After enjoying the Resident Evil book series, I was really excited to try reading Mass Effect. Upon shopping, I noticed that reviews were not so stellar. That doesn’t necessarily bother me as I prefer coming to my own opinions, so I bought them anyways – Andromeda included. Here, I explore my impressions about the first book in the series.

Recommended: NO

Rating: 2 out of 5

Mass Effect – Revelation (2007)

Prequel to the Mass Effect games, written by Drew Karpyshyn

323 pages

Summary

This book is a prequel to the events set within the game series. It covers Captain David Anderson from his N7 training to his Lieutenant rank, and also includes Saren the Spectre. The prologue explains how Rear Admiral Grissom, Hero of Earth, chose Anderson specifically out of all the candidates of the N7 program to help lead troops during the First Contact War with the Turians. Then fast-forward to a mission where Lt. Anderson and his patrol team investigate a mayday signal. He is painted a capable leader and hero before returning to the Citadel. He bitterly deals with divorce from his wife back on Earth and is then given his next mission–one that’s on the down-low. He’s to go after Kahlee Sanders, the child of Admiral Grissom (now retired and grumpy) who is in trouble as the lone survivor after a questionable lab was destroyed (the one Anderson responded to). They must contend with Skarr the mercenary Krogan, the Blue Suns mercenary group, and Saren the Turian Spectre. The secrets of the destroyed lab are uncovered, painting humans in a bad light. Human Ambassador Goyle must play the Council (or be played?) to help defend the human race and forward their agenda. Along the way, Anderson grows feelings for his ward, and then feels betrayed when she doesn’t fully trust him. Eventually, Sanders gets captured by the Blue Suns’ rich Batarian employer. Although Saren must help Anderson by order of the Council, he and Anderson split up anyways. Saren blows up the element zero facility to complete his mission, but not before learning about Sovereign and wanting it for himself, while Anderson struggles to kill Skarr and save Sanders. The book ends with Anderson upset that Sanders does not wish to get into a romantic relationship with him, and she leaves.

Pros – The story helps to uncover more about Anderson who isn’t touched upon too much in the game. It brings together some history that can become confusingly lost in the lore-rich games. Humanity is quite new to everything, so this highlights some of the thoughts and struggles of humans as they attempt to integrate and gain respect from the other aliens. Unethical and torture-loving Saren is very well described, and his role segues neatly into the first Mass Effect game where he had already found Sovereign and was being slowly indoctrinated. Most of the alien species were explored in this book, even the Batarians who don’t get a lot of love in the game.

Cons – The author spends an inordinate amount of time describing – so much so, that I skipped through most of it. His portrayal of females in the book is not particularly favorable, painting most, if not all, the females as inept in some fashion or form. Even though Anderson is the main focus of the book, I found him to be an absolute idiot much of the time. In fact, of all the characters, Saren and Skarr are probably the only ones who weren’t irritating. Apart from Saren’s torture scenes, the book felt quite boring as a whole. The bare bones of the book flows, but the narrative (especially towards the end) borders on illogical or unnecessary.

Impressions

As mentioned prior, I was really excited to read this. As a prequel, and therefore an original work, it had the potential to be great, as it would not be confined to the storyline of the game. Sadly, I do NOT recommend this book even if you’re a fan of the Mass Effect series. The prologue started out poorly for me, where after the first few paragraphs I already had to reread the words a few times out of boredom. As a whole, I ended up reading probably half of the book, skipping much of it for lack of interest. While it did a good job of eventually tying into the first Mass Effect game, I just wanted the book to be done and over. None of the characters resonated with me aside from Saren and Skarr because everyone else was an idiot. The book left a sour taste in my mouth that made me not want to read the rest of the series, preferring to just play the real Mass Effect game.

As a spoiler, Kahlee Sanders appears to be one of the main characters in the second book which is set right after Saren and Sovereign attack the Citadel. UGH. I read as far as seeing her there, and immediately quit reading. If I felt her to be unlikeable in the first book, then I doubt I’ll like her in the second one. Perhaps I will return to the series in the future when I have nothing else to read.

Gripes

Description: My first problem with this was in the prologue where the author describes the ship carrying Admiral Grissom. The worst case was of the Presidium. Unfortunately, this would be a recurring problem: entirely too much description and not enough action. I found myself skipping large sections of text just to get to next part, it felt so excessive. And boring. I get that the book was written in such a way that if people were to read it without playing the game, then they could understand, but I felt it to be too much. I wish the author had spent as much time narrating the action scenes as describing places.

Introspection: Generally, I enjoy getting into the minds of characters, especially after playing the game, but I did not enjoy the introspection in this book. There was just not much going on their heads and the things they did think about were inconsequential to character building. The only thought processes I found myself interested in were from Saren, who, by the way, was well written…perhaps because of all the characters in this book, he was the only one with a dedicated personality in the game…hmm. Lack of creativity on the author’s part?

Characters: The characters are not enjoyable. They did not resonate with me. Most of them were portrayed as morons or were irritating. I found myself not caring about the two main characters, Anderson and Sanders, though I wanted to care about Anderson because I liked him a lot in the game. He’d get upset over tiny insignificant things that a soldier as experienced and supposedly fantastic as a leader as he was shouldn’t have gotten in a tizzy about. Even Goyle, whom I initially liked as compared to Udina in the game, eventually grew…unhinged? I’m not sure what the author was trying to do to her.

