Has Anyone Read the Mass Effect Book?

Wormsramongus

I just finished Mass Effect for the first time and saw that there was a book out called Mass Effect: Revelation

I wanted to know if the book was any good as either an extension of the universe or back story on any of the characters.

The_Scarab

Yes to both counts.

Its not amazingly well written though.

meatflower

I was at a GameCrazy (The game store attached to Hollywood Video's) a couple weeks before release with a friend of mine. He asked the clerk about Mass Effect and the guy suddenly transformed into a ravenous fan boy.

"Have you read the book?"
....
"DUDE! YOU GOTTA READ THE BOOK!"

When my friend asked how long it was he said, "It's like a Halo novel". I don't know when we started measuring books in terms of "Halo novels" but it surely was a dark day.

So uh...yeah. Random GameCrazy clerk liked it. You decide.

Sir Carcass

I bought it before the game was released and really liked being somewhat familiar with the universe before jumping in. It made it feel more epic to me.

It's written by the lead writer of the game. I'd say it's above average. It's worth it if you're a fan of the game or are interested in getting it.

apotheos

I read it. I finished it in about 6 hours of reading while the movers packed up my house, so its not very long at all.

It is solid enough for the kind of market its going for. It compares well with Halo or Star Wars EU material. I enjoyed reading it, but thought much of it was rushed and some of it didn't make any real sense. It tells the story of the time Anderson tried out for the Spectres, but that particular plot line really doesn't work which kind of undermines the whole novel, I think.

Cherrn

It doesn't really tie into the game very much, I thought. Not directly, anyway. It has a lot about the universe, which is interesting, but nothing you can't read in the game's codex. The main story revolves around Anderson and Saren, but none of this factors into the game's story outside of a few lines about how Anderson tried out for the spectres and worked with Saren on a mission, and what happened there - and the events leading up to Saren going rogue. It has a few characters that could potentially show up in ME 2, though.

IIRC, they're making another one to bridge the gap between ME 1 and 2, so that should be more interesting.

Klyka

I read it too and I thought it was a good read, especially since I was looking forward to the game a lot.

Having Anderson as the main character was kinda cool and seeing how Saren came to find Sovereign was also a nice piece of background info. I would say the book as a whole is worth it just for the backstory on Saren, cause you can get a feel for the character. The game doesn't really do a good job in showing how Saren normally behaves.

Fatty McBeardo

ME:R sure isn't Dune or Neuromancer, but I liked it better than Ringworld. oh yeah i went there.

grrarg

Klyka wrote: »

Having Anderson as the main character was kinda cool and seeing how Saren came to find Sovereign was also a nice piece of background info. I would say the book as a whole is worth it just for the backstory on Saren, cause you can get a feel for the character. The game doesn't really do a good job in showing how Saren normally behaves.

The book also explains how he got the resources to do everything. How did this guy supposedly working for the Council get enough money to become a big investor in a company? That part on Noveria is a bit strange if you haven't read the book.

Klyka

grrarg wrote: »

Klyka wrote: »

Having Anderson as the main character was kinda cool and seeing how Saren came to find Sovereign was also a nice piece of background info. I would say the book as a whole is worth it just for the backstory on Saren, cause you can get a feel for the character. The game doesn't really do a good job in showing how Saren normally behaves.

The book also explains how he got the resources to do everything. How did this guy supposedly working for the Council get enough money to become a big investor in a company? That part on Noveria is a bit strange if you haven't read the book.

Well, going by the game, it's supposedly pretty easy to become a multi millionaire just by shooting bad people and selling their armor/weapons

Fatty McBeardo

Not only that, since spectres are so powerful yet free of oversight, it would be very easy for someone in that position to accumulate a lot of wealth in dealing with the large corps.

Morskittar

I read it before the game was released. It was cool enough and made me feel special when I knew what Anderson was bitching about in the game.

I've read better commercial tie-in fiction, but it wasn't atrocious like anything by Troy Denning or a host of D&D and Star Wars EU authors.

Fucking Troy Denning.

Spore Cloud

It's worth a read, especially if you liked the game. Buy it.

Bloods End

Morskittar wrote: »

I read it before the game was released. It was cool enough and made me feel special when I knew what Anderson was bitching about in the game.

I've read better commercial tie-in fiction, but it wasn't atrocious like anything by Troy Denning or a host of D&D and Star Wars EU authors.

Fucking Troy Denning.

Troy Denning wrote Star By Star you mother fucker.

YodaTuna

Bloods End wrote: »

Morskittar wrote: »

I read it before the game was released. It was cool enough and made me feel special when I knew what Anderson was bitching about in the game.

