Retribution (Mass Effect, #3)

by Drew Karpyshyn

Humanity has reached the stars, joining the vast galactic community of alien species. But beyond the fringes of explored space lurk the Reapers, a race of sentient starships bent on “harvesting” the galaxy’s organic species for their own dark purpose.

The Illusive Man, leader of the pro-human black ops group Cerberus, is one of the few who know the truth about the Reapers. To ensure humanity’s survival, he launches a desperate plan to uncover the enemy’s strengths—and weaknesses—by studying someone implanted with modified Reaper technology. He knows the perfect subject for his horrific experiments: former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, who wrested his daughter from the cabal’s control with the help of Ascension project director Kahlee Sanders.

But when Kahlee learns that Grayson is missing, she turns to the only person she can trust: Alliance war hero Captain David Anderson. Together they set out to find the secret Cerberus facility where Grayson is being held. But they aren’t the only ones after him. And time is running out.

As the experiments continue, the sinister Reaper technology twists Grayson’s mind. The insidious whispers grow ever stronger in his head, threatening to take over his very identity and unleash the Reapers on an unsuspecting galaxy.
 
This novel is based on a Mature-rated video game.

• ISBN10: 0345520726
• ISBN13: 9780345520722
• Publish Date: 27 July 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Random House Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780345520722

Reviews

[pamela]

Mass Effect: Retribution was well-written, plotted, and paced, but suffered from side-quest-itis pretty badly. The problem with writing tie-in novels for an RPG in which your choices affect the game's outcome is that it's almost impossible to write a canon novel with the characters that we love without delegitimising some players' choices.

Retribution suffers from trying to tell a story that has already been tackled in part with other characters in the games. Most of the novel's events are mentioned in-game, and I didn't feel that the book itself did enough to flesh out those snippets of info in any truly meaningful way. It felt like a checklist of events and character cameos rather than a novel that could stand on its own.

Again, if you're a Mass Effect fan, Retribution does its job by adding flavour to the in-game universe. But it's not a great novel in its own right.