Book Review: Mass Effect: Retribution SPOILERS

In 2010, Drew Karpyshyn penned a third Mass Effect novel. This time, Pual's been kidnapped and only Kahlee and Anderson can save him. Synopsis: Humanity has reached the stars, joining the vast galactic community of alien species. But beyond the fringes of explored space lurk the Reapers, a race of sentient starships bent on “harvesting” the galaxy’s organic species for their own dark purpose. The Illusive Man, leader of the pro-human black ops group Cerberus, is one of the few who know the truth about the Reapers. To ensure humanity’s survival, he launches a desperate plan to uncover the enemy’s strengths—and weaknesses—by studying someone implanted with modified Reaper technology. He knows the perfect subject for his horrific experiments: former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, who wrested his daughter from the cabal’s control with the help of Ascension project director Kahlee Sanders. But when Kahlee learns that Grayson is missing, she turns to the only person she can trust: Alliance war hero Captain David Anderson. Together they set out to find the secret Cerberus facility where Grayson is being held. But they aren’t the only ones after him. And time is running out. As the experiments continue, the sinister Reaper technology twists Grayson’s mind. The insidious whispers grow ever stronger in his head, threatening to take over his very identity and unleash the Reapers on an unsuspecting galaxy.

The novel opens with the Illusive Man thinking about what Shepard did on the Collector Base (the ending to Mass Effect 2). He receives a transmission from Kai Leng, Cerberus' top "wet-work" agent, who says he's located Paul Grayson on the lawless Omega space station in the Terminus Systems. The Illusive Man's pleased by the news and tells Leng to capture Grayson alive, for he needs human subjects for his investigation into Reaper technology recovered from the Collector Base. Grayson, currently working for Aria T'Loak, finishes an assignment with fellow batarian gang member Sanak, and an asari named Liselle, whom Grayson's sleeping with, to transport red sand from a Talon warehouse on Omega. They stash the red sand at Grayson's apartment, since they don't want to bring it into the Afterlife Club. Grayson stays behind and opens up a comm channel with Kahlee Sanders, currently at the Jon Grissom Academy; he asks her how everything is going with his daughter. Kai Leng watches him leave Afterlife, stalks him to his apartment, and then attempts to capture him. Liselle's there, and Kai Leng kills her, then kidnaps Grayson and steals the red sand. During the confrontation, Grayson managed to send his dirt on Cerberus to Kahlee via the extranet; Kai Leng is unable to stop the transmission. They leave little evidence that Cerberus was there.

Kahlee receives the transmission and, unsure as to what she should do, asks David Anderson for help. They decide they can't go to the Alliance for help due to undercover Cerberus agents being among the Alliance's ranks. The only viable option is to ask the turians for help, since Anderson's gotten to know the turian Ambassador Orinia through his recent political negotiations. Grayson awakes, and finds the Illusive Man near; the Illusive Man explains that he's about to pump Grayson full of Reaper technology. He also lets Grayson know that he (Grayson) won't be a human any longer. Overtime, Grayson becomes indoctrinated via the Reaper tech, but the Illusive Man wants faster progress and injects red sand into Grayson. Grayson goes haywire and freaks out. The Illusive Man orders that Grayson be put down in three days, but a squad of turians--tasked with destroying all of Cerberus' bases--arrive and wreck havoc. The Illusive Man and Kai Leng escape, unable to kill Grayson; the Illusive Man's not happy about letting Grayson live. Grayson, under control of the Reapers, gets the turians to set him free. The Reapers kill them, and order Grayson to sleep to heal his wounds. They change his flight course to allow for the healing. When the turians and their shuttle don't report back, Kahlee and Anderson grow worried for themselves and for Grayson.

They head to the station and find out about his indoctrination, but are captured by Aria's forces, but they bring Kahlee to Aria instead. The Reapers want her information and change course yet again, this time with Grayson's help. He runs into assassins and escapes to Grissom Academy; Kahlee and David chase him down with the help of Kai Leng. Once on Grissom Academy, Grayson hacks their terminals and sends the Reapers all the information about the space station. Kai Leng, Kahlee, and Anderson dock and they split up--Kai Leng finds Nick and they search for Grayson. Grayson manages to fight them, severely wounding Nick in the process, before Anderson and Kai Leng shoot him. Kai Leng refuses to be taken prisoner and also refuses to help save Nick. A fight breaks out and Anderson blows Kai Leng's kneecaps apart, then help Kahlee save Nick. Kai Leng, angered and wounded, still manages to escape and flees back to the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man grudgingly accepts the resolution to the catastrophe. Eventually, everyone in Grissom Academy recovers, including Nick and Anderson. Anderson intends to study Grayson's remains and asks Kahlee to join his research team; the two finally kiss. The Illusive Man finds a way to profit from this without abandoning his own research efforts. He pays Aria for databanks she recovered from his overrun station, allowing her to keep a copy of the data.

All in all, a rushed book that details too heavily into the lore of the Mass Effect universe. It adds many pages of exposition on how Grayson was altered for the Reaper tech, but, like always, Karpyshyn merely tells this and doesn't bother showing any of it. Again, Karpyshyn takes what would be a great idea and kills it.

Up next, a return to the Star Wars Expanded Universe since I forgot about the novelization to the 1997 game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.

Book Review: Mass Effect: Revelation SPOILERS!

