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Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"
Posted By: Mark Simmons <mark343gs@hotmail.com>Date: 4/10/03 9:58 p.m.

Well, I've got to say that I'm disappointed.

There. I said it. It should have been easier, but strangely it wasn't.

Why, you ask? Well, I'll get to that in a moment.

What I do have in my hands though is not a story that stands up in its own right, but one that is basically a verbal walkthrough of the game with a few extras tacked on.

Admittedly, the additions regarding the Marine activities on Halo and the Covenant do flesh out the story better and give it some added depth; and these are, without doubt, the best parts. But, overall, it comes over as pretty superficial in content and not very enjoyable as a read.

The 'Fall of Reach', while not an award-winning example of story writing, was complex, well structured and compelling. It contained characters that interested me as a reader. The ones that required depth were provided for. The ones that didn't were left to happily paddle. I 'felt' for the character of John 117 and the rest of the Spartan children. I was concerned for Keyes and his crew in their battles. I felt despair for the gallant defenders of Reach. I was also fascinated to learn more about the Covenant and their motivations.

On the latter point, I still am.

The story drew me in, and kept me interested enough to want to stay there. Which is precisely what a story should do, irrespective of the writing style.

Admittedly, that probably all sounds like pretty pretentious stuff. Well, so be it. Maybe it is.

With the latest book...? Well, where do I start? Can I say, 'written for a ten year old'?

Okay, that's probably being pretty harsh in retrospect, and not least of all insulting to quite a number of ten year old's. But that summed it up best for me.

The latest story's writing is generally unsophisticated and, on occasions, it's descriptive style is flippant, puerile, cliched and decidedly clumsy. But I can live with that. What I couldn't live with is the way it reeled out the story with virtually no thought to letting the reader get inside the heads of the characters and understand their fears, desires or motivations. The only exceptions to this were Jenkins and McKay, both of whom actually came the closest, out of everyone, to displaying any gratifying emotion that could really make me want to care for them.

But even with McKay, that only happened in the last few paragraphs of her existence. However, as a poignant moment of self-sacrifice, it was her glorious passing shot, and it saved her from a fate far worse than her death.

Obscurity.

As for the rest of it? Well, it's certainly not a book that would grab the attention of any regular book reader that hasn't played the game, and for those that have, barring a few additional story-facts (Covenant, Forerunner and 343GS related), it unfortunately doesn't offer a huge amount extra either.

I had hoped that we would finally get to understand where Cortana was coming from, at least in part, even if her destination is purposefully obscured. I had hoped for more detail regarding the Master Chief's experiences on Halo. Namely, his thoughts and fears as to what it all meant, where it might end up and the role he saw himself taking in it.

Unfortunately, neither were realised.

Cortana, for her part, does nothing more than say what we know, while the MC has been pretty much downgraded to below one's empathy level and spends a great deal of time dispensing a range of puerile cliched comments and token-gesture cheesy emotions almost as regularly as he does ordinance.

Another thing that annoyed me was the almost incessant need for lurid descriptions of the carnage (wet chunks of flesh, body parts, gouts of blood, etc).

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not 'offended' by this. But after the first few times, I just find it boring. It also implies that the reader either has a highly volatile memory or no imagination and can't fill-in-the-gaps on their own.

I could say, 'Yes, I know that a Warthog has four wheels. But you don't need to tell me that its got four wheels every time you refer to one. Describe it once and let my brain do the rest, okay?', and perhaps you can see where I'm coming from...

I explained all this to a friend, and she sat patiently and listened with interest. After all was said and done though, her response was, "But, what did you expect? It *is* just a video game...".

And there's the real problem.

It's not the book. It's not William C. Getz. It's not even Bungie.

It's my personal expectations.

In my mind, I'd raised the bar too high, expecting to sit back and watch everything leap over it with equal grace and aplomb. I'd never even considered the fact that it might just run underneath and blow a raspberry at me in passing, but after the twentieth time it was obviously becoming a trend.

I tried ignoring this for a while and generally played along with it, while the MC regularly slapped another clip of stock emotional responses into his weapon and fired some off in my general direction. Unfortunately, none of them broke my skin, even though I purposefully stood there trying to make myself as big a target as possible and begging to be mortally wounded.

Not one of them.

I like to empathise with characters. I like to try and 'feel' what they feel. With H:FoR, I thought I was getting there.

With H:TF, I ran into a brick wall.

I should know better really. At the age of 39 most people have usually acquired enough experience to identify and preempt disappointments with a reasonable amount of skill and sure-footed confidence. However, that 'experience' never really quells the desire to disengage the fail-safes and wait to be pleasantly surprised. It just makes it all the more frustrating when your not.

Am I being too serious? To some, quite possibly, I'm sure. To others, maybe not.

Ultimately, I had hoped that this book would expand greatly on the game story and imbue it with a multiplicity of depth and a broad sweeping grandeur totally befitting of the core concept.

What I got was a 'book of the game'.

So, should I be surprised?

Well, no. Not really.

If I come away with anything from this book, it will not be my memories of the Master Chief or Cortana. It will not be Keyes, even in his final moments. Neither will it be Foehammer.

What it will be is that final scene between McKay and Jenkins, her actions and his simple worded, 'Thank you'.

That, above all else, defined what the characters are fighting for.

Humanity.

Mark


Message Index




Replies:

Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/10/03 9:58 p.m.
     Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Simpsons Rule 4/10/03 10:05 p.m.
     Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Hawkwings 4/10/03 10:06 p.m.
           Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Simpsons Rule 4/10/03 10:13 p.m.
           Amen. *NM*barkbat 4/10/03 10:22 p.m.
           Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Zeph Omega 4/10/03 10:29 p.m.
                 Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Hawkwings 4/10/03 10:34 p.m.
           Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"mnemesis 4/10/03 11:01 p.m.
                 Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Xander818 4/10/03 11:52 p.m.
                       Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers" *NM*Epsilon 4/11/03 12:56 a.m.
                 Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Ciarán 4/11/03 7:16 a.m.
                       Covenant motives *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/11/03 8:32 a.m.
                             Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Opie301 4/11/03 8:57 a.m.
                                   Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/11/03 9:36 a.m.
                                         Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Opie301 4/11/03 10:25 a.m.
                                               Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/11/03 11:27 a.m.
                                                     Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Opie301 4/11/03 11:49 a.m.
                                                           Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/11/03 11:07 p.m.
                                                     Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Eric Trautmann 4/11/03 2:47 p.m.
                                                           Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/11/03 11:05 p.m.
                                                                 Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"opie301 4/12/03 12:06 a.m.
                                                                       Re: Covenant motives *spoilers"Mark Simmons 4/12/03 1:14 a.m.
                       Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Jamirus99 4/11/03 3:25 p.m.
     Re: Halo - The Flood *long* *spoilers"Skeletor 4/20/03 7:22 a.m.



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