Ghosts of Onyx (Halo) by Eric Nylund
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.56 You Save: $3.43 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Ghosts of Onyx (Halo)
Book Review: good
Summary: 4 Stars
i was very happy that it was shipped and i got before christmas. i'm very happy thank uBook Review: The weakest of the three Nylund Halo novels
Summary: 3 Stars
I have listened to the audio book versions of all three Nylund Halo novels, as well as The Flood, which was not written by him. I find this one to be the weakest of the three Nylund books, not quite as weak as The Flood, but a notch below the other two. In the Fall of Reach, Nylund did a lot of good characterization of the training of the Spartans, and provided a great insight into what made John 117 tick. In First Strike, he detailed some amazing events that took place after the destruction of the Alpha Halo ring, and provided a great group of human heroes consisting of a grizzled admiral, a old dog of war marine sergeant, an ONI spook, a drop ship pilot, an ODST grunt, a few Spartans, the mother figure of Dr. Halsey, and the leader of them all, John 117. Every one of those people seemed to have a different personality, and brought something different to the table. The tactics they used in each battle in that book also seemed fresh and innovative. This book unfortunately throws a lot of that good development away, and focuses instead on the mostly disposable Spartan IIIs. They seem to totally lack any distinct personality, and all the good points about this controversial program are discarded halfway through the book to rush into repetitive action sequences. The tactics used are mostly a rehash of what was done in the other books, and everything seems to lack that magical Nylund touch. Perhaps a rushed release to keep the momentum going, but it is frustrating to see so many good ideas touched on at the start (e.g., neural enhancement of the III's and it's supposed side effects, covenant civil war aftermath, return of chief Mendez, conflicted mind of Kurt over making his troops so disposable, etc.) discarded so carelessly to go into endless description of forerunner technology that bored me. This could have been so much better with another rewrite.Book Review: Good but not the best
Summary: 3 Stars
**Spoiler Warning**
The book was good at the beginning. It then started to trail off into 3 different accounts from the covenant, Spartans and then the UNSC. I didn't like the Kurt character because suddenly he takes the lead when he's been just doing training camp for kid Spartans while the other Spartan 2s with real combat experience all those years take a side role. That's similar to a new officer with absolutely no experience taking command of an experienced fighting group. They still have to follow orders though. However, Kurt and his S2 buddies have been friends for a while (so it seems) and I wouldn't expect his power-tripping on Fred to have gone as smoothly as the book described. That would at least cause some low morale issues or some kind of dialogue about it.
Also, Kurt sounds like the kind of guy to make bad decisions because of his pride. Like his decision to put in that illegal substance into the S3s. An overly aggressive soldier may ignore command to satisfy his aggressive decision making process. That's why they mostly look for collected individuals for SEAL. If you can't control your emotions, you can't do teamwork properly. The book sounded like a wet-dream for power-tripping type personalities where all the subordinates follow along dancing and inspired by the persons in question and most of their decision go off without a hitch and more than that, have outcomes that paint the person as a hero. Eric Nylund has made other good books but this one wasn't as good as those others ones in my opinion.
Book Review: Eric Nylund dropped the ball
Summary: 2 Stars
I was very disappointed with this book. The first and third halo books were wonderful and I was really looking forward to a plot line described at the end of the third book -- a plot line wherein the members of the covenant began to see themselves as being used and rebelling against the prophets.
That plot line all but disappeared in Onyx -- which was apparantly going to be called "Coral" at some point in the game/book/creative process. It was only briefly mentioned in passing and the way it appeared in the book seemed pretty far fetched given the way the covenant members acted in earlier books.
Instead of pursing that tantalizing detail we just get endless repetitions of one kind of battle after another. Of course such things happen in the game -- and that's enjoyable in a game (up to a point) -- but in a book, more plot development is needed.
I got the feeling that Nylund just cranked this one out to get it over with.
Perhaps there will be more games and more books, but I won't be buying anymore.
Book Review: Not worth reading.
Summary: 2 Stars
I picked up this book right after reading Halo: First Strike. While I really enjoyed the first this book fails in comparison. The story focuses on Kurt, an Spartan II, and the newly formed Spartan III program. If that were all there was to the book it might be fine. However, the book has trouble centering on the main plotline and becomes a tiresome read as you'll be switching perspective every chapter, many times to characters you really don't care about. Add to that the large number of grammatical and typographical errors and it is pretty hard to finish this book. Despite the trouble I pushed through hoping the ending would redeem the rest of the story, and it didn't. Even if you're a huge Halo fan, like myself, this book is best avoided.