Oct 30 2009
Book Review: Mass Effect Ascension
When you step away from fiction for half a decade like I did and then immerse yourself back into it you realize how atrophied your brain comes to simple imagination. Whether we like it or not, the world has become obsessed with the visual medium. Why imagine something when someone can just show it to you. But even in the non-fiction reading world, where I have lived for most of the last five years, imagination is at a minimum and a premium: if you’re reading about history, you have some interest in it already and some rudimentary knowledge of its existence already.
Though I have a degree in English Literature I was shocked how my brain literally retarded itself from thinking for itself. But like some sort of odd self preservation I knew I had to get back into fiction again because, well, I was becoming a history-spouting machine with no creativity: I am Borg: would you like to know about the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. DROOOOOOOOONE. As I mentioned in a previous review, I decided to slowly massage the imagination muscles by reading media-tie in novels. . .most notably Mass Effect Revelation.
So impressed was I with that book that I decided I’d go to that book’s sequel of sorts, Mass Effect Ascension, written by the same author: Drew Karpyshyn. Mass Effect Revelation was the perfect book to start fiction again with: characters I knew, settings I had literally been to and exposition I already was aware of (kind of like a fake-history book). Mass Effect Ascension is the third book on my Fiction-Recovery-Tour (after Hyperion) and, thankfully, it moves beyond the familiar and demands more imagination.
Mass Effect Ascension is a sequel to both the video game and the first book. The first book took place almost two decades before the first video game (Mass Effect) and explained some back story of the games characters. Ascension takes place after the video game with a character from the first book but creates its own storyline that has no effect on the video game or the first book. It is, as the creators of Soldier would call it, a sidequel, of sorts. And this is very unique. . .and enjoyable. For one, I had a deep history to look back on: events from a book that were mentioned in passing in the game, and background elements from the game. Ascension was both layered with history but also striking out on its own.
Kahlee Sanders, the scientist we met in Revelation, is one of the head teachers at the Ascension Project, a school for biotic humans (humans who can manipulate mass effect fields in everyday life). Her star pupil is Gillian Grayson, a troubled girl who is, for lack of a better phrase, the ‘chosen one’ of biotic humans. She’s more powerful then the other children but her power also limits her socially: she’s monotone, near-allergic to touch and stares at walls all day. Along with burly security chief Hendel, Kahlee makes sure to keep a special eye on Gillian at all times.
Little does Kahlee know but Gillian’s dad (Paul Grayson), though loving towards his daughter, is working for the dangerous group Cerberus led by their leader The Illusive Man. Gillian’s existence in the Ascension Project is all Cerberus’ doing and Grayson, a former assassin, is pulling double duty when he visits his girl: saying hello and giving her drugs through agents within the program. Cerberus thinks biotic humans can help humans move past dastardly aliens and Gillian, it seems, is the key. Naturally, Kahlee and Hendel catch on and the race to keep Gillian safe and Cerberus away is on.
In many ways, Ascension is more successful then Revelation story-wise. While Revelation had a lot of room to breath, it still had plot points it had to hit due to those plot points being brought up in the video game (thus making them canon). Ascension takes only vague ideas from the video game (Cerberus, the Quarian Migrant Fleet) and uses them in the plot. Since the video game hasn’t fully canonized some of these elements either visually or plot-wise (at least completely) the book has freedom to stretch and the reader has freedom to imagine. That said, part of media tie-in novels’ enjoyment level is the familiar. Sometimes you want to carry on the adventures of those you literally played with.
Ascension therefore is less fun then Revelation. But that doesn’t take away its high ‘production’ value. Karpyshyn has the greatest knack for explaining characters, setting and, most especially, action sequences, in the simplest of ways. Exposition is not really needed: the characters naturally think and move like humans (or, well, aliens, I guess). Plot points or back story is brought up naturally and not forced. Kahlee Sanders, for example, can explain her history with video-game character Captain Anderson without feeling like Zack Morris saying ‘freeze’. This, trust me, is a gift. Ascension, in such a short time, tells so much story by not wasting time explaining things.
My initial trouble was with the beginning of the book. The video game has two major endings possible and within those endings four or five possible outcomes (if that makes sense). When the book referenced events from the end of the game, I was nervous. Thanks to certain characters I created and certain outcomes I had the Mass Effect universe all figured out. Thankfully though, Karpyshyn left things vague so that any of the endings you chose fit: that is so frickin’ cool! At some points in the book a characters dialogue can mean something so different based on the ending you chose in the game without upending the plot of the book.
Of course Karpyshyn gets caught in his own plot and somewhere in the middle the book drags heavily. Revelation ends up being the better book because it never lagged and was always exciting. Some parts of Ascension were a chore but that might be because, generally, I am not a fan of some of the aspects Karpyshyn brings up. In the game, the character I avoided the most was the Quarian Tali. She was, at first anyways, the only character I found annoying. Ascension, if you hate Quarians, is not the book for you (there is a Quarian on the cover so be warned) because a lot of it has to do with Quarians.
That said, once Karpyshyn shakes off some shaky middle parts and gets to actual Quarian environments (as opposed to just back story) I was sucked back in and appreciated those dudes a lot more. In fact, the perception you have of Quarians from the game (annoying, vagabond, gypsy types) is what some of the characters in the book carry as well and, like the characters in the book, you end up changing and opening your mind. I can’t explain how really interesting this is. Once again, Karpyshyn manages to get you involved in the book with ideas you literally experienced yourself in the video game (in Revelation it was visiting worlds and places you had literally ‘been to’).
If you are choosing between the two then I’d say go with Revelation but Ascension is not a bad book at all to read. In fact, I’ve been aching for a little more Mass Effect fiction but alas only two (and a forthcoming comic) exist. Oh well. . .Mass Effect 2 comes out in January and when you find me dead in my living room from 110 straight hours of play and no eating, you’ll know why!
