Mass Effect: Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mass Effect: Ascension
Book Review: Mass Effect? The Golden Child? Firestarter?
Summary: 2 Stars
I really enjoyed Mass Effect: Revelation. I could not put it down. In that book I loved learning about Anderson and Saren. The "incident" between them was alluded to in the game and was subsequently explained in this book. The introduction of a new character, Kahlee Sanders, heroine of the follow-up "Ascension," was also nice. But for the re-appearance of Kahlee, Ascension feels scantily like a Mass Effect book at all.
I purchased this book as soon as it was available. I noticed a difference right away. I could not get into it. I sold it back.
Recently, I went on a long trip and had an opportunity to pick up the audiobook version of Ascension. Why not give it another try? I'll be waiting in airports and train stations for hours at a time. I put it on my ipod and off I went.
Well, as an audience, captive by my surroundings, I got through it. It's not as bad as my memories of the text recalled. However, this story feels tangentially related to the Mass Effect universe. It feels like a forgotten sci-fi script that's been pulled out of the trash can and then packed with Mass Effect references for marketing purposes only.
Considering that this tale takes place after the epic conclusion of the game, the quieter pacing and tone of this novel makes it seem out of place. There is no story of Shepard or other characters from the game. There is very little discussion of the universe now existing after the epic confrontation between the universe and the Reapers. A few game plot points are referred to only to add set dressing to the exposition. Once the Mass Effect universe is established the story becomes a cliche. This is practically the same plot as Eddie Murphy's 90's flick "The Golden Child" or Drew Barrymore's "Firestarter." Mind you I say Drew Barrymore instead of Stephen King's "Firestarter" as Ascension, like the movie adaptation of King's novel, also is a skeleton of a deeper, richer text.
None of this is a spoiler, the description of a gifted child running from competing forces is plainly disclosed on the cover. I won't go much farther with specifics but to say the thin plot of a powerful child learning to control her powers is predictable and disappointing.
Get this if you must but, used if at all. This book and the latest DLC 'Pinnacle Station' has me worried. After the genius game, the majority of later Mass Effect branded releases have been true disappointments.
Book Review: Much Better!
Summary: 3 Stars
On the whole a much better novel than Revelation. One that got me *hating* Cerberus and left me distrustful of everything the Illusive Man said in Mass Effect 2. I quite enjoyed the detailing of the Quarian culture and the brief interlude on Omega.
I wish some of the characters from this novel could have turned up in the game! Particularly Kahlee Sanders.
Some more science (or pseudo-science) on the Mass Effect field, Biotics and such would not have gone astray.
Book Review: Not as good as "Revelation"
Summary: 3 Stars
Read it, liked it but I'm not thrilled with it. I began Mass Effect Revelation with a bit of reluctance. After 10 pages, I couldn't leave it.
Sadly, I cannot say the same about Ascension. It's not bad but not as catchy as her predecessor. Recommended for those who want to know a bit more from the ME Universe (and perhaps a connection to the game sequel)
Book Review: Not as good as the first book.
Summary: 4 Stars
The second Mass Effect book picks up directly after the first Mass Effect game ends, and continues to impress. But it doesn't quite meet up to the standards set by the first book. Possibly disappointment may have been caused by the lack of tie-in to the game, but with the second game not out yet chances are this book is setting up for the second game. It would make sense since it expands on a force of evil that was only a minor part of the Mass Effect game, Cerberus. Also, no characters from the game are featured in this story. The only familiar character is Kahlee Sanders from the first book. One more thing that bothered me is the geth on the cover. There is no geth in this book, but that's irrelevant.
On the positive side, there is a good amount of biotics in this book, something completely absent from the first book. As with the first book, dialogue was extremely good. The story was also good, but again wasn't quite as good. It took a bit longer than I would've personally liked to set up and ended a little bit too quickly. I would have to say that my favorite part of this book though is the internal struggle of one of the characters, Grayson. Throughout the book he struggles with trying to find the balance between sacrifices for "the greater good", loyalty, and family.
In the end I'd recommend it if you enjoyed the game and I'd say you have to read it if you enjoyed the first book. Even if you didn't read the first book though, you'll be able to follow this book perfectly. Without playing the game though there's a lot of things that wouldn't make much sense.
