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 was worried about this novel. I really was. Despite the fact that I love the Mass Effect games and despite the fact that I love Cat Valente's writing, I still felt anxious, wondering if this could never as good as another novel that is wholly original.

You know, the same complaint some of us always have against franchise SF. Name any of them. Star Wars, Star Trek. Some really are good, of course, but expectations rarely live up to execution.

So why do I love this one, then? Is it because of the author or the series or both together?

Actually... neither. Oddly enough. Oh, I love Valente's quirky characters and dialogue. The Elkor doctor constantly quoting Shakespeare? Hell yeah! The Volus interactions were great, too. So snappily thuggish for little tree hugging bears. :) And I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Quarians so that always gets a pass for me.

As a regular SF, this is a locked-room mystery/medical drama on a generation spaceship (genre, not actual, although being en-route for 600 years makes it feel that way). What really got me going, however, was the intense focus on THE REST OF THE RACES in the ME universe. They have a big point, you know. Why do the Humans or the Solarians or the Asari, et al, get the whole manifest destiny thing going on while all the other aliens get left in the dust? Why throw the leftovers into their own Ark?

The whole ME series addresses this question poorly. And, indeed, so do the rest of us. What about all the leftovers? Aren't they worthy of their own stories?

The answer is definitely yes. :) And it doesn't hurt that the worldbuilding is divine, the aliens delightful, and the story solid. Thriller all the way, baby. :) ( )

Catherynne M Valentes Mass Effect: Annihilation kan möjligen vara det sista som kommer släppas från serien. Andromedas genomusla rykte ger inte stort hopp om att mer berättelser kommer förläggas där, och i vintergatan finns stora frågetecken om hur slutet på Mass Effect 3 skall hanteras. Så vad är då detta sista rop från en framtid som aldrig blir av?

De som spelat sig till slutet av Andromeda kommer kanske ihåg att man kunde lyssna till ett nödrop från ännu en ark, med quarier och andra folk från vintergatan, ett rop som varnade andra att hålla sig undan. Här får man reda på varför: ett virus har spritt sig bland de nedfrysta nybyggarna, och skeppet har endast indirekt kunnat upptäcka det och väcka en grupp för att ta reda på vad som hänt. Detta anses underligt på mer än ett sätt: virus borde inte kunna sprida sig under kryosömn, och det går inte att hitta något fel i skeppets programvara. Eftersom det är en ark, mest menad att transportera frystankar, finns heller inga större möjligheter att analysera viruset och ta fram en kur.

Tyvärr skulle man önskat sig en starkare avslutning: historien vill aldrig riktigt ta sig, och man fastnar aldrig riktigt för de som försöker hantera nödläget, delvis för att de är som ett dåligt skämt med lite väl mycket stereotypa reaktioner (och undantaget, en elcor som gillar Shakespeare, är snarast ett uttryck för ett annat stående skämt). Att förklaringen till vad som pågår är typisk fuskvetenskap bidrar inte heller: man lika gärna fuska fram egen biologi som alternativ till Newtonsk fysik och rymdmagi, skall man göra det bör man använda det för mer än att få historien att gå ihop på slutet.

Så, visst finns det vissa intressanta idéer, men i slutändan blir det inget bra av det hela, och eftersom hela syftet mest verkar vara att få något ut av en historia som togs fram för att vara en nedladdningsbar expansion till ett spel som snabbt övergavs så finns det egentligen inget annat att locka fram intresse heller. Tyvärr. ( )