Mass Effect: Ascension (Mass Effect, #2)

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Mass Effect: Ascension (Mass Effect #2)

by Drew Karpyshyn (Goodreads Author)

3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 · rating details · 2,335 ratings · 133 reviews

When they vanished fifty thousand years ago, the Protheans left their advanced technology scattered throughout the galaxy. The chance discovery of a Prothean cache on Mars allows humanity to join those already reaping the rewards of the ancients’ high-tech wizardry. But for one rogue militia, the goal is not participation but domination.

Scientist Kahlee Sanders has left th...more

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Published July 29th 2008 by Del Rey

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Sep 12, 2012 Brett Roller rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, I made a mistake. I’ll be the first to admit it.
I completely forgot to check out the second Mass Effect novel before I played the second game. I have a feeling it seriously hampered my ability to enjoy it.
Ascension is sort of an odd book. It doesn’t really pick up the main Mass Effect storyline where Revelation left off, but then again, that’s what the game was for. But it also doesn’t pick up where the first game left off.

It does return us to the world of Kahlee Sanders, mild manner scienti...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was pleasantly surprised with “Mass Effect: Revelation”, and planned on reading the rest of the novels. In fact, I hoped to read through them all before Mass Effect 3 was released. Unfortunately, the fourth novel, “Deception”, picked up some very bad reviews (I realize it’s from a different author), and I put further Mass Effect reading on hold until a week or so ago.

OVERALL: 3.6 out of 5
“Mass Effect: Ascension” is a great science fiction adventure complete with good guys who have hearts of go...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Rémy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Nothing special.

Where the first novel, Ascension, at least gave us some backstory about Anderson's history with Saren, which kinda toned it down from what seemed like a big mission with lots of story, and ended up boiling down to "they met three times", this one feels like complete fluff.

Not even just fluff, it feels like a lot of the ideas explored in this book don't make any sense when placed alongside the games. Too many of the events would make you think there would be lasting consequences t...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Wendy White rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unlike the first book in this series, I think you do need to be familiar with the Mass Effect saga to appreciate the events that unfold here.

I wish I'd read this before playing Mass Effect 3, as visiting Grissom Academy would have been even more exciting had I been a little more familiar with the background. Ah well.

Ascension is set between Mass Effect 1 and 2, and continues the story of Kahlee Sanders. She is now looking after biotic students at Grissom Academy with the help of a mixture of ex-...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Zarkseven rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: video-games, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I feel immersed in all things Mass Effect lately. Aside from playing Mass Effect 2 on the Xbox 360 and playing Mass Effect Galaxy on my iPod Touch, I’ve been reading the Mass Effect: Ascension audiobook. Author Drew Karpyshyn was the lead writer on the first Mass Effect game, is co-lead writer on Mass Effect 2, and also wrote the first Mass Effect novel, Mass Effect: Revelation. I read and reviewed that novel. How does this one stack up?

LIKED

Side Universe. I like the separation of the plots of t...more I feel immersed in all things Mass Effect lately. Aside from playing Mass Effect 2 on the Xbox 360 and playing Mass Effect Galaxy on my iPod Touch, I’ve been reading the Mass Effect: Ascension audiobook. Author Drew Karpyshyn was the lead writer on the first Mass Effect game, is co-lead writer on Mass Effect 2, and also wrote the first Mass Effect novel, Mass Effect: Revelation. I read and reviewed that novel. How does this one stack up?

LIKED

Side Universe. I like the separation of the plots of the games and the novels. It gives the novels a little more credence that they aren’t just tacked on money grabs, and gives Karpyshyn an opportunity to expand the universe. References to the events of the first Mass Effect game feel natural and not forced. (As a side note, references to this novel are found in Mass Effect 2 as well.)

Uncharted Territory. I enjoyed the attention given to the