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Deception (Mass Effect #4)

2.53 of 5 stars 2.53 · rating details · 419 ratings · 57 reviews

An all-new adventure inspired by the award-winning videogame from BioWare!

The universe is under siege. Every fifty thousand years, a race of sentient machines invades our galaxy to harvest all organic life-forms. They are the Reapers.

Two people who know the truth are desperately searching for a way to stop the cycle: Navy admiral David Anderson and his partner, Kahlee Sa...more

ebook, 336 pages

Published January 31st 2012 by Random House Publishing Group

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Feb 06, 2012 The Holy Terror rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, aliens, color-blue, color-purple, terrible-writing

There are so many errors in this book that a fan-created Google document was started to list them.

Contains glaringly obvious errors concerning the lore, timeline, and characters including "a character 'growing up' from being autistic, turning Mass Effect's only gay male character straight, and being literally impossible to reconcile with the timeline made by the games, comics, and other books."

Sad that this was even published.

And you know you're in trouble when Penny Arcade cares:

BioWare's resp ...more

15 likes · like · see review

Feb 26, 2013 Christine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-not-worth-reading

I wish I could give this book (if you can call it that) no stars, because I'm furious I even wasted my time reading this deplorable thing- luckily, I am able to check books out from the store I work at, or I never would have willingly paid for it.

I'm assuming Dietz has never so much as glanced at any Mass Effect lore outside of the manuals that come with the game, considering how "liberal" he was with canon lore. (Artistic liberty is only something Hudson can claim, Dietz, and this was BEFORE M...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Callum Shephard rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel is bad, quite possibly one of the worst in terms of quality I’ve seen recently.

As bad as Revan was, at least in that you could see some quality in the writing when the author wasn’t openly flipping off at Bioware fans. But this? One member on the Cerberus Daily News forum described it best - “It’s like parody written by someone who doesn't know it's parody. Except worse.”

In all honesty, the plot does make the book sound promising. Gillian Grayson, the MEverse’s River Tam, has been in...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am a huge Mass Effect fan, and I am also a fan of William Dietz's "Legion of the Damned" series. "Deception" got a lot of bad reviews after it was released; fans were angry at inaccuracies in the Mass Effect lore and universe, inconsistencies involving the earlier books written by Drew Karpyshyn, and even plain, bad writing. I have confidence in Mr. Dietz, and I'm willing to excuse some inaccuracies in Mass Effect lore, so after finishing "Mass Effect: Retribution", I turned my attention to "D...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Wendy White rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First ME book not written by D.K. So, Dietz had that disadvantage going in. Sadly, this book really does not compare favourably with the first three.

Criticisms about this book's gaping plot holes and inconsistent characterisation certainly weren't unfounded. Deception breaks the timeline established by the previous novels, and there's a number of other significant errors which others have already noted in their reviews.

Kahlee and Anderson were particularly out of synch with their established cha...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 31, 2012 Dearnshaw rated it 1 of 5 stars

Leading up to the release of this book, I re-read all three of Drew Karpyshyn's novels. I've always enjoyed them in the past, and so I wanted to see the story continue. I was mildly concerned when I saw that Karpyshyn had moved on, but William C. Dietz had a decent track record, so I figured this book would probably turn out okay.

Boy, was I mistaken. As soon as I opened the book, I could tell something was wrong. I like quality writing, but I'm usually able to enjoy pretty much anything. Unfortu...more Leading up to the release of this book, I re-read all three of Drew Karpyshyn's novels. I've always enjoyed them in the past, and so I wanted to see the story continue. I was mildly concerned when I saw that Karpyshyn had moved on, but William C. Dietz had a decent track record, so I figured this book would probably turn out okay.

Boy, was I mistaken. As soon as I opened the book, I could tell something was wrong. I like quality writing, but I'm usually able to enjoy pretty much anything. Unfortunately the writing in this book is of extremely poor quality. In places it makes it very hard to get through. The language is sloppy, the narrative is very confused, and it's full of poor grammar.

Now if this was all that was wrong with the book, I supposed I would dock it a few points and leave it at that. But this is tie-in fiction. That's where it's biggest weakness comes into play. As I read through the book, I became more and more confused. The problem is simple: the book appears to have been written by someone who had no knowledge of the previous three books, or the subject matter in general. The timeline is impossible to reconcile with the other books. Numerous terms are misused. Characters lose important traits, and act out of character at seemingly every point. The book is full of these issues. It's very hard to understand how they made their way through quality control.