Overall I give it 4 out of 5
Book Review: Not as good as the first, but a decent follow-up
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading the first novel and playing the video game, I was pretty excited to see they were going to continue with the novels. I'm kind of hoping that Mass Effect will branch out to a much larger universe because there is simply so much potential! By that I mean, I hope Mass Effect will garner interest from other writers instead of just having Drew Karpyshyn writing everything. I'm certainly not saying that Drew is a poor author, but I wouldn't want his ideas to burn out and there is simply too much to write about for one man! Mass Effect is a huge universe to explore and I personally want to see as much of it as possible, after all, I love exploration.
Okay onto the review. "Ascension" picks up where the video game ends, but unlike the first novel, it doesn't use any characters from the game. They merely mention the events and how the current characters feel about such things, so if you're expecting the novel to tie directly into events from the video game like the first novel you'll be disappointed. Personally, I'm elated, I like seeing Mass Effect branch out to new territory in the universe. That way the game can focus on the game story lines and the novels can deal with those repercussions and write about something else.
"Ascension" sees the return of Kahlee Sanders whom we met in "Revelation". She's pretty much our main character in this novel. Since her last work in AI research she has decided to go into the field of studying biotics and their amp technology. Needless to say this novel centers around biotics, humans that have been exposed to something called Element Zero and can now display telekinetic powers. While "Ascension" doesn't go into exact detail of how their powers work we do get to see how they are trained to use their powers and such. Kahlee is one of the lead scientists at the Grissom Academy where the children biotics have been brought. There's a special student among them named Gillian who happens to be autistic and requires a lot of extra care, but there's something special about her biotic powers as well. Little did they know that the eyes of a secret organization called Cerberus have been studying them as well and things go wrong concerning Gillian's special case. Kahlee with a few others need to flee the installation with Gillian to try and get to a safe location!
I don't want to give too much away, but the involvement of Cerberus isn't kept a secret from the reader, in fact it's mentioned in the prologue, so I don't feel I am ruining the story for anyone. You get to visit a couple other interesting locations in this novel aside from the Academy. You get to visit a chaotic world with all kinds of variant aliens called Omega. The place is virtually lawless and there is constant fighting between species, as you can tell a lot of conflicts take place here. The other place we get to visit, that was definitely the highlight of the novel for me, is the Quarians' Migrant Fleet. As you can expect there is a healthy dose of Quarian characters, but that's what made it really fascinating for me. We get to learn a good amount about their culture and politics amidst all the intrigue and action. This is the first time we get to see real insight into their culture and I'm hoping that this is the first in a long string of novels that develop the various races. I would especially like to read a book dealing with Turian history and their home world!
Now I didn't rate this five stars like the first book so there must be a negative side to it. It was sort of a big one for me, but the Migrant Fleet kind of made up for it in the end. Basically I don't like the way this novel is organized. When the underground organization Cerberus enters the picture you know who all the double agents are right away. You don't find out as Kahlee finds out, you know well before hand. This is sort of frustrating because characters like Kahlee and Hendel act like they don't know anything about it and the reader knows why, but it's frustrating to go through the motions. It's just incredibly annoying when you have to read about a character suspecting something about the agent when you know for a fact their suspicions are true. You know for a fact they will eventually find out, you just intuitively know this because Kahlee is star and so far Drew hasn't really shown that he'll kill off a main character in a novel that quickly. Anyway, this makes for a sort of frustrating read in the beginning until the characters catch up with the readers knowledge, then it gets really good. I can see how this could be a huge turn off for some people, but the story was interesting enough for me to overlook these factors and keep reading. The worlds are just so fascinating that it does keep my interest. I loved reading about the academy and Omega enough to keep me engaged.
Other than that one negative side I thought this was a fun novel. I tore through this pretty quickly for me, and I'm usually kind of a slow reader. Once the action sequence kicks in, things go a lot faster and then you sort of forget about the negative flaw. If you liked the first book and the video game I would still recommend this. It's not as heavily dependent on the video game like the first novel, so you could easily read it stand alone right now. Even though Kahlee is a main character in "Revelation" the aspects of that story aren't as required, except for maybe knowing who her father is. Other than that it's a pretty descent science fiction read.