenant ships have different levels of shielding like the elite rankings but instead of rank its based on size.
• At the end of the book, there is the Halo: Combat Evolved logo with a rating box, saying that it is rated T (for Teen) while it is actually rated M (for Mature).
• In Halo 3, Cortana states several quotes from this book, 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.
• In Halo 3 at the beginning of the arrival clip scene, there is a reference to Spartan 117 being extremely lucky. Master Chief's luck was mentioned quite a bit during the series. Notably, John's luck is shown when Dr. Halsey flips an old coin.
• The Battle of Reach is one of the only documented battles in which a Covenant Supercruiser participated.
• Both Sam (correctly) and Fhajad (incorrectly) are given the service tag 034 in the book.
• The Chinese version has many mistakes: e.g. Cortana mentioned that there were 314 Covenant ships whereas the Chinese version stated that there were 31,400 Covenant ships. Also in Chapter 36, the "UNSC Pillar of Autumn" was translated into Pelican dropship.
• In the beginning of the book the Grunts are said to sound like dogs and their speech could not be translated. Yet ın all three Halo games you can understand the Grunts and do not sound like dogs at all. This is most likely because the UNSC's translation software has been upgraded in the later games.
• In the first half or so of the book, a typo removes most "fi" pairs in the italicized text (as seen in the words "start le" in which the first two letters are missing from the word "file").
• On the cover, between the "A" and the "L" in the word Halo, there is a Marathon symbol. This is the same for all of the Halo Novels.
• There is a running inconsistency in the franchise regarding when humans first encountered the Elites. According to The Fall of Reach the Master Chief first fights an Elite above Reach during the battle. The Cole Protocol describes Gray team's encounter with Elites several years before the Battle of Reach. Ghosts of Onyx reveals that the Spartan-IIIs first encountered the Sangheili in 2537. In First Strike, Spartan-104 notes that the Elites never ran away. . Halo Wars prominently features Elites during the Second Battle of Harvest.

-On the second last page of chapter 22 James(a Spartan) salutes the Master Chief with his left hand. This can not be possible as earlier in the chapter as his left arm was burnt down from the elbow.

External Links

• Read the first chapter of Halo: The Fall Of Reach

Related Pages

• Flash clones