Mass Effect Revelation (Guest Review)

By Brotherhood619

Yes, this is the self-proclaimed book hater writing a review for, shock horror, a book, but don't despair children, the world is not coming to an end. Well, not yet anyway.

Just as a warning, in this review I will be assuming you have played through the Game Mass Effect, or that you just don’t care about the spoilers.

Revelation is a prequel to the stunning Video Game, and soon to be Blockbuster Movie, Mass Effect. It follows David Anderson (the Original Captain of the Normandy) during his time as a Lieutenant for the Alliance, trying to find and bring to justice the Mercenary's that destroyed a research station, with only one lead, Kahlee Sanders. He is not the only person investigating the attack, however, A spectre named Saren (boo hiss) has been appointed by the Council to bring the perpetrator to justice, by any means necessary.

The book was... quirky, it had the mix of investigation, sci-fi shoot outs and brutality that I was expecting, but when it switches you between Sanders, Anderson and Saren almost every chapter, you tended to get a little confused. Why is Saren cowering in a crumpled heap? Oh wait, that’s Sanders. Still it got a lot easier to manage during the later parts of the book when the characters have finally come together.

David Anderson was almost exactly what I expected him to be from the games, but I guess this is easy when Drew Karpyshyn writes both the books and is the lead writer for the game. There was less description of him than maybe some new people to the series would like, but his "features" are supposed to be "seen" in the game. Kahlee is where Karpyshyn shows his style, to me she was a blonde bombshell that should not be in the military, but then shows her strength later on (and even more in Mass Effect Ascension). I honestly like the character; she gives a healthy breath of fresh air to the story compared to the rough and tough of Anderson and Saren.

Some of the locations they visit, I wish were described a bit better, and yet there were some that were described almost perfectly, I’m not sure if this was intentional but one location, Saren in the Brothel, was described really well, but then the worker camp near the end wasn’t covered much until... well a certain spoiler event happens. In the end you make the story yourself just by imagining the scenery, rather than have it described to you.

I liked the book, not as much as Mass Effect Ascension, the sequel, but it was a good read and it did leave me wanting more.

I'll give it a 6/10.

If by some chance you disagree with me, and Yes you have to read the book before you are allowed to disagree with me, Leave a comment below.

P.S. After putting this through a spell checker, I realised something… I can’t spell for toffee.