In 2007, wannabe author Drew Karpyshyn published a story hinted at in the first Mass Effect game: the tale of the rivalry between Saren and Anderson, but like Karpyshyn's other books, he completely drops the ball, ham-fists the characters and situations so that everyone and their dog come across as jackasses and assholes. He dumbs it down, coming across as, "that's how you heard it, this is how boring an predictable it really was." Synopsis: Every advanced society in the galaxy relies on the technology of the Protheans, an ancient species that vanished fifty thousand years ago. After discovering a cache of Prothean technology on Mars in 2148, humanity is spreading to the stars; the newest interstellar species, struggling to carve out its place in the greater galactic community. On the edge of colonized space, ship commander and Alliance war hero David Anderson investigates the remains of a top secret military research station; smoking ruins littered with bodies and unanswered questions. Who attacked this post and for what purpose? And where is Kahlee Sanders, the young scientist who mysteriously vanished from the base–hours before her colleagues were slaughtered? Sanders is now the prime suspect, but finding her creates more problems for Anderson than it solves. Partnered with a rogue alien agent he can't trust and pursued by an assassin he can't escape, Anderson battles impossible odds on uncharted worlds to uncover a sinister conspiracy . . . one he won't live to tell about. Or so the enemy thinks.

The novel opens with Admiral Jon Grissom and then-N7 Lieutenant David Anderson preparing to head off into the first naval conflict of the First Contact War/the Relay 314 Incident with the Turian Hierarchy. Eight years later, humanity was recognized by the Citadel Council and granted an embassy. During a patrol of the Skyllian Verge, Anderson happens upon an SOS coming from the destroyed human research station on Sidon. Once there, he finds and fights mercenaries and a couple of dead scientists. Meanwhile, on Elysium, scientist Kahlee Sandershas gone AWOL with several classified files, intending to report her superiors for conducting illegal research. Kahlee is attacked by a merc posing as an Alliance MP, but she fights him off and realizes that her escape from Sidon hasn't gone unnoticed; she flees to find help. On Camala, a rich batarian named Edan Had'dah meets with the Blue Suns and hires them to attack the human research facility on Sidon. But he learns too late that Sanders has fled and fears that the information she has would point to his involvement. He sends the mercs to deal with her, but he received news of their failure and hires krogan bounty hunter Skarr to assassinate her. Anderson arrives at the Citadel to meet with Ambassador Anita Goyle, who informs Anderson that the Sidon facility was researching AI, which is illegal. She sends Anderson to locate Sanders, who may know who was behind the attack and the whereabouts of Dr. Shu Qian, the brilliant scientist in charge of the Sidon facility.

Meanwhile, the turian Spectre Saren Arterius has tracked an illegal weapons exchange to a warehouse on Juxhi. As a Spectre, Saren is above the law and, unfortunately, bears a grudge towards humanity after losing his brother in the First Contact War. After killing most of both sides, Saren interrogates a survivor, and learns that the weapons were meant for the Blue Suns, who were planning a major operation, but pulled out at the last minute to avoid Spectre attention. Saren's interest is piqued. After hunting a Blue Sun mercenary named Groto Ib-ba, Saren learns about Skarr and his new target. Anderson tracks Sanders to her father's home--that of Jon Grissom--but Skarr turns up, so Anderson fights him, but Saren turns up and drives Skarr off. Saren interrogates Sanders, but she lies and says she was studying human biotics. Saren departs, but Sanders warns Anderson that the equipment for her project came from Dah'tan Manufacturing on Camal. The pair leave for Camala; Skarr reports to Edan, who sends the Blue Suns to help the krogan destroy the facility. They're mostly successful, but Saren interrogates the surviving member, Had'dah's contact, Jella. Meanwhile, the Council finds out about the AI research, and admonishes Goyle, but Goyle works out an arrangement with the Council. Sanders tells Anderson that Dr. Qian was responsible for the destruction of the facilty and that it was to cover his tracks because he was studying an alien artifact that might even pre-date the Protheans, and that after he started studying, he became obsessed with it.

Sanders believes Qian's working with Had'dah, so the Council send Saren after him--Goyle asks that Anderson be taken along, as a Spectre candidate. They plan to smuggle Sanders off Camala, but Saren alerts Had'dah to this. Had'dah sets up an ambush using Skarr and the Blue Suns; Sanders gets captured and Anderson is furious with Saren--who has become fixated on Qian's research more than his mission. Saren gives Anderson some time to save Sanders, but blows up the facility just as Anderson is about to rescue her. Saren kills Had'dah and Qian, then takes the research for himself. Anderson and Sanders return to the Citadel to find out that Saren gave a damning report on his conduct during the mission, and because of this, the Council isn't willing to induct a human Spectre yet, nor do they want to chase after Qian's "artifact" without evidence. Despite attraction between Anderson and Sanders, they part ways: Anderson to follow his military career; Kahlee's been promoted and reassigned a new classified posting. Saren, meanwhile, studied the stolen research and is fascinated by Sovereign, an enormous starship of devastating power. He believes his whole life, even his career as a Spectre, has just been a prelude to this discovery. Saren plans to use the data to find this warship, and use it to exact his revenge upon humanity.

All in all, a short, rushed novel that barely has anything major happen. It's all ham-strung with the game characters acting like they were always that way: Saren has always been an utter bastard who hates everyone; Anderson is too pious. I wouldn't recommend this to any fan of the Mass Effect series.

Up next: Mass Effect: Ascension by Drew Karpyshyn.