Review: Halo: The Flood (2003)

★★★

I've mentioned in my review of "Halo: The Fall of Reach" that I'm a big fan of the games, mainly the Bungie games, with 4 being semi-decent. If you're curious, you can read my review for "The Fall of Reach."

So, after reading and taking a long break, naturally, I thought I should tackle the next book, chronologically titled "The Flood." Which was not written by Eric Nylund, but by someone else named William C. Dietz.

I'll be honest, I didn't feel as excited as I did with The Fall of Reach. Partly because I was already familiar with the plot. It's the novelization of the first game, Combat Evolved. And a very safe novelization to add on top of that. Not to disrespect William C. Dietz in any way; he's a wonderful writer. But the problem is that he played it too safe with the novelization, as I just mentioned. Compared to his work on the Dark Forces trilogy/audiodramas, he was able to expand the character of Kyle Katarn and the story of Dark Forces I and II. Here, it feels like he just copied and pasted the screenplay and the outline for the game's plot.

To put it bluntly, The Flood isn't a bad book; it just felt too similar. It wasn't fresh. Maybe if I had read this before I played the game, I might have rated it a bit higher. That said, I don't know whether this is Dietz's decision or if Bungie and Microsoft didn't give him much to work with when writing the novel. Regardless, I think a little more effort could've been put in from Dietz.

But those are just critiques, and I apologize if I came out as rude. I, in no way, dislike this novel. I had a good time with it, but like I said. It was one of those "safe" novelizations. It's still a Halo book, so you'll have a good time with it, even if there isn't really anything new or original. The only thing William C. Dietz did that felt somewhat original was the perspective of the other characters aboard the Pillar of Autumn on Halo before their deaths. Other than that, not much.

Novelizations don't have to overpower the original work; they should complement it and offer a different experience for both the player and reader. I've read worse novelizations. I can happily stress that this is not one of them. In fact, I feel like this is great for those who want to get the story, but aren't really gamers. Pretty much, everyone wins at the end of the day!

Certainly not the best Halo book, but definitely not the worst.