Even setting these problems aside, the book has little to offer. The characters, both returning and new, are flat and uninteresting. The audience is asked to accept as fact various things that seems to make little sense.

All in all, I'm extremely disappointed. Anyone who enjoyed the previous three books is going to be sorely disappointed when they reach the end of this installment. It really is a shame, because the series once held such promise.

I hope this review is helpful in making an informed decision. There are also various excerpts available online, and I urge you to read them for yourself, so you can see the issues I've detailed, before committing your hard-earned cash to purchasing this book. (less)

6 likes · like · see review

Feb 11, 2012 Brian marked it as so-bad-ill-never-read-it · review of another edition

I will not give a rating to this book--it is evidently a piece of utter, utter shit, and one only has to read the reviews both here and on Amazon to see why. I am in fact writing this review for a purpose much broader and more entertaining than that: I am going to express my intense loathing of William Dietz as a writer, and hope--just hope--that this article gets read by a larger audience.

Mr. Dietz is a hack: a big, pompous, self-aggrandizing hack who has spent far too long passing as a decent...more I will not give a rating to this book--it is evidently a piece of utter, utter shit, and one only has to read the reviews both here and on Amazon to see why. I am in fact writing this review for a purpose much broader and more entertaining than that: I am going to express my intense loathing of William Dietz as a writer, and hope--just hope--that this article gets read by a larger audience.

Mr. Dietz is a hack: a big, pompous, self-aggrandizing hack who has spent far too long passing as a decent writer of video-game novel adaptions and who is only now being seen for the complete, utter, atrocious example of a hack that he truly is. When he isn't writing video game fiction of such odious quality as were both this adaption or the one I was unlucky enough to read, he is writing other works of such low quality that they commonly get one-star reviews on Amazon, where this review from Publisher's Weekly can be found, regarding his book Deathday:
(view spoiler)
Honestly, to get that review from that source, you must be truly a bad author--I have only rarely seen such a negative review from that magazine on Amazon.

My point is that, though it was partly Bioware's fault for approving this piece of shit--just as it was the fault of Insomniac for publishing the novel I read--there is much in this matter that should be blamed entirely on Mr. Dietz himself. I do not wish any ill on Mr. Dietz--since I have never met him, I shall assume nothing about his personality--but, I sincerely hope that, now that this man has screwed up so disastrously on this novel, he will be rightly shunned by every publisher with access to a profitable market and will need to go into another line of work--preferably a profitable one not having anything to do with creative writing of any sort.

Perhaps it is likely that my wish will come true--Mass Effect fans surely would agree with me that it should--but even if not, there is one good thing that has resulted from this: now that I know that this man is perhaps the ultimate example of bad writing in video game adaptions, it makes me wonder as to whether other writers may actually be decent. I will have to see...(less)

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Feb 11, 2012 Ginta rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I will just post this from the BioWare Forum:
Someone With Mass2:

"How completely worthless is this novel when the entire plot contained within is MEANINGLESS? The only major outcome that occurs in Deception is that the three characters previously created in the novel Ascension - Gillian, Hendel, and Nick - are all randomly killed off at the very end for no other purpose other than to erase their existence from the Mass Effect universe. Other than that, nothing matters in this novel to the plot of...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Susan Lulgjuraj rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Video gamers can live in their own world, falling in love with characters and making choices that effect the direct outcome . Not all video games are like that, but the Mass Effect series is.

The Mass Effect series is it's own world where fans of the games can dive into this sci-fi universe with comics and books as well, helping paint a picture of a battle that is about to commence in the third video game.

As one of the people who fell in love with Mass Effect, I've read the books, bought the comi...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Mj_n rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A perfect example of fan exploitation.

The glaring inconsistencies in this book are beyond reconcilable. The errors not only go against the details of a rich, expansive universe, but against basic timeline and plot elements established in previous books. Any avid reader, despite their knowledge of Mass Effect, would note the disparity between this and previous novels. From characters aging years in a matter of months, dead characters reprising their role, and fundamental values of characters bein...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Keith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd heard about the fan rage against this book long before sitting down to read it, and as someone who read the first 3 and happily enjoyed this one I'm really not sure what all the fuss is about. Sure there are inconsistencies with the previous lore, and it doesn't feel quite as authentically ME as the others so it would have been nice to have had Karpyshyn continue things.

