BOOK REVIEW: Mass Effect: Revelation (Mass Effect #1) by Drew Karpyshyn

Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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.

This book is good, very good. I am not at all familiar with the Mass Effect games, but I'd seen a few of the comics around the place to be curious enough to check out the novels. I'm really impressed with this one, the first of four shortish novels in a segment of four. The plot is really cool with action aplenty and intrigue with various species competing for control in a vast galactic empire, of which humanity is the newest member. It's sort of like a sci-fi thriller/mystery with nice twists and turns, and some cool combat sequences. While it's true that much of the book could be called 'typical' action science fiction, that's good, very good, because Drew Karpyshyn executes these tropes perfectly. I love stories that have interstellar travel, exotic worlds with mysterious alien races and ancient artifacts, etc., all that good sci-fi stuff that this book (and hopefully the following books, too) has in abundance. I love it.

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