Mass Effect: Ascension

While there is a lot of exposition early on, it's mostly relevant to the plot and leaves little feeling unimportant. The book interested me and serves as both a worthy continuation to the ME:Revelation novel and a standalone story. I was very interested in the lore and how the subplots both introduced many concepts of said lore, which felt removed from the first 2 games, and how they deeply affected each other. It's difficult to describe how much I enjoyed this book, and I would definitely recommend this to the YA to mature sci-fi fans. It's not too long, but tells the first part of a greater story involving primary character Khalee. The author has a stunning track record for storytelling by the way. In games and in books.

The book starts slow, and only picks up around half way... but it's an amazing glimpse into a culture that was really left out of the games. You get a much deeper understanding of the Quarians here and frankly I wish that more of the fleet had been in the games. This book will also make you hate Cerberus more than the games did, but it does that by adding an amount of depth to them.

The book spends a bit too much time on exposition before the plot begins moving, but once it does, it doesn't disappoint. Overall I think it is a worthy prelude to Mass Effect 2, and the exploration of quarian life and culture was particularly interesting.