: I will give Peter David this: combat is hard to write well. Combat is
: dynamic, confusing, exhausting, and it's all too easy to make it sound
: humdrum or predictably back-and-forth. Peter David's combat scenes were
: boring, and when they weren't boring, they were frustrating. But he's
: primarily a comic book writer, and what works for a visual medium doesn't
: necessarily work in prose.

: The problem is that much of HitD felt like a string of loosely connected
: events, rather than a story with a solid narrative. And for all that the
: capabilities of Forerunner technology mattered to the story, the
: protagonists may as well have been wandering around Africa hunting for
: ancient temples.

Part of the problem with HitD was the sheer amount of schlocky nonsense thrown at the reader. It wasn't just the style of writing but the substance that made it feel like I was reading a comic book.

Oh now, the galaxy is in danger again so we must go to the Ark! Here are some man-eating trees! Now the characters are riding a mammoth! Now there's a telepathic space yeti! Isn't this AI super crazy? Like, you know, how AIs always go insane? Now have some Promethean Soldiers because they're in the next game! A couple of pages devoted to a flat, non-POV description of a supposedly huge invasion of Earth that no one will mention ever again! But enough of that, look at this freaky cyborg man! Now let's have him and Vale fight because... why not? Arm blades! Fuck yeah!

I've noticed a trend that the best stories tend to be the ones that keep this kind of stuff to a minimum, provided they get the basics right otherwise.