Halo: First Strike - Reception

Reception

Upon release, First Strike was a critical and commercial success, being the first Halo novel to make The New York Times bestsellers list. 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's 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."