But I can't say any of that brought me out in hives or caused me to lose any sleep. The way people are reacting it's as if...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Mark rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

A lot of people hate this book for making a series of errors with the Mass Effect universe and the characters that populate it. While I still noticed these errors, and certainly don't approve, I went into this book knowing those errors were there.
As a result of this foreknowledge, I believe I was able to distil the essence of the story out and read a version of the book that wasn't on the page. That being said, the story was merely okay; not bad, but not good either.
The writing was decent at par...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: add-ons-spin-offs, fantasy-lands, movie-videogame, pirates, reviewed, space

Hmm....I was really excited about reading this book. Ive never played the games, but have a friend who does and is pretty into it so I figured Id give it a shot.

At thebeginning I was having a lot of fun with it. Seeing all the schemes and plots of opposing forces come to fruition and collide. Very fun...until I got to the end. I dont wanna ruin the book for anyone, but seriously? That was it? Let's just erase all the heard work we did and take a bajillion steps backward. And those Realers menti...more

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Feb 05, 2012 Richard rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: giveaway-wins, science-fiction, teen

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, also I am not familiar with the Mass Effect series.

The language used in the book is extremely weak and too simplistic. The grammar is terrible and full of mistakes, for example the word "and" is regularly used to start a sentence or even a paragraph, but this is just one example out of many sloppy mistakes. Paragraphs seem to end randomly and it almost feels the author threw punctuation at a page and put the commas and fullstops in wher...more In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, also I am not familiar with the Mass Effect series.

The language used in the book is extremely weak and too simplistic. The grammar is terrible and full of mistakes, for example the word "and" is regularly used to start a sentence or even a paragraph, but this is just one example out of many sloppy mistakes. Paragraphs seem to end randomly and it almost feels the author threw punctuation at a page and put the commas and fullstops in wherever they happened to land.

Often story points are repeated, for example in a battle near the start of the book two aliens are killed in almost identical ways. Many exact same phrases are repeated throughout the book and is just more examples of weak and unimaginative writing.

Due to the weak writing the story is detached and sometimes hard to follow.

The descriptions throughout the book range from weak to okay, but they are usually pretty flat and boring, similar to a text book description rather than an interesting story. There is a slight overuse of 'technobabble' usually when describing weapons, to the point where it hurts the story.

All the characters are flat, boring and lacking in any personality. They all act inconsistently and in a way that serves to continue the story or try to make it more interesting rather than in a realistic way. The so called 'good' characters often act irrationally, violently in unnecessary situations and seem to have little concern for their friends. At times characters can act almost psychically in correctly guessing what other people are thinking or doing based on little information. Other times they can act incredibly stupidly and walk into a clear trap, again all this seems to be in an attempt to make story and the expense of characters.

The characters are constantly asking themselves questions about the situation they are in, sometimes never answering the question or not caring what the answer is. This in boring, annoying and almost feels like the author was just trying to get the word count up.

This may be because of the computer game origins, but the action sequences are unrealistic, with main characters walking through battles with little to no injuries while all around them people are being killed but somehow always missing out on killing or seriously harming the main cast. Additionally security is way too easily overcome throughout the book.

One of the few good things was that the author did a fairly good job of describing events that happened outside of this novel, so I never felt lost because of not having read the previous books in the series.

Overall I would say what could have been a fairly good story was ruined by very weak writing, terrible characters, massive inconsistencies within the novel and unbelievable action sequences. I am amazed that a major publisher and video game maker allowed this book to be released.

(view spoiler)
(less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Derschreiber rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mass Effect Deception is the worst book out of the series of novels.

The setting is mishandled completely. It feels as if the author has no sense of this universe or the people who live in them. There are dozens of errors with the lore including: characters who are alive who should be dead, timeline errors that make characters older than they should be, changes a major character's sexuality, deems autism something to be grown out of, the very nature of several alien species, and more.

If you are i...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Tom Clampett rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So how much should you expect from a genre book based on a game franchise? More.

