As the anticipation builds up for Halo: Reach the video game, which is set for a Fall 2010 release, one might want to read up on the 2001 novel of a similar name. G3, in addition to enjoying great gaming, also encourages great reading; especially when it furthers the plot of a popular game. Halo: The Fall of Reach is a great companion novel to the Halo series since it also flushes out a lot of history with Captain Keyes, the Covenant and even the Master Chief.

Now anyone who has played the Halo games knows about the heroics of the Master Chief or Captain Keyes or more recently the ODSTs, but Halo: The Fall of Reach builds a solid foundation for the games to sit on, with a back story to go along with the Heroes of the Covenant war. Years before Halo: Combat Evolved, the Master Chief was more commonly known as John, a 6-year-old with a bad attitude and a penchant for being the strongest and the fastest. The novel shows John’s progression from punk kid to perfect soldier as he learns to trust others and lead the elite team of Spartans. What makes the story so interesting is both the mythology behind the Spartans and the overall moral of the story. Whereas some prequels set up only a minor background on the main character; Halo: The Fall of Reach focuses on the John the Master Chief, Captain Keyes, and Dr. Catherine Halsey in a build up to destruction of the planet Reach and the start of the Covenant war. While the Master Chief’s story has a focus on ground combat and, more interestingly, his personality in terms of duty, honor and courage. This story definitely gives the Master Chief a better persona than what was given to him in the games, particularly since the novel is able to look into the inter-monologue of Spartan-117. The most interesting chapters for the Chief include his first fight with a Hunter and especially his experiences in boot camp as a child.

Conversely, Captain Keyes, climbs up from the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade through the span of the novel with his heroic and sometimes crazy space battle tactics against the far superior Covenant ships. It is so easy to forget about space combat in the Halo games since the games focus on ground battles mostly due to the fact that the Chief is almost useless in a ship to ship fight. This is where Keyes steps up and proves that he is a figure to be looked up to in the Halo universe because of his tactics. These chapters are a refreshing look at the Halo series since writer Eric Nylund does a fantastic job of creating an engaging space combat scenario that does the series justice in terms of action.

At its core, however, Halo: The Fall of Reach has a major moral that outlines both the stories of Captain Keyes and the Master Chief. The moral of the novel could be summed up with the phrase “the difference between a life wasted and a life spent” because of the difficult implications that the Spartans and other soldiers must face. The novel makes an interesting point of trying to make one’s life meaningful while so many others lives are wasted. Both the Chief and Keyes, on their own terms, try to fight as long as they and make their lives become spent and not wasted.

So if you happen to be reserving Halo: Reach at your local game store in the near future, G3 recommends picking up the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach; the time it takes to read it will definitely be well spent, not wasted.