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Eric Nylund
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Halo: First Strike Mass Market Paperback – 1 Dec. 2003

by Eric S. Nylund (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 2,599 ratings
With the destruction of Halo, the human-Covenant war rages on as the SPARTAN super soldier Master Chief, aided by the artificial intelligence Cortana, race against time to rescue survivors of the disaster and evade Covenant warships that still patrol much of space, in a third novel based on the award-winning Xbox game. Original. (Science Fiction & Fantasy). Original.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ballantine Books Inc.
  4. Publication date
    1 Dec. 2003
  5. Dimensions
    10.54 x 2.41 x 17.4 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0345467817
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0345467812
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Product description

About the Author

Eric Nylund is the author of many novels, including A Signal Shattered, Signal to Noise, Pawn’s Dream, Dry Water (a World Fantasy Award nominee), A Game of Universe, Crimson Skies, and Halo: The Fall of Reach, the official prequel novelization of the Xbox game. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in chemical physics. A graduate of the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop, he lives near Seattle with his wife, Syne Mitchell.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books Inc.
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 Dec. 2003
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345467817
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345467812
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 159 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.54 x 2.41 x 17.4 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 2,599 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Eric Nylund

Eric Nylund

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Eric Nylund is a New York Times bestselling and World Fantasy Award nominated author of sixteen novels including HALO: THE FALL OF REACH and the LitRPG novel, HERO OF THERA.

For 15 years, Nylund's day job was making video games. He attended the 1994 Clarion West Writer's Workshop and has a Bachelor's degree in chemistry and a Master's degree in theoretical chemical physics. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family on a rain-drenched mountain.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
2,599 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book to be a compelling read with excellent writing and well-developed characters. Moreover, the plot receives positive feedback, with one customer highlighting its science-driven plot devices and thrilling space combat sequences.

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ReadabilityPlotWriting qualityCharacter development
15 customers mention ‘Readability’15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a compelling and exceptional read, with one customer noting it's particularly interesting for Halo fans.

"The book is just phenomenal. Story is amazing, writing is amazing so overall amazing book. I love this author." Read more

"Decent enough read. Arrived in good condition" Read more

"An incredible book that fleshes out the lore between Halo: CE and Halo: 2...." Read more

"...It is a great addition to the Halo universe and an essential read for anyone looking to further explore this fascinating and complex world." Read more

8 customers mention ‘Plot’8 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the plot of the book, describing it as action-packed with great lore, and one customer notes its excellent depth to the backstory.

"Great lore link" Read more

"...A must buy book for any Halo fan that appreciates lore outside the games." Read more

"...There are parallel plot lines throughout this book, overlapping and interconnecting that kept the overall story unpredictable whilst never letting..." Read more

"...Overall, Halo: First Strike is an exciting and well-crafted novel that will appeal to fans of the Halo franchise and science fiction readers in..." Read more

5 customers mention ‘Writing quality’5 positive0 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book.

"The book is just phenomenal. Story is amazing, writing is amazing so overall amazing book. I love this author." Read more

"...Eric Nylund is a fantastic author and his reads far surpasses everything else I have read, and I've read lots! Buy this and you won't be disappointed." Read more

"...Overall, Halo: First Strike is an exciting and well-crafted novel that will appeal to fans of the Halo franchise and science fiction readers in..." Read more

"Fantastically written, beautifully fills the gap between Halo 1 and Halo 2 and yet remains a brilliant read for anyone who just wants to dive into a..." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Character development’3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, with one mentioning how it follows familiar characters from a few decades ago.

"...Studios and steer the Halo universe into a densely structured, character-centric, cyberpunk tinged tour-de-force...." Read more

"...capturing the tone and feel of the Halo universe, and the characters are well-developed and engaging...." Read more

