Halo: First Strike is a military science fiction novel by Eric Nylund, based on the Halo series of video games. The book was released in December 2003 and is the third Halo novel; Nylund's second contribution to the series. The novel serves as a bridge between the events of the games Halo: Combat Evolved and its 2004 sequel Halo 2. First Strike was also released as an audiobook, narrated by Todd McLaren.
Halo: First Strike opens with the arrival of the Covenant armada at the human stronghold planet of Reach. The book follows both the unsuccessful attempt to defend Reach by the SPARTAN-IIs who were on the planet's surface and the adventures of the rag-tag survivors of the battle at Alpha Halo. The book also reveals that humanity's worst fear is going to come true: the Covenant is on its way to Earth. The book was well received by critics and sold well, making The New York Times Best Seller list. Critics found it added depth to the Halo video games and that it was exciting throughout.
Background
First Strike was Nylund's second Halo novel after his task of writing the prequel to the first game, 2001's Halo: The Fall of Reach. Nylund said in an interview that he wrote the book within sixteen weeks, a much longer deadline than the seven weeks he had to complete The Fall of Reach. However, due to more Halo canon already being published Nylund found it harder to write First Strike into the existing story; "There were more events and characters to link and keep track of…timelines to sync up…like threading three needles at once with one hand." To write a better novel than The Fall of Reach, Nylund read military combat manuals and biographies of soldiers, he also tried to improve where fans had criticized the first Halo book. IGN stated that the writing was "terse and exciting" and that players waiting for the release of Halo 2 could pick up interesting hints about what was to come in the game and in the ilovebees viral marketing campaign. About.com's Eric Qualls stated that First Strike and the other Halo novels "make you appreciate Halo and Halo 2 a hundred times more", and strongly recommended that fans of the game pick up the novel. Shawn of Digital Monkey Box criticized the way the Nylund sidelines characters who were developed early in the book as the Master Chief takes precedence but overall praised the book highly. Nylund's character development and the ethical challenges presented to the Master Chief were praised however and reviewer Josh Carter considered it superior to either of the previous books. When Phil Jones reviewed the book for Science Fiction Crowsnest he found that "the combat does get somewhat tiresome" but concluded that the book was a good, easy read and "as spin-offs go, it is not bad." The First Strike audiobook was also well received, reviewer Cliff Bakehorn commenting that "Todd McLaren did a good job narrating", as well as finding it to be "an exciting story throughout."