The much anticipated Mass Effect 2 is being released this week and I’ve seen and heard a lot of buzz for the game across the Facebook/Twitter feeds and coworkers/friends. I am at an odd crossroads from where I stand with Mass Effect. In the original game from 2007, I made it about ten hours before I was drowning in an overflowing pool of primary quests, side quests, planet exploring and my horrible obsession to talk with everybody I run into.
I still fondly recall my time with Shepherd and Co. and want to beat it before eventually starting the sequel. However, an attempt to put some progress in finishing one quest several months ago resulted in me picking up several more side quests along the way and just throwing my hands up in the air two hours into that save without finishing a quest.
I did discover two items in the past several months to keep me immersed in the Mass Effect lore, and those are the two novels by Drew Karpyshyn: Revelation and Ascension. Usually I am not one for science fiction (I am just now remembering getting bored and giving up on a Star Trek book report several pages in during the 7th grade), and was surprised I actually got into the game itself. Just as Bioware’s game reeled me in, as does the novels.Mass Effect
Revelation starts off detailing the origins of humanity’s discovery of Prothean technology that led to the First Contact War against species of the Citadel. Within pages I was instantly hooked because I could not remember for the life of me how much I learned of humanity’s Citadel origins in the game. Revelation does a fantastic job at filling me in about humanity’s place in the Citadel, and almost every other race I recall from the game such as the Protheans, Geth, Turians, Collectors, Krogans and many more.
Revelation primarily revolves around Commander David Anderson, a respected leader of humanity, attempting to track down and rescue Kahlee Sanders, a scientist gone AWOL and suspected for treason as her classified base on Sidon is assaulted and with all her comrades killed in the ensuing carnage. Anderson forms an uneasy alliance with the renowned Spectre, Saren in a attempt to rescue her and track down a mysterious Prothean Artifact another scientist at Sidon was obsessively researching on. Revelation unfolds almost like a stereotypical action movie, but there is something about Karpyshyn’s storytelling and taking in the roots of the Mass Effect lore in the process that makes this first book an addicting page-turner from beginning to end.
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