Halo: The Fall of Reach

Long before the Master Chief ever set foot on Halo, humanity was fighting and losing a war of annihilation against the Covenant — and the planet Reach was both its last real stronghold and the secret birthplace of the SPARTAN program. Eric Nylund's first Halo novel tells the story of what was sacrificed before the events of the original game: the children taken and reshaped into supersoldiers, the desperate defense of a planet that could not be saved, and the beginning of the soldier the universe would come to know as Master Chief.

Todd McLaren's narration established the tone and voice for the entire Halo expanded universe that followed, his delivery finding the military precision and human cost of the story in equal measure. At just over eleven hours, The Fall of Reach is both the essential Halo tie-in novel and one of the best military science fiction audiobooks of the early 2000s. Required listening for anyone entering the Halo universe through audio.