Mass Effect: The Complete Novels: Revelation, Ascension, Retribution, Deception

Mass Effect Novels #1-4

by Drew Karpyshyn, William C. Dietz

Picking up where the bestselling videogames left off, the Mass Effect novels take readers into the far reaches of outer space. From the prequel novel, Revelation, to the series capstone, Deception, these original adventures weave together a science fiction epic as they follow Starship Alliance commander David Anderson and his young protégée, scientist Kahlee Sanders, in their battle to save humanity. Packaged together for the first time, this exhilarating eBook bundle  REVELATIONASCENSIONRETRIBUTIONDECEPTION Since discovering a cache of Prothean technology on Mars in 2148, humanity has spread to the stars. Now, on the edge of colonized space, ship commander and Alliance war hero David Anderson investigates the remains of a top secret military research station. Who attacked this post and for what purpose? And where is Kahlee Sanders, the young scientist who mysteriously vanished from the base hours before her colleagues were slaughtered? Sanders is now the prime suspect, but finding her creates more problems than it solves. Partnered with a rogue alien agent he can’t trust and pursued by an assassin he can’t escape, Anderson battles impossible odds on uncharted worlds to uncover a sinister conspiracy—one he won’t live to tell about. Or so the enemy thinks.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

1392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Drew Karpyshyn is a Canadian author and game designer. After working at a credit union for some time, he eventually became a game developer. He joined BioWare towards the end of the Baldur's Gate series, and wrote the tie-in novel for Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. He stayed with BioWare, where he worked on Neverwinter Nights, and became the Senior Writer on the critically acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

This Star Wars connection gave him the opportunity to write Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, his first hardcover. Karpyshyn still works for BioWare where he is the lead writer for the Mass Effect series.

Reviews

[Veli-Jussi Haanpää · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great three novels.

For the sake of your own sanity, skip the fourth novel. Not only is it immensed in factual errors (you don't have to nit pick at all either, the author makes sure you'll notice them every other page), grammar mistakes (if you can't get 'where' / 'were' correctly 100% of the time, then you have a clear sign from the universe that you should not to write a book), and most of all, if you take all the other errors away and just try to read the book as it is, it is morbidly boring and badly written as a book.

[Az · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I have two rules I follow. The first is: never kill someone without a reason." — Saren Arterius

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Summary: Before I dive deeper into the book series, I highly advice you play the Mass Effect games first! The series is amazing and I highly commend them as one of the best sci-fi game series to hit the video game market.

Now... onto the book series!
The Mass Effect book series consists of several tie-in novels by various authors that expand upon the video game lore. The original four books primarily focus on the overarching Reaper threat, Cerberus, and the covert adventures of Admiral David Anderson and scientist Kahlee Sanders
- Book One: Mass Effect: Revelation. A direct prequel to the first game. It details the history of David Anderson and his first encounter with the turian Saren Arterius while investigating an attack on a covert Alliance research station.
- Book Two: Mass Effect: Ascension. Set shortly after the first game, this novel focuses on Kahlee Sanders and Gillian Grayson, a young girl with powerful biotic abilities who becomes the target of Cerberus's illegal experiments.
- Book Three: Mass Effect: Retribution. Set months after Mass Effect 2, this book features Cerberus experimenting with dangerous Reaper technology on Paul Grayson. Anderson and Sanders must team up to stop him before he loses his mind entirely to the Reapers.
- Book Four: Mass Effect: Deception. Taking place before the events of Mass Effect 3, this story follows Gillian Grayson as she seeks revenge against the Illusive Man and Cerberus for the death of her father.

There is also the game Mass Effect: Andromeda, but I haven't taken the time to play it yet, nor read the series for that game, but I will conduct a full review of the books I read once I play Andromeda.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Thoughts: These books are excellent tie ins to the games and helps expand the Mass Effect universe a great deal. I love how the characters we meet within these games are the main characters of these novels and help expand their character to a greater degree. The first book is by far my favorite, as I have sat down and read it multiple times before buying the other three novels.
The storyline can be a tense ride and at some points during my reading, I felt the vibe of the games themselves pouring through the pages.

Great series and great game series, fans of the game series will enjoy these! As stated above,I highly advice playing the games first before diving into this series, just so you can get the vibe and experience of what makes Mass Effect so great.

Score: ✦✦✦✦✦

[Caspera Spens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was recommended to play the Mass Effect triology years after the whole series came out. It wasn't until I finished the first game that a friend and big fan told me I needed to read these aswell and in a specific order, so the order was:
Revelations -> Mass Efffect 1 -> Ascension -> Mass Effect 2 -> Retribution -> Mass Effect 3

I am happy I went back and did the order, in case anyone else hasn't played through and wants to incorporate the books.

BEING THIS IS NOT A GAME REVIEW, as far as the books go, I actually really enjoyed learning more about people who aren't technically main characters in the games. It was a great mix of lore/universe expansion + appreciation for lore and characters we already know. The pacing is good as each perspective drives to a united end, each book.

However, I do think if you read these books by themselves without playing the games, I imagine it wouldn't feel nearly as satisfying. Without spoilers, the books ties directly into the games...to the point that you will meet people you have read about while playing (that are original to the books) if you read them in the right order. Truely it was a great experience BUT I am sure that's because I treated the books as part of the game play package. Highly recommend as compulsory addition to game play. I am sure its fine by itself but really it shines as additional content to the games.

4 stars as it's really good when coupled with the games. By itself I am not sure.

I DID NOT READ DECEPTION, I DIDN'T KNOW IT EXISTED AND IT APPARENTLY TAKES PLACE AFTER MASS EFFECT 3 (and everyone seems to not consider it cannon...which if it follows the ending of ME3 I can understand the bitterness.)

[Branden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I have never played the Mass Effect video games. I read the series because I'm doing some research on the Kardashev Scale, and the interwebz suggested that the Reapers would be a good example of a Class III civilization. So I read the books mostly out of general curiosity.

I enjoyed books 1-3 quite a bit. Unfortunately, the fourth book kind of nukes the whole bundle. The plot went sideways, and meandered in an unpleasant way. And all the empathy and goodwill I had accumulated for the characters in books 1-3 went by the wayside and I literally did not care if they lived or died.

My 2 cents: if you have the option to read books 1-3, just stop there.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

These where not nearly as good as i had hoped they would be. it was nice to see some of the back story i just think the plots could have been a little more engaging and other then the first book they could have had a little more to do with the actually game. I felt the last three where kind of on their own with some elements of the games thrown in so you knew you where dealing with the Mass Effect universe.

[Dustin D. Kottke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable

I loved the first three books and enjoyed the overall plot of the fourth but some of the characters in the fourth book were very different from their portrayal in the earlier books (particularly Hendel Mitra and Gillian Grayson), enough so as to feel like they were different characters given the same name.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan. Only finished first book.

[Piotrek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't make it till the end of second book.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent if you just need to live in the Mass Effect universe a little while longer.

[Eric-Enrico Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good extension to the mass effect universe.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first three books were fantastic. The formatting wasn't perfect but the books were still enjoyable. Do yourself a huge favor and skip the fourth book. It's atrocious.

[Matthew Bays · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fan fic

Great novel series that's true to the games. Perhaps a few too cameos of places and name drops, but really helped develop the characters and provided good lore.

[Fiannawolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just trying to get in the mood for ME:A, but I forgot how wonky that last book is....

[Jeramy Lord · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, but somewhat unimaginative.

Good books, they filled in quite a lot of the back story from the games. Worth the read, just don't expect complex motivations from the characters.