Review Of "Halo First Strike" By Eric Nylund

         I just recently finish the book "Halo First Strike" By  Eric Nylund.  It is a continuation of "Halo the Fall of Reach" Also by Eric Nylund and "Halo the Flood" By William C. Dietz so i would recommend reading those before first strike for a true experience of how great the writing in this book is.  However it is possible to understand the story through this book alone. It is like this in most of the series because of the back story and references provided.

         Halo the fall of reach was fill with never ending action and continues the Halo Story line perfectly (in my opinion) from the last books. What really sets it apart from the previous books in the series is that it shows the main characters difficulty with certain moral choices that earlier in the storyline he would have never dreamed of questioning.  The book also does a great job of characterizing almost all characters in the storyline no-matter how involved with the main storyline they are.

        Over all i would recommend this book to anyone except those that are a little squeamish with violence and sometimes in depth descriptions of the action of violence and its results (it is after all a book about a war, fictional but taken as if it were not).  Also I would recommend reading the previous books first like I mentioned above.

Context of the story ("Halo First Strike" By:Eric Nylund)

          The Book "Halo First Strike" by: Eric Nylund is set in the Halo universe  which if you don't know what Halo is here is an explanation.  The book takes place after the first one in the series called "Halo The Fall Of Reach.  The story is centered around the "Spartans" they are a group of genetically modified and heavily armed soldiers that reside in almost legendary status in the UNSC military (United Nations Space Command) as hulking, armored, robotic, killing machines.  It may appear this way in there  Mjölnir  powered armor suits that when put on the spartans stand an average of eight feet tall and the ruthless efficenci with which they operate with.  Inside though these "Spartans" beneath all of the increased bone structure and toughened organs they are human, atleast mostly on the inside. 

         As children they were screened by a woman named Dr. Cathrine Halsy.  She was the creator of the SPARTAN I, and SPARTAN II project and which the first of which failed.  Once the children where screened and the best of the best chosen they were abducted and taken to the millitary planet of Reach.  Once on Reach they were trained from the age of six or seven to become the killing machines that they would eventualy grow into.


        Eventualy after the "Spartans" had taken on a few missions against insurectionistes and criminals a bigger threat emerged The Covenent.  The Covonent is a vastly supirior alien race intent on destroying humanity so they can go on the "Great Journy".  This "Great Journy" involves activating a set of rings that once set off will kill everything in exestance, these were orginaly put into place to stop another alien species called "The Flood" from destroying all organic life.  It is up to the main charecter John 117 and the spartans under his command to save the human race from all of these threats.

Fahrenheit 451 creating suspence

The book Fahrenheit 451 is a suspenseful yet hard to understand book that has a few interesting twists and turns throughout the book  that make you want to at least keep reading until the next bit of rising action.  One moment in the second part of the book realy shined as an example the authors ability to create this suspence and buildup.  Later into the second part Montag, the main charecter, starts to lose it with his job and his boss.  This passage does, well a good example of showing this and when Montag finaly breaks "Montag only said, 'We never burned right...' ; Hand it over, Guy,' said beatty with a fixed smile. And then he was a shrieking blaze...'(Ray Bradbarry pg 113).  This shows the moment when Montag finaly snaps and ends up killing Beatty and just overall loseing it.  The build up to this was a tremendus bit when Beatty asked for Montag to give him the flame througher and goes up to the point when Montag finaly kills him.

