Halo: Shadows of Reach: A Master Chief Story

Not a good voice for chief not a bad narrator just not for chief kinda disappointed

true, i was expecting Scott or Todd, but Sean\’s alright, first i think I\’ve heard him, but he\’s alright. the book is alright in general, can\’t say Troy is my favorite author, and he needs to remove lechatelierite from his vocabulary after this book, but he paints the picture well, and it doesn\’t feel rushed, and that\’s about all i could ask for in a story. Sean\’s performance as a narrator is excellent, perhaps unfitting of the history of other narrators, he\’s a bit higher voiced than I\’m remembering from Scott or Todd, so deeper voices, older gravelly soldiers, brutes, elites, there a little… off, but certainly not bad, just not a deep voice. he strikes me as a younger man otherwise, it makes a number of references to the games and previous books in relation to fall of reach and uh… its been a minute, i think first strike. so an enjoyable entry overall. (Acquired book for free through free trail. worth buying for full price? yes. compared to Eric Nylund, eh, but maybe the best Troy Denning entry so far, versus oblivion and silent storm.)

The story itself is solid. Troy Denning has proven once again that he\’s the best thing to happen to the Halo Universe outside of the games. He perfectly captures each of the members of Blue Team. He also does something very hard and that is that he manages to walk the fine line of homage/proper fan service and shoe-horned, cheesy fan service. Most, if not all, of this book feels natural to the setting. My only real complaint, if you can call it one, is that it feels like it just kind of ends abruptly. I wanted more. I wanted it to keep going. It felt like it could have had at least a couple more chapters. Sean Patrick Hopkins is the perfect narrator. I have seen a couple others say his voice is too high pitched. I would have to respectfully disagree. Obviously, he\’s no Steve Downes, but his voice gets very deep for the Jiralhanae. It\’s wonderful. Besides that, he manages to make each one of Blue Team, and all the cast for that matter, feel distinct. John\’s voice is deep, even, and reasonable. Fred\’s voice is even, witty, dry, and sarcastic. Kelly is sarcastic as well, slightly gloomy at times, and, not for the first time, she has an English accent again. Linda is calm, icy, and collected as always. I like Scott Brick for some books, but not Halo. The cast of characters is too vast and varied for his style. I would love to see more of Sean Patrick Hopkins. Overall, if you\’re very deep into Halo\’s lore, this is a must-read.

Should have casted Scott Brick. The story is probably good, it\’s just hard to continously listen to and finish it. The narrator is probably just doing his job but following Scott Brick\’s previous work on the series it just doesn\’t sound or feel right. Rather disappointing seeing how the story takes place after the disappointment that was Halo 5.

The author\’s tendency to over-describe things that don\’t have any real-world frame of reference was quite irritating, nobody in the real world knows what a \”glassed\” planet looks like so describing it in detail is pointless. For example: If I went back in time and described a cell phone to someone living in 1860 I wouldn\’t talk about gorilla glass, or 5G, or hotspot tethering because those things would mean nothing to them, and using those terms would only make describing what a cell phone is more difficult to explain. That is what it was like listening to the way the author described what the reader/listener is supposed to picture in their mind\’s eye. Things don\’t always need 5 words when 1 word will do. The story itself was rather pointless, literally. The entire story felt like it could have been widdled down to a 35-page novella. The author of this book really should take listens in descriptive storytelling from his Halo novel peers like Matt Forbeck and Eric Nylund.

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