Females: That brings me to the next gripe: the portrayal of women. Is it because the author is male? I’m not sure, but all the main females were obnoxious in some fashion or form. Goyle as mentioned above, started out as a strong leader, but then her subsequent introspection painted her…as not (perhaps the excessive exploration into her mind did her in here)? The book starts out with Anderson leading his small group responding to a distress call. In the group is one woman, Gunnery Chief Dah, who is described as larger than most of the males, muscular, and basically an uncouth brute with a mouth, yet supremely skillful. Anyways, she ends up getting shot in the leg, and instead of getting up to try and limp out of the collapsing facility like the tough marine she was supposed to be, she just lay there, and Anderson had to carry her huge frame on his back. Eventually, she passed out altogether and all the males had to carry her. So much for tough soldier. Then there’s Anderson’s ex-wife on Earth who divorced him because he never came home for many, many years. He’s bitter about the divorce for the entirety book, and I simply cannot commiserate with him. She’s portrayed as a bad person for the divorce when she’d been waiting for him for about a decade, trapped inside of a relationship with entire galaxies in between and no accurate timeline of his return. Talk about a long-distance relationship! At least she ended it officially before trying to move on with the rest of her life. Then there’s the female Batarian that betrays her facility and then gets killed mercilessly by Saren.

Anderson: For the supposed main protagonist, he is not a likeable guy, and easily offended. He was good in the beginning during the N7 prologue, and clearly an exceptional soldier in his leading of the botched distress call response. The whole divorce thing? Dumb, as stated above. He’s a jerk, especially when dealing with the Salarian information dealer. Yeah, he has high ideals, so what? Instead of being grateful for the black-market information, he berates her about having access to top secret information. He does that again later in the book, too. Dude. They have info. Who cares if they hacked in. They’re hackers. He’s extremely emotional, and not overly smart…something that his N7 badge and golden service records are in direct opposition to. Hardened soldier: emotional? When he’s dealing with Saren who is a notorious and accomplished Spectre, he tries to fist fight him. Then he develops this stupid idea of feelings for Kahlee Sanders, his ward. OKAY, maybe there’s some slack to be cut because he was recently divorced…or maybe not because it’s not like he ever saw his wife anyways? If he’s as dedicated to his career as a soldier as he’s claimed to be, he would be seeing her as a mission objective, not a potential partner. The ending is the worst. Anderson and Sanders exchange some words before he tries to kiss her and she stops him, explaining that their lives are about to be split apart again with their next missions. It’s reasonable to not start something as they would hardly ever see each other. He gets really upset, like mad, as if his last relationship hadn’t just failed for the same reason. Perhaps he thinks he deserves a reward for protecting and saving her? That’s what it felt like to me, at least. Also, it’s never clear exactly how old he is. She’s clearly young.

Sanders: Then that brings me to my biggest gripe of all: Kahlee Sanders, the lone surviving scientist from the mysterious lab that exploded. In Mass Effect, anyone who is in space for the Alliance will be trained as a soldier. The book iterates over and over that she’s intelligent — more intelligent than your average scientist. It also paints her early on as an extremely capable soldier when she defends herself with brutal efficiency against a Blue Suns mercenary who tries to abduct her in Elysium. She is Jon Grissom’s daughter after all! Well. Once Anderson shows up, she’s suddenly an annoying damsel in distress. What happened to that capable soldier? Eventually, she gets captured where she is fearful of the torture methods they’re planning on subjecting her to even though no one said anything about it (that is just bad storytelling, honestly). In the confinement, she considered bashing her head repeatedly against the wall (what???) and then decides against it. When the door is loose, she manages to dislocate her shoulder knocking it off (really…?) which forces her savior, Anderson, to pop it back into place. Then, as they run from the quickly disintegrating, exploding element zero factory, she suddenly, out of the blue falls to the ground, and is simply so distressed about everything (during an actual, life threatening, crisis situation, mind you), that she refuses to get up and move because she’s not a soldier, she’s just a scientist! She’s weak! Then Anderson says, “…get up off your ass and get your feet moving! That’s an order!” The text then goes, “Like a good soldier, she responded to his commands.” So…wait…she’s a soldier now, not just a scientist? What exactly is she? A burden. Her only saving grace is that she’s able to block Anderson’s moves at the end with a reasonable bit of logic.

In Conclusion

It appears the book reviews are spot on. I’d rate it 2 stars out of 5. There were good parts, but mostly I did not enjoy it. When you’re skipping half of the text in an effort to just finish the darn thing, it’s not a good sign. Trying to read the second book and finding that it also has nothing to do with Commander Shepard was also extremely disappointing. I guess I was hoping it would be like Resident Evil where I get to visit the same story but in book form. There’s artistic license available to an author (with agreement from the publisher, of course) that would allow them to explore what would be “canon” in a game or not. I wanted a story about Shepard’s adventure. He/she would not have to involve themselves in any relationships whatsoever apart from camaraderie and occasional, non-serious flings. Shepard is a soldier after all, with a mission. I get that there could be fallout from fans, but manga and anime regularly conflict, and that’s because you understand that one is a book and the other is not. As a prequel, though, this story would have been fine because it’s an original piece. What a letdown.