I've read better commercial tie-in fiction, but it wasn't atrocious like anything by Troy Denning or a host of D&D and Star Wars EU authors.

Fucking Troy Denning.

Troy Denning wrote Star By Star you mother fucker.

He also wrote that dreadful trilogy that took place after the NJO books.

Dragkonias

The book is a decent read, nothing groundbreaking and it won't change your life or anything, but it was interesting enough for me to finish in about a day or two.

JCRooks

It's a decent read, especially if you're interested in more backstory regarding the ME universe. I'd say it's on par with the first Halo novel, and far better than the rest of the Halo books.

On a somewhat related note, I just finished Destiny's Road by Larry Niven. Fantastic, as usual. If you want to read some real good sci-fi, check out Niven or Asimov.

DisruptorX2

I generally don't read game novels. What is good writing in a video game generally is not considered good writing in novel form.

I'm a complete snob when it comes to fiction though, I don't read much of it, so when I do, it better be damn good.

Pancake

It's a pretty good book for what it is.

What it is being a game prequel novel. I'd never actually read a game tie-in novel before but I had (sadly) read plenty of D&D novels. The best of those is probably around where the Mass Effect novel is. Which makes sense since the author, Drew Karpyshyn, has a few D&D novels under his belt.

If you would like to get more acquainted with the Mass Effect universe, it's a good enough read. It's not that long, it's not that good, but it's got a lot of information about the universe (a lot of which you can get from the in-game codex now but couldn't when the novel was released back in May) and it has a lot about Anderson and his past and who he was twenty years before the game.

Most of what's in the novel is inconsequential for one's enjoyment of the game, but I liked knowing all this stuff going into it and knowing where Anderson and Saren are coming from is interesting.

Still, not the best book ever, contrary to what the people on BioWare's official forums seem to think.

Xaev

It seems kind of redundant to say this, but I agree with the sentiments of most of the prior posters - it was an enjoyable read and I was glad to know a significant amount of information about the Mass Effect universe prior to playing the game; however, it was certainly not an amazing work of fiction. I read through the book in about four to five hours.

Smashism

Xaev wrote: »

It seems kind of redundant to say this, but I agree with the sentiments of most of the prior posters - it was an enjoyable read and I was glad to know a significant amount of information about the Mass Effect universe prior to playing the game; however, it was certainly not an amazing work of fiction. I read through the book in about four to five hours.

Same as above. Same as everyone else's opinion.
I read this on my vacation to norcal a few months ago. My dad loves science fiction but I couldn't recommend the book to him after I finished. It's no Pulitzer Prize but, if you like ME than you can appreciate the story. If not, its a whole lot of meh.

The_Lightbringer

It didn't suck, you could have done far worst.

Whippy

YodaTuna wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

Morskittar wrote: »

I read it before the game was released. It was cool enough and made me feel special when I knew what Anderson was bitching about in the game.

I've read better commercial tie-in fiction, but it wasn't atrocious like anything by Troy Denning or a host of D&D and Star Wars EU authors.

Fucking Troy Denning.

Troy Denning wrote Star By Star you mother fucker.

He also wrote that dreadful trilogy that took place after the NJO books.

jesus shit i thought i was the only one who hated those

apotheos

Troy Denning wrote some alright Forgotten Realms books ... a long fucking time ago.

Morskittar

Bloods End wrote: »

Morskittar wrote: »

I read it before the game was released. It was cool enough and made me feel special when I knew what Anderson was bitching about in the game.

I've read better commercial tie-in fiction, but it wasn't atrocious like anything by Troy Denning or a host of D&D and Star Wars EU authors.

Fucking Troy Denning.

Troy Denning wrote Star By Star you mother fucker.

He's the man that wrote the Prism Pentad and the Avatar trilogy.

Both series that fucked their respective settings beyond all recognition. I like to think that Dark Sun would still be published in some format if he hadn't done away with the key villain in magic goo and made it all about hyper-intelligent halflings.

Seriously.

Fuck Troy Denning.

It truly isn't much of an endorsement that the Mass Effect novel is better than his crap. It's somewhat decent otherwise.

DisruptorX2

Morskittar wrote: »

He's the man that wrote the Prism Pentad and the Avatar trilogy.

Both series that fucked their respective settings beyond all recognition. I like to think that Dark Sun would still be published in some format if he hadn't done away with the key villain in magic goo and made it all about hyper-intelligent halflings.

Seriously.

Fuck Troy Denning.

It truly isn't much of an endorsement that the Mass Effect novel is better than his crap. It's somewhat decent otherwise.

hi-five!

Troy Denning shat all over the D&D setting he helped create.