The allure for the game for me was always the story elements, so I gave the novels a go and was pleasantly surprised by the earlier books. Deception however, is just abysmally written trash.

Well written characters and plots can give a sense of suspense or excitement because they engage the reader enough to have a feel for struggle or triumph or heartache that will evolve from relationships and events. Lacking any of...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Legion rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book has so many flaws and errors it's laughable. I won't list all of them (trust me you'll be here for an hour if I were to do so) but you'll find them here:
Beware errors are here! And spoilers.
To name a few an autistic girl advances in age by three years in a period of six months and an adrenaline junkie eats someones cereal.
I implore you to not buy this book. It's quality is nowhere the standard of the previous novels and it's embarassing this even got approved by Bioware.
There's more...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Nawnee rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

Recommended to Nawnee by: Goodreads

Shelves: freebie-books

In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, also I am not familiar with the Mass Effect series. Plus I entered to win this book for my 14yr old son who loves these video games. Now I asked him to read it and then post a review on his own goodreads acct. He has refused to finish this book, and after reading it I can't blame him. I'm more irritated that I can't get the time back I wasted on reading this book that read like a 11yr old wrote it. Having Korbyn point out all the discre...more In full disclosure I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway, also I am not familiar with the Mass Effect series. Plus I entered to win this book for my 14yr old son who loves these video games. Now I asked him to read it and then post a review on his own goodreads acct. He has refused to finish this book, and after reading it I can't blame him. I'm more irritated that I can't get the time back I wasted on reading this book that read like a 11yr old wrote it. Having Korbyn point out all the discrepancies didn't help me love this book after having it brought to my attention I couldn't ignore them.
So first off the writing is horrible and full of mistakes, I'm wondering if this book was even edited before printing, or did they just leave all the editing solely up to the author if so he needs to take an English class that goes over punctuation and grammar. Due to the unimaginative and weak writing the story is detached and sometimes hard to follow.
All the characters are flat, boring and lacking in any personality. They also have many times through out the book acted in ways contrary to the characters personality or previous action. They talk to themselves sometimes for no reason what so ever and even if they answer it's ignored which why have them hold a conversation with themselves if it leads no where?? The action sequences are unrealistic, with main characters walking through battles with little to no injuries, while all around them people are being killed but somehow always missing out on killing the main cast. I guess since its written off a video game at these points in the book that the characters got some sort of invincibility boost?? So they could over come anything that stood in there way. Its funny to me to be saying this seeing as they kill off 3 major characters by the end of the book. From what I gather from my son, the author has greatly altered the characters ages and sexual preference for this book, what was the point to this?
This book succeeded in ruining me reading any books based off of video games. I'm stunned that this author has other books published when his writing and researching is so sub par. I've read some self published books that would blow this one out of the water. It makes me angry to think of how hard the indie authors are working to just get there name out there and books read, and this guy makes it into paperback with someone else picking up the dime??? I would love to be compensated for my time reading this book since the publishers just throwing money down the toilet why not pay me back for the brain cells this book obviously smothered with its horribleness. I am amazed that a major publisher and video game maker allowed this book to be released in the first place did no one proof read this before publication? If there going to make a habit of accepting this kind of work then I've got some great ideas, you can throw some money my way and I promise I write and reread my stuff before saying it's done, which is more than they got for what they paid this author.(less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Yuoaman rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is, quite literally, the worst video game tie-in novel I have ever had the misfortune of even KNOWING about. Dietz did the bare minimum of research and got several facts wrong that could be easily found via a quick Google search. He derails beloved characters, "curing" an autistic girl (not to mention aging her six years in two), and making a homosexual straight so he can write a scene where he ogles asari.

Just don't touch it, it's beyond bad.

And read this if you want to know just how...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Rob rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I went in to this book knowing it was going to be bad but wanting to have the full Mass Effect story.

It wasn't as bad as I was expecting and it may even have been decent if it wasn't for all the errors and inconsistencies with Mass Effect lore (how BioWare or the editors didn't pick up on these I'll never know).
The full list of errors can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X...