"The book follows familiar characters from a few decades before the first halo uptown just before it...." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Marius Macovei
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2025
    Verified Purchase
    The book is just phenomenal. Story is amazing, writing is amazing so overall amazing book. I love this author.
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  • Barry Brown
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great lore link
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2025
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    Great lore link
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  • Bekki
    4.0 out of 5 stars Arrived in good
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2014
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    Decent enough read. Arrived in good condition
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  • I. Jones
    5.0 out of 5 stars Earth's fate still hangs in the balance
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 August 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This is the third novel in the Halo series and it overlaps with the previous volumes, Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: The Flood. This volume is written by Eric Nyland, who wrote the first novel in the series so can be counted on to get the continuity right in terms of plot and character.
    Like the previous volumes, this novel is firmly focused on rapid, violent action with little in the way of character development or background information. However, we do get some background. For example, we have a chapter set on Earth with some of the army and navy top brass debriefing an intelligence officer. We see the cracks in the high command and we’re introduced to the sinister Colonel Ackerson, who clearly has a hidden agenda going on. Presumably we will hear more of him in future volumes because we don’t hear any more about him here. He is dead against sending anyone back to Reach to see if there are any survivors. He insists that the planet has been “glassed”, the Covenant’s normal method for dealing with captured planets within Earth’s empire. Why is that? It’s very suspicious. And we learn that he is wrong. There are indeed survivors on Reach, including the brilliant Dr Catherine Halsey, a team of Spartans, some assorted marines and navy personnel and the courageous Admiral Whitcomb.
    We also get another reference to the original mission of the Spartans, before the war with the Covenant, which was to root out rebellion within Earth’s empire. In fact, we meet an enclave of rebels and pirates living on an asteroid in some remote system. However, as with the admirals and generals, the encounter serves as a plot device and there isn’t much character development going on.
    Like Halo: The Flood, this novel was written in 2005 and you can’t help thinking that the author was influenced by was happening at the time in Iraq and Afghanistan. I still have an uneasy feeling that the Covenant are an amalgam of the Taliban, Al Qaida, China and other indeterminate enemies of the “West”. The religious bedrock of the Covenant civilisation is made clearer in this volume, though we still don’t know much about them except for their caste system with Grunts at the bottom and Prophets at the top.
    I am also still slightly mystified by the technology of the series. We have starships that can jump through space faster than the speed of light. We have AI beings that can process information millions of times faster than a human being. But we also have twentieth-century style guns that fire bullets and vehicles that sound like tanks and armoured cars. In theory, the technology is there to run this war as a proxy war with AI directing drones and robots against the Covenant while the human beings hide out in a bunker somewhere. But that would mean the humans wouldn’t be able to display their guts and determination and the action scenes would all be fairly sterile with no human lives at stake. Hence we have Spartans and marines and navy pilots and admirals who all sound like they’ve come straight out of World War II.
    I will continue reading the Halo series for escapist reasons, but so far it is not in the same league as other scifi series, such as The Expanse, and I do hope it gets better.
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  • Sam Wood
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 July 2011
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    If you are mad about Halo like I am, you must read this book. It's the third in the series after the Fall Of Reach and The Flood. I am not the kind of person who likes to read, I am a typical teenager who plays Xbox and watches TV all day, and the last book I read all the way through was years ago, which took me months to get through.

    However when I picked up the first Halo book, I couldnt put it down. So far in the second month of reading these I am almost on the fourth book, which is fast for a slow reader like me.

    The first book was the prequel to the orginal Halo: CE Xbox game, and the second is actually based on the first game, however the first book is not like the new Halo game "Reach", it shows how the first spartans came to be, and the second book has a larger story than the game with extra content which you didn't see, and then the third book is based between the first and second Halo games.

    Anyone who loves Halo should love these books so you must buy it. :)
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Richard Latham
    5.0 out of 5 stars Lorefully beautiful
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2021
    Verified Purchase
    An incredible book that fleshes out the lore between Halo: CE and Halo: 2. I definitely prefer this copy over the new one, the classic art style is still as gorgeous as it was almost 20 years ago. A must buy book for any Halo fan that appreciates lore outside the games.
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  • JJ
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing amazing book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I won't get into a huge in-depth review of the book because I'll just end up including spoilers and nobody wants that.
    I will say that this book is worth the money and it is for anyone interested in the Halo Universe! If you play the games and want something more, this is for you!
    Eric Nylund is a fantastic author and his reads far surpasses everything else I have read, and I've read lots! Buy this and you won't be disappointed.
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  • *-[ROB]-*
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nylund takes the Halo franchise and makes it his own
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 March 2007
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    I imagine that it is tremendously difficult to write a spin-off novel of a film or game without it becoming an extremely superficial read. That said, Nylund has managed by his second Halo book to take over the reigns from Bungie Studios and steer the Halo universe into a densely structured, character-centric, cyberpunk tinged tour-de-force.

    There are parallel plot lines throughout this book, overlapping and interconnecting that kept the overall story unpredictable whilst never letting my attention off the boil. The science-driven plot devices are superb too, and in particular, his technical understanding of artificial intelligence is used to his advantage in writing Cortana's part of the story (the ai character).

    Having played through both games twice and now on to Nylund's next book "Ghosts of Onyx", I feel so enthralled that it is difficult to compare the experience to that of any other media based entertainment I've had so far.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Hat enjoyer
    5.0 out of 5 stars It’s a book
    Reviewed in Australia on 16 February 2023
    Verified Purchase
    It was described (great book)
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  • Link
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente servicio
    Reviewed in Mexico on 1 October 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Llegó en tiempo y forma. Excelentes condiciones aunque no viene con protección extra
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  • Jay in CDA
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
    Reviewed in Canada on 7 July 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Bought for my son who loved it.
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  • David Akridge
    5.0 out of 5 stars Some gave all
    Reviewed in the United States on 18 April 2025
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    I have only read the universe known as Halo & have not played the game.
    I can say that these books are very good reading! The stakes are as high as they can be. Out manned. Out gunned. Little to no chance of survival. These are the missions the Spartans carry out. Every time.
    If you play the game & wanna know more about the characters & or what they've gone thru then look no further.

    Highly recommended
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  • O produto quebrou facilmente, minha namorada usou por 2 dias e não estava tão justo quando ele estourou, seria possível um reembolso ou envio e outro produto?
    5.0 out of 5 stars Otimo
    Reviewed in Brazil on 16 August 2024
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    Otimo
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