Supporting Role of a Minor Charecter (Halo: First Strike-By Eric Nylund)

          The book "Halo First Strike" by Eric Nylund is an action filled tale about the journy of Chief Petty Officer John 117, a geneticaly engineered super soldier, through the trials of leading his team and combat with a supirior enemy.  The charecters in the book are what make it so interesting and make the reader want to continue through the winding tunnel that is the story.  In the very first chapter of the story you are thrown into the position of SPARTAN 104, Fredric.  Fred is one of the best SPARTANS around other than The Master Chief.  He always comes and second it seems and aparently he is also quite good with a knife, "The Blade traced a complicated series of gracful arcs in the air. The few remaining Navel personnel on the deck turned pale and averted their eyes-a Sparrtan wielding a knife was generally acompanied by the presence of several dead bodies.(Ebook pages 16-17)"

     
           A moment later the text reveals why Fred is on edge.  In the next few lines of text the Spartans are briefed on what is going on and what their job is gonna be in the up-coming conflict.  The Spartans are going to have to split into two teams for the the next mission, the defence of their home planet, Reach.  One team will go planetside and take the fight to the enemy face to face while the other has to go into a nearby space dock and erase the navigation drives on a ship that was not taken care of before the fight started.   The Spartans are not familier with space combat and are at home on solid ground but never the less Fred wants to take part in the space operation,  This shows how strong a resolve the spartans have in their ventures and that they dont care what the odds that they will get it done or die trying.  This also strenthens the Master Chiefs charecter in showing that his Spartans respect him and his orders when he tells Fred and another one of the team members that he will be leading the space operation and that they are going to be going planetside to take the fight where they are used to it and he will take the harder path.

Why I decided to read-(Halo The Fall Of Reach, by Eric Nylund)

          A few years back I was really into the game called "Halo", and durring this time I bought a book called "Halo The Fall Of Reach" by Eric Nylund.  I read it almost emidiatly finishing it in somthing like two days and then moved on.  Just a couple days ago I ran across the book sitting in my shelves and decided that I would like to read it again becasue I had forgotten alot about it and remembered it to be a remarkably well written text.  The story that the book tells I feel is remarkably well told and I have really enjoyed re-reading what I have so far.  The book just really apeals to the imaginative side of me, it makes wonderfull comparisons throughout the text to help with better visualization.  A great example of this would be when the book mentions the apearence of the main protagonist and the rest of his team.  They are something called Spartan IIs.  The Spartans were children that were abuducted at around the age six or seven and were then trained and physicaly enhanced to  become the perfect millitary asset posseble.  When they are in there armor it is described that some of the other charecters say that there apearence is that of a greak god of ancient times.  It is these facts that made me want to read the book again so much.

Final Blogger Reflection

          My best blog post.  I believe that I best on this post for a few reasons.  One of the things that I feel really set this post apart from my other ones is they grammar and way that I explained the characters in the book I was reading at the time.  I feel that this is because of the way that I analyse characters while i read.  It shows this when i describe the way that Watson learns from Holmes while they are out on their adventures (or misadventures).  The post also refers to how Watson reacts with other characters as well as his general outlook and how he changes.

        My goals for reading and writing are fairly simple.  They include reading 10 books (a step down from my previous 30 even though I am reasonably sure I accomplished that).  As for the writing aspect I am going to challenge myself to using the broader vocabulary that I have gained.  I would also like to set the goal for myself to act upon the writing ideas that I get instead of just filing them in the back of my head.

       

New DayZ Epoch Server

             This is just an announcement that me and a friend of mine have put up a DayZ Epoch server and are inviting anyone who loves the game as much as we do to come join us.  We are going to be adding in a bunch of custom scripts and public events.  The server is also going to act as an overflow server for Dream Fall Hosting's server which is in the top 75 servers out there (we will have the same scrips)  For those of you interested the server come join us at 69.39.239.141:3272 or look up DreamFall 2.  Hope to see you online!

