Mass Effect: Revelation

Drew Karpyshyn

May 2007 · Mass Effect Book 1 · Sold by Random House Worlds

About this ebook

The thrilling prequel to the award-winning video game from BioWare

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.

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect: Ascension.

Ratings and reviews

Revelation provides a good starting point for a Mass Effect fan and is a good book on its own. It was great seeing Captain Anderson in his earlier years and the book also provided a great amount of lore not revealed in the games. Although, the real highlight of this book is Saren Arterius, a brutal Anti-Hero who bears his "Spectre" status as his weapon. Seeing him relentlessly track down his enemies is always satisfying. This novel is worth a read for any Mass Effect fan or just anyone who enjoys the fantasy of Science Fiction. Once again, Drew Karpyshyn does not disapoint.

I grew up playing Mass Effect and likely would've liked this book much more in high school. As a reader in his 30s, I felt the writing was very bland; conversations seemed contrived and uninteresting, the story generally unexciting. I felt the reading of the audiobook especially painful, although I listened to the whole thing over the course of a few days. When the male reader would do the female parts, I think I rolled my eyes every time due to the totally ridiculous voice. All in all, I would go back in time and tell myself to skip this.

I found myself reading through this very quickly. The political parts are really well done, but there is a fair amount of action as well. It's great to have some more back story for Anderson and his run in with Saren that had a vague description in the first and we get to see how he met Kahlee Sanders from the third game. If you like the games you'll love this, even though you'll wish for more of the characters from the game to be there.

About the author

Drew Karpyshyn is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, and several other fantasy and science fiction novels. He is also an award-winning writer/designer for the computer game company BioWare, where he was lead writer on Mass Effect and the popular Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game. He lives in Canada’s hinterlands with his loving wife, Jen, and their cat.