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laviejadelsaco's review against another edition
5.0
Contained emotion: this book was amazing. With cautious excitement: I’m looking forward to hearing news of ME:A2
tikimoof's review against another edition
4.0
I don't think I've read a tie-in novel since those Halo: Reach books back in early high school.
I never finished Andromeda due to boredom and bugs, so the fact that this was set pre-Andromeda worked pretty well for me. I really only needed the beginning premise of the game to explain the setting of the book. But this also meant the book was untethered from the story problems of Andromeda, which was all for the best. And you could see something of a player character in Anax, one who presented different parts of herself to different people. And I loved Yorrik.
I thought this being a closed-room mystery setting was a really cool take. It worked great for the setting (all of the forgotten alien species crammed together, all with at least slightly different agendas). I feel Valente is a very visceral and kind of gory author, so some of the deaths were too much for me (those were parts that I couldn’t see happening in a DLC the way Bioware presents things).
So I think my first nitpick has to do with the nature of the beast: the beginning is really plodding as Valente establishes the universe for those who haven't played the games. For those who have sunk hundreds of hours in to the series (drell assassin in ME3 multiplayer was stupidly fun to play, what can I say), that part can get pretty boring. The later middle of the book seemed slow to me too, after the mystery had been established and we started to look for solutions. I don’t buy all of the explanation of the mystery at the end, but I’ll try to remember what little I knew about epidemiology and see if it settles.
And then my least favorite part had to do with Senna and Liat. It might have been getting a dumbed-down description of genetic algorithms, the whole thing may have suddenly turned into more of a tell-not-show, or it may have just been that I never particularly cared for quarians - especially after the resolution of Mass Effect 3. But I was never interested in wondering about Liat. Mostly I was just bored there.
I also adored the Pirates of Penzance reference, it was a great call back to the trilogy.
Overall, I'm still glad I gave Valente another try, I liked this much better than Six-Gun Snow White on the whole.
If you’re only interested in the council races from the Mass Effect series, don’t expect to see any of those. I don’t know that this would be very interesting to somebody not already invested in Mass Effect at all (Valente does make sure to give broad strokes of motivations, but I don’t know how much else of the universe is required to really care), but it’s well-written at the least. I’ve definitely read worse.
3.5 ish, I really hated the plodding.
I never finished Andromeda due to boredom and bugs, so the fact that this was set pre-Andromeda worked pretty well for me. I really only needed the beginning premise of the game to explain the setting of the book. But this also meant the book was untethered from the story problems of Andromeda, which was all for the best. And you could see something of a player character in Anax, one who presented different parts of herself to different people. And I loved Yorrik.
I thought this being a closed-room mystery setting was a really cool take. It worked great for the setting (all of the forgotten alien species crammed together, all with at least slightly different agendas). I feel Valente is a very visceral and kind of gory author, so some of the deaths were too much for me (those were parts that I couldn’t see happening in a DLC the way Bioware presents things).
So I think my first nitpick has to do with the nature of the beast: the beginning is really plodding as Valente establishes the universe for those who haven't played the games. For those who have sunk hundreds of hours in to the series (drell assassin in ME3 multiplayer was stupidly fun to play, what can I say), that part can get pretty boring. The later middle of the book seemed slow to me too, after the mystery had been established and we started to look for solutions. I don’t buy all of the explanation of the mystery at the end, but I’ll try to remember what little I knew about epidemiology and see if it settles.
And then my least favorite part had to do with Senna and Liat. It might have been getting a dumbed-down description of genetic algorithms, the whole thing may have suddenly turned into more of a tell-not-show, or it may have just been that I never particularly cared for quarians - especially after the resolution of Mass Effect 3. But I was never interested in wondering about Liat. Mostly I was just bored there.
I also adored the Pirates of Penzance reference, it was a great call back to the trilogy.
Overall, I'm still glad I gave Valente another try, I liked this much better than Six-Gun Snow White on the whole.
If you’re only interested in the council races from the Mass Effect series, don’t expect to see any of those. I don’t know that this would be very interesting to somebody not already invested in Mass Effect at all (Valente does make sure to give broad strokes of motivations, but I don’t know how much else of the universe is required to really care), but it’s well-written at the least. I’ve definitely read worse.
3.5 ish, I really hated the plodding.
theaudioauditor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
notwaverly's review
3.0
I really enjoyed this one! A murder mystery IN SPACE!!! I’ve played the smallest amount of Mass Effect, but not enough to remember any of the alien names or really anything other than the MOST basic of plots. I was expecting those plots to play a role but they rly didn’t. Instead, the game was more background worldbuilding, and playing it is totally unnecessary to understand the book. This is more like a locked room murder mystery (except the room is a kilometer long spaceship and the murder is a mysterious disease killing ppl who should be locked in Cryosleep).
I read this mostly bc I wanted some more talking spaceship
I read this mostly bc I wanted some more talking spaceship
sarahbotreads's review
4.0
I’ve never played (or even watched someone else play, as I’ve done with many other games) any of the Mass Effect games, but I love all of Cat Valente’s books. The good news is that having zero knowledge of the games didn’t inhibit my enjoyment of the story or the characters at all - it 100% stands on its own as a compelling mystery with characters I truly cared about.
mkpatter's review
4.0
This is a good novelization but unfortunately maybe a little bit too upsetting to read during an actual real life pandemic.
prideguy's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
benhd's review
3.0
Critical appreciation: this book was fun. Not brilliant by any means but the setup of a space whodunit set on a cryo ship hurtling through hyperspace is pretty enjoyable even if it doesn’t really stick the landing of the mystery aspect. Conclusively: read this if you just want more stories about the cool lesser aliens from mass effect. Distracted musing: maybe i should finally get around to actually playing Andromeda...