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dillonbrantley's review against another edition
3.0
It's fairly well written and does a better job of characterizing Kai Leng than the games ever did, but it left something to be desired in the plot department. Furthermore, I enjoy Mass Effect for the politics and pressures existing between alien species and humans. This book had very little of that, and what was there was simply one-dimensional. Certainly not a bad read for a Mass Effect fan, but a slight disappointment after the previous book.
amyeewing's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and was very glad that it involved Grayson as he was may favorite character from the previous novel. I already played Mass Effect 3 so I had some idea of what to expect from this novel and was not disappointed. It wasn't the most amazing writing ever, but it was very enjoyable and easy to follow. A big improvement over the last two novels was the combat/action writing. It was much more fluid and enjoyable rather than reading like a dictation of combat from the game. I would strongly recommend reading the second book before this one in order to really get to know and appreciate the characters, but you can read the first one later as it has little bearing on this novel.
wunderbland's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mattyftm's review against another edition
3.0
I went into this book with fairly low expectations following some unfavourable comments I'd heard about it. For the majority of the book, those low expectations were more-or-less met. There were a few interesting parts, but on the whole it was a thoroughly lackluster affair for most of the book. It did pick up in the final half-dozen chapters or so, and I did begin to feel for the characters & their plight, but overall I came away feeling underwhelmed by an average novel. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but following on from ascension it could have been so much better.
natopotato's review against another edition
4.0
Amé las partes de Grayson, odié las partes de Kai. Un libro que, como el resto de la colección, da más contenido al basto universo de Mass Effect.
hidekisohma's review against another edition
2.0
Being a big fan of the mass effect franchise, and having read the first two books in this series, i decided to give this one a try as i've had it in my collection on my "to read" for quite a while. Having enjoyed the previous one "Ascension" quite a bit, i wanted to give this one a try. and... well, this one sadly wasn't very good.
The biggest issue i had with this book is that it was quite dark. Like, it wasn't fun. The guy from the previous book has a TERRIBLE time throughout this book and i'd call it very undeserved. I'm not entirely certain where they were going with this? The only thing i can think of is maybe they were trying to get people who played the game to hate the group "Cerberus" even more? that's really the only thing i can think of.
If you play the game (which i assume most of the people who read this book series have) the only real characters that are from the game in this book are Kai Leng, the Illusive man, kahlee sanders, Aria, and anderson. that's really about it. Everyone else is just people for this book. and what's weird is, they're all (with the exception of anderson,) tertiary characters. like, who wants to read a book about Kai Leng or Kahlee Sanders? and the issue i have with this is that they're not very interesting.
Like, Kai Leng is considered to be, by most fans, the worst character in the entire mass effect series. and it's not hard to see why. he's an edgelord samurai assassin who shows up for one game and thinks he's cool and ruins a lot of plot points with his stupid plot armor. I don't know if this book was meant to give him more depth or something, but it really didn't do much of anything other than make me hate him even more. So...not sure where they were going with that one.
In the games, you could almost kind of see some of the things the Illusive man did, and argue validity of some of his actions, but in this book, it's just flat out "no, they're awful and terrible." which i....suppose was the case they were trying to portray?
Regardless of this however, i didn't really enjoy the story. it was dark and mean spirited. there were no fun parts of this and it was just downward spiral of bad stuff that happened.
The main dude Grayson gets screwed for no reason other than The Illusive Man is a petty jerk and Kai Leng just keeps being a loser.
The only real thing i liked about this was the writing style. Drew is very good with writing a very flowable story that doesn't require pages upon pages of description while allowing your mind's eye to know exactly what's going on. Having played the games of course helps.
This book weirdly felt short but long at the same time. It's hard to describe, but that pages went by fast, but the book itself seemed to not want to end. probably because i knew what was coming towards the end of the book and was dreading it.
If you don't like books where it's essentially "Bad stuff happens: the book" i don't recommend this one. you're not getting a happy ending in this one.
I give this book a 2.5/5 but i can't do halves.....so....um.... i'm gonna 2, just because i didn't like the way this book made me feel by the end. Even if that was the point of this book, i don't care, it was mean spirited for no reason.
2.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 2.
The biggest issue i had with this book is that it was quite dark. Like, it wasn't fun. The guy from the previous book has a TERRIBLE time throughout this book and i'd call it very undeserved. I'm not entirely certain where they were going with this? The only thing i can think of is maybe they were trying to get people who played the game to hate the group "Cerberus" even more? that's really the only thing i can think of.
If you play the game (which i assume most of the people who read this book series have) the only real characters that are from the game in this book are Kai Leng, the Illusive man, kahlee sanders, Aria, and anderson. that's really about it. Everyone else is just people for this book. and what's weird is, they're all (with the exception of anderson,) tertiary characters. like, who wants to read a book about Kai Leng or Kahlee Sanders? and the issue i have with this is that they're not very interesting.
Like, Kai Leng is considered to be, by most fans, the worst character in the entire mass effect series. and it's not hard to see why. he's an edgelord samurai assassin who shows up for one game and thinks he's cool and ruins a lot of plot points with his stupid plot armor. I don't know if this book was meant to give him more depth or something, but it really didn't do much of anything other than make me hate him even more. So...not sure where they were going with that one.
In the games, you could almost kind of see some of the things the Illusive man did, and argue validity of some of his actions, but in this book, it's just flat out "no, they're awful and terrible." which i....suppose was the case they were trying to portray?
Regardless of this however, i didn't really enjoy the story. it was dark and mean spirited. there were no fun parts of this and it was just downward spiral of bad stuff that happened.
The main dude Grayson gets screwed for no reason other than The Illusive Man is a petty jerk and Kai Leng just keeps being a loser.
The only real thing i liked about this was the writing style. Drew is very good with writing a very flowable story that doesn't require pages upon pages of description while allowing your mind's eye to know exactly what's going on. Having played the games of course helps.
This book weirdly felt short but long at the same time. It's hard to describe, but that pages went by fast, but the book itself seemed to not want to end. probably because i knew what was coming towards the end of the book and was dreading it.
If you don't like books where it's essentially "Bad stuff happens: the book" i don't recommend this one. you're not getting a happy ending in this one.
I give this book a 2.5/5 but i can't do halves.....so....um.... i'm gonna 2, just because i didn't like the way this book made me feel by the end. Even if that was the point of this book, i don't care, it was mean spirited for no reason.
2.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 2.
stormblessed4's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
lord_petros's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25