Reading Skills

            I have recently been reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes (its really long)  The plethora of stories time after time never stop to amaze me.  I'm always wondering whats gonna happen next and always trying to find the constant clues hidden throughout the text.  Currently there are a lot of things going on but the main conflict is that there is what appears to be a mystical wolf killing members of a certain prosperous family in a certain area and i believe that it is just going to be rivals of the family trying to create a panic in the area and take possession of the family's wealth.  I feel that throughout the book Watson feels rather clueless to what his friend is up to and what is going on at times, sometimes i feel like this in real life.  Also i see that the plot of the adventures are very similar to those in modern times, I believe that they took inspiration from Sherlock Holmes.  Also the mysteries are very similar at times to the present times in the fact that they sometimes bring in foreigners and often revenge.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes  Mood and tone

             The Mood and tone are big parts of The Complete Sherlock Holmes they set the pace and cause dramatic moments in the plot.  This encourages the reader to continue on because of the feeling of suspense that is created.  The overall mood of the book is normally dark but at times it can jump to a happy mood.  The tone that time book creates is normally morose but at times giddy this adds a nice mix to everything that will help keep the reader entertained.  Parts throughout the book's many stories show evidence to support these, like the constant murders and thefts setting a dark mood and on the flip side when the mystery is solved everyone is full of joy because of the resolution.

Book recommendation The Complete Sherlock Holmes

             The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle is a collection of a bunch of original Sherlock Holmes stories.  Every one of these thought provoking stories is a jolt of understanding to the mind when a crime is solved and all of them keep up an amazing moderate pace based on all of the detail and the time span that each of these take place in.  Since it is a little bit older stories it could be somewhat of a struggle for readers that are not as strong but with the use of context clues the stories and language can be quite easy to understand (in my opinion).  The book provides a Very good mix of action and puzzles as well as the overall mysteries so anyone that likes any of these things would probably enjoy this book.  I would give this book a 5/5 stars as of right now.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes 
By: Arthur Conan Doyle


                  While reading through this book I have become even more intrigued with how the villains through the book almost always have a good and just reason for their crimes, even if they were murder or something of the sort.  I also find it funny how the book expresses different ideas than the modern day interpretations of the adventures of Holmes, and Watson.  In today's re-incarnations of the stories there is much more violence than in the original tales of mystery and puzzle.  What are some of the differences you see? Tell me in the comments.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes 
By: Arthur Conan Doyle


              The Book The Complete Sherlock Holmes By: Arthur Conan Doyle is an incredible piece of literature with allot of complex and interesting characters that shape the way that the story develops and the turns that it takes.  The Main Character is obviously Sherlock Holmes but all of the stories are from the perspective of Watson.  He is shown to be almost an opposite to Holmes when they first meet and this turns out to help them as they start their adventures together through mystery after mystery when Watson will be more level headed than Holmes and provides valuable advice.  More than once he diverts a crisis or makes an important discovery that helps the story make a turn for the better sometimes saving ones life.  He acts kind and courteous to almost every other characters (except the villains) and tries to help and be kind to even the random stranger in need.  Through the story he becomes more mature in his thought process and becomes very keen on Holmes's mysteries and doings.  He helps bring out the theme of crime doesn't pay and that it is good to educate yourself on important matters.

From Baghdad with love By: Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman Finished

          I just finished reading the book From Baghdad with love By: Lieutenant Colonel Joy Kopelman and i loved it.  The book always kept me on edge while reading it because of the way that it portrayed the problems that were faced in a way that made the reader want to continue because they wanted to know the outcome of the continuous stream of plots and ideas that were concocted to get Kopelman's dog out of Baghdad.

                                                       Picture of Lava as a puppy in Baghdad

                     Video of the author speaking about the book

                                                    

                                              The book can be found on goodreads here.

                                              An in depth review on the book here.

                                              

                                                   Another interview with the author

                                              

From Baghdad with love By: Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman

         I just started the reading the book From Baghdad with love By: Jay Kopelman a lieutenant Colnel in the united states army.  This is his story on how he smuggled a puppy that he and part of his team found when they were clearing a building in Iraq while fighting in Fallujah.  The story is very sporadic and give the impression that the actual events that happen throughout the course of the book were very random and fast at times, after all it is set in the beginning of the Iraq war.  It is told through the Lieutenant's perspective and it shows how much he cared for the little dog that his team came to call Lava after their companies name, Lava Dogs. As of right now i am really enjoying the story and cant wait to continue as Kopelman slowly works out a way to smuggle his furry little buddie out of the country.