If the Kindle version is automatically updated when they release the corrected version I may re-read it t...more

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May 13, 2013 Drago DT rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mass Effect: Deception is among the the best books I have read in the series so far. The use of familiar places, characters, and plots, stay true to the original Mass Effect franchise. I've read this on the kindel makeing it alot more enjoyable and motivating, because I usualy don't enjoy reading it was a strange experence to do this.
I highly recomend this book to anyone who enjoys the Mass Effect games or just a fan of sy-fy. This book is alot like other sy-fy's but compleetly diferent because...more

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Jun 02, 2012 MMOGC rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: video-games, science-fiction

Hard to believe, but I have actually read worse. Which is why this book isn't getting the one star treatment from me that many other reviewers have chosen to give.

But I'm probably being generous. After all, I was aware of the many errors and lore screw-ups that exist in this book, but I mostly chose to ignore them as I was reading. Granted, I give you that there were a few glaring, unforgivable mistakes. But quite honestly? You probably won't even notice most of them unless you're a hardcore Mas...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Crystal rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, science-fiction

Being a fan of the Mass Effect series, I have to admit that I was eager to read Mass Effect: Deception. Not having read the other books, I was nervous that I would be missing out on something, and so I prepared myself by reading detailed summaries online. I know, I may have cheated a bit, but I really wanted to jump right into the book. From the moment I began reading Deception it almost became a chore to read. I hate saying a book was bad, but there were so many errors in Deception that I just...more

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Apr 07, 2012 William Johnson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, since-joining-goodreads

More like 2.5 then a plain 'ol 2.

The Mass Effect books started out strongly enough by actually affecting the original game in some way (or, at least, making it deeper and more complex) but each subsequent entry gets weaker and weaker.

The character of Kahlee Sanders, who started out pretty righteous and important, seems like background material now. She did more in her cool cameo in Mass Effect 3 then she does in this book. In this book, and I am not kidding, Sanders eats three meals a day, all t...more More like 2.5 then a plain 'ol 2.

The Mass Effect books started out strongly enough by actually affecting the original game in some way (or, at least, making it deeper and more complex) but each subsequent entry gets weaker and weaker.

The character of Kahlee Sanders, who started out pretty righteous and important, seems like background material now. She did more in her cool cameo in Mass Effect 3 then she does in this book. In this book, and I am not kidding, Sanders eats three meals a day, all the time. Her and Anderson, a character severely relegated in Mass Effect 2 but boosted significantly in ME3, seriously do nothing but eat in this book.

And as if realizing the story lines of the characters created in Ascension (book #2) were running thin, the book decides to dispatch with them in rather cruel ways. . .but before they can kill them off, they make sure any innocence or decency is stripped from them and any respect we have for them is removed.

Which makes half of Deception's focus, on the true asshole villain from ME3, Kai Leng, doubly concerning as I either have to follow a true bad guy (though getting some of his backstory was cool) or watch characters I read in two or three other books go from believable and cool to rather dastardly and one dimensional. Ugh.

I might not have been paying too much attention but I didn't seem to notice too many universe problems with this book as has been the major complaint (so much of a complaint that the book company and game creators plan on restructuring the book for future releases. . .just like the ending of their game? Hmmmm) but I did feel like I wasn't in the Mass Effect universe at all at some points.

Oddly, the approach to Kai Leng is just what I wanted from Mass Effect #1: Retribution with the character of Saren. There is no escaping that Kai Leng is an evil prick in ME3 but this book fleshes him out a bit and humanizes him at points. I liked this because in ME3 he is just a cheap-shotting dick. . .in this book he has somewhat of a conscious and makes mistakes. If only they did this with Saren in Retribution. Saren, in that book, is just psychotic whereas the first Mass Effect game gave you the impression that Saren might have been ruthless, but had a moral code that was corrupted by the Reapers.

The action was pretty solid in this book and that deserves a whole star in itself. And you can't go wrong with Aria T'Loak, one of my all-time favorite ME characters. She gets a lot of page-time in this one and that kept me interested. Still, it took me a loooong time to read this because my interest waned at many points. This book became a 'completionist's chore rather then a fun activity. . .and that is why it is on the lower side of the star ratings.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Sesana marked it as did-not-finish-and-never-will-read · review of another edition

I am a huge, huge fan of Mass Effect, and I've really enjoyed the tie ins that I've read to this point. The first three novels were all written by Drew Karpyshyn, who wrote for the games. The two that I've read so far were solid stories that fit into the established ME universe. I hate to say that I wouldn't trust this novel, written by William C. Dietz, with a ten foot pole... But I wouldn't touch this book with a ten foot pole if you paid me.