Morskittar

DisruptorX2 wrote: »

Morskittar wrote: »

He's the man that wrote the Prism Pentad and the Avatar trilogy.

Both series that fucked their respective settings beyond all recognition. I like to think that Dark Sun would still be published in some format if he hadn't done away with the key villain in magic goo and made it all about hyper-intelligent halflings.

Seriously.

Fuck Troy Denning.

It truly isn't much of an endorsement that the Mass Effect novel is better than his crap. It's somewhat decent otherwise.

hi-five!

Troy Denning shat all over the D&D setting he helped create.

I think, retroactively, he should un-help create it. And the Dragon of Tyr should rape him in the face. My nerd-rage is infinite concerning this. At least he gave me a good start to every DS campaign ever; the PCs killing Rikus, easily, in the arena on the day of Kalak's attempted assassination.

That's getting off-topic, though.

DisruptorX2

Morskittar wrote: »

DisruptorX2 wrote: »

Morskittar wrote: »

He's the man that wrote the Prism Pentad and the Avatar trilogy.

Both series that fucked their respective settings beyond all recognition. I like to think that Dark Sun would still be published in some format if he hadn't done away with the key villain in magic goo and made it all about hyper-intelligent halflings.

Seriously.

Fuck Troy Denning.

It truly isn't much of an endorsement that the Mass Effect novel is better than his crap. It's somewhat decent otherwise.

hi-five!

Troy Denning shat all over the D&D setting he helped create.

I think, retroactively, he should un-help create it. And the Dragon of Tyr should rape him in the face. My nerd-rage is infinite concerning this. At least he gave me a good start to every DS campaign ever; the PCs killing Rikus, easily, in the arena on the day of Kalak's attempted assassination.

That's getting off-topic, though.

The fact that he's a rather poor writer doesn't make the pain any less, either.

Morskittar

Much poorer than the writer of the Mass Effect novel.

Hah! Relevance!

Dalboz

It's okay novel. Don't expect to be blown away by any means, and definitely won't win a Pulitzer or anything, but it's a bit of fun. Really it's a pulp scifi novel that gives you some backstory to the characters and the setting, but obviously you don't need to read it since the game developers obviously didn't want create any prerequisites for enjoying the game.

apotheos

Morskittar wrote: »

He's the man that wrote the Prism Pentad and the Avatar trilogy.

He wrote Waterdeep. Tantas and Shadowdale were written by someone else.

Also The Crucible: The trial of cyric the mad, but I automatically hate WotC cash-in novels.

Also, the Avatar Trilogy was one of the best damn things to happen to the Forgotten Realms. Lets not forget how sweeping it was - it was the basis of the entire Baldur's Gate series, for example.

Dr_Keenbean

Enjoyable (doubly so if you're into the game) and a fairly swift read. Well worth dropping $8 on.

Won't be winning awards though.

Noray

I'm going to buck the trend here and recommend you avoid the novel. I thought it was dreadful. And after reading it, the terrible writing jumped out at me in the game a lot more as well. The dialog is just completely horrible, cliché, gung-ho shit. It reads like a 1st year Lit student's first attempt at a novel and failing. People just don't talk like they do in that book. The characters are super flat. It is mega predictable. It doesn't really tie in to the game all that well. The only interesting thing in it is how Saren got Sovereign. The rest of the story is only relevant because of Anderson's blurb about how he was almost a Spectre.

Really, reading it actually brought my appreciation of the game down a few notches (I read it after finishing it once).

And to make it clear: I am not a literature snob. I hardly read books. The last books I read were Warcraft books in the summer vacation, for god's sake, and those were a damn sight better than the Mass Effect book.

Cherrn

Morskittar wrote: »

Bloods End wrote: »

Morskittar wrote: »

I read it before the game was released. It was cool enough and made me feel special when I knew what Anderson was bitching about in the game.

I've read better commercial tie-in fiction, but it wasn't atrocious like anything by Troy Denning or a host of D&D and Star Wars EU authors.

Fucking Troy Denning.

Troy Denning wrote Star By Star you mother fucker.

He's the man that wrote the Prism Pentad and the Avatar trilogy.

Both series that fucked their respective settings beyond all recognition. I like to think that Dark Sun would still be published in some format if he hadn't done away with the key villain in magic goo and made it all about hyper-intelligent halflings.

Seriously.

Fuck Troy Denning.

It truly isn't much of an endorsement that the Mass Effect novel is better than his crap. It's somewhat decent otherwise.

Hey, I like the Prism Pentad. Really, I find it hard to dislike anything with the Dark Sun name on it, even surfing elves. The halflings were dumb, I agree, but it had Hamanu going lionshit on everything. That's great!