Characterization, 1632 series By: Eric Flint

            

          The 1632 series by Eric Flint is a wonderful show of good writing and multiple examples of characterization throughout.  Probably one the best examples of characterization throughout the series is that of Mike Sterns, a Appalachian mountain coal miner union leader turned president of the U.S.E. (the united states of Europe.  Through the books you see Mike Sterns transform from a virtual hillbilly to a confident military commander and politician.  It is also shown when at first he treats people roughly and doesn't accommodate, after a while he realizes that he has to let other feel like they are in control in order for him to remain in power.

1634 The Baltic War By:Eric Flint

         I recently finished the book 1634 The Baltic War and have come to liking the 1632 series more than ever.  The book ended as I eventually expected but at times there were a few bumps in the rode that i didn't expect.  It was moments like this that really characterized the book and the general attitude of it.  I would also like to mention that the publisher, Baen Books, is and amazing publishing group that puts out a lot of science fiction books that i believe are overlooked a lot of the time because some of them are older.  I would recommend the 1632 ring of fire series. 

1634 The Baltic War By: Eric Flint, David Weber

           Guess what?!?!?! i'm reading another book in the 1632 series!  The series is extremely engaging interesting and funny, throughout the course of the books there are things that happen that would not normally happen in the modern world that spice up the story and can be a good laugh or perplexing moment in the text.  This is all made possible by the setting and plot of the book as well as the series.  The adventure is set in well the 17th century in a world strife with war and conflict and where power hungry monarchs and religious leaders will stop at nothing to gain power for themselves and their realm.  Amid all of this the modern day town of Grantville is sent back in time in a time/space anomaly and they have to create a space for themselves and a world they used to know in a society that is not quite ready yet.  I am extremely enjoying the series and would recommend it to anyone because it covers so many different topics.

1633 By:Eric Flint

Theme so far,

           The theme of 1633 so far is much the same as the first book in the series, The town of Grantville, Pennsylvania, has been transported back in time in some kind of time rift to the 17th century.  Throughout this time period the world is rife with war and disease as well as financial crisis.

The previous book capitalized on the fact that the united states created by the town of Grantville is in eh middle of Germany complicates the story a little bit but Grantville tries to emulate the way the united states that they remember worked and its values.


             The United states created by the town of Grantville turned into a political and economic hot spot. This is shown in many spots throughout the book. "Mike Sterns and his policies had turned Grantville and the country surrounding it into one of the few areas in central Europe which were economically booming and had a growing population. A rapidly growing one in fact." this quote shows that with the current president Mike Sterns and how he has helped the U.S. of the 17th century grow and prosper.




Here is an article on the book's series.

Robopocalypse By:Danial H Wilson Theme

              The theme of Robobpocalypse is is that when humanities back is against the wall it will never give up, but change to something new, a whole different animal just to overcome the threat.  The book shows that humans as a species are unpredictable and will do anything to survive no matter what the cost or how difficult something seems at the time.

              This general theme is shown throughout the entire book and in most cases showing the extremes  people will go to, to ensure their own and others lives.  This is shown in multiple instances in very severe instances and environments with the threat of death or permanent injury hanging in the air like a black cloud above the scene as it slowly unfolds like the curtain at the beginning of a show or a cloud passing over the sun.  

               In the book there is an instance of the professor that created the main antagonist Archos, a "smart AI(artificial intelligence)" that when humanity turns into a different animal, it changes into something new and different, the quote says as follows “A warning. We aren't what we seem. Human beings will do anything to live. Anything.” The hissing increases in intensity. Face twisted in concentration, the professor staggers toward the door. He falls against it, pushes it, pounds on it. He stops; takes short, gasping breaths. “Against the wall, Archos”—he pants—“against the wall, a human being becomes a different animal.” “Perhaps. But you are animals just the same” (Wilson page 19).

This articl gives a general overview of the book and author as well as let you download a sound clip from "Archos".