Obviously, Dietz took this assignment without knowin...more

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Jan 25, 2012 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, space-opera, ebooks

Mass Effect: Deception is the fourth tie-in novel for the Mass Effect video game trilogy. Although it directly follows the events of the third book, it is written by a different author (the first three books were all by one author). The story falls somewhere between the second and (soon-to-be-released) third game in the series. Overall, I found the quality of the writing to be improved over the previous books, and this is likely the best of the series so far. The games are high-drama space opera...more Mass Effect: Deception is the fourth tie-in novel for the Mass Effect video game trilogy. Although it directly follows the events of the third book, it is written by a different author (the first three books were all by one author). The story falls somewhere between the second and (soon-to-be-released) third game in the series. Overall, I found the quality of the writing to be improved over the previous books, and this is likely the best of the series so far. The games are high-drama space opera, and the plot and style of the books tend to follow the somewhat pulpy nature of this genre. The writing is generally solid, if not spectacular (although see below), and I can honestly say I was surprised (in a good way) at how the story ended. Until the third game is released, it is difficult to judge whether the book will provide solid background to elements of the game or serve more as filler material (I suspect a bit of each).

The author occasionally fell into the common video-game-tie-in-novel trap of trying to put completely meaningless game detail into the book (e.g., emphasizing the manufacturer of specific weapons), but it wasn't nearly as glaring as in the first book of the series, and often I felt he was slipping some game details into the book in a entirely suitable and subtle manner. The other major problem that jumped out at me was an occasional redundancy of narration, which I view as much (or more) as bad editing rather than bad writing. It's not the worst case I've seen in recent years, but there were at least two occasions that jumped out at me (from a single quick read) where a description was repeated almost verbatim (and completely unnecessarily) in two different chapters. For example, at one point there is a statement which says something like (I'm paraphrasing from memory), "The two guards turned to watch him until the gate acknowledged his identification and unlocked. He had to pass through a second security gate as he headed to the upper floor, then entered a four digit code to unlock his apartment." A number of chapters later, the same individual returns to his apartment and that entire few sentences are repeated almost exactly. While certain details might bear repeating for plot purposes, there is no reason to repeat the fact that he has to go through a second security gate, not enter a four-digit code to enter his apartment.(less)

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Mar 26, 2012 Katharine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, game, series-mass-effect, future, space, bleh

Even going in to this book knowing that it's based off a game and thus nowhere near high literature, this book was a huge disappointment. Factual errors gave away the fact this writer knows nothing about the game series, and grammatical errors (cereal killer, really?) gave away the fact the publishing company was more interested in rushing this to beat the game's release than actually editing it. Don't bother with this book, unless you have several red pens and want some practice in editing.

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Aug 10, 2012 Valérie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was not very good. It is obvious that Dietz has never played Mass Effect and did not do his research about the games or story lines of the previous books. His writing style is horrible -- it is tiring to read fragmented sentences. "He would literally write like this. Over and over. And over again." I read that Bioware issued an apology about this book and a new one will be released. It seems as though Bioware spends most of their time apologizing these days...

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Feb 10, 2013 Stephanie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to say that I was incredibly disappointed with this book. Not only was it poorly written, but at times I found myself wondering if I was even reading about the same characters who had appeared in the previous books. The number of errors made reading the story extremely tedious, and I can't say that I'd ever recommend it to any Mass Effect fan.

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Mar 25, 2012 Luiz Henrique rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think if Drew Karpyshyn finished the series it might have been better. I feel the characters from the previous books were kinda "vaccinated" against the events in motion, walking through the history like a player mechanically playing through a videogame to which you have no emotional attachment, just running through it till the credits roll.

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About William C. Dietz

William C. Dietz grew up in the Seattle area, spent time with the Navy and Marine Corps as a corpsman, graduated from the University of Washington and worked as a surgical technician, college instructor, and news writer. Later he worked for US West in a number of different marketing communications and public relations related positions, before leaving to accept a job as Director of Public Relation...more

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Deception (Mass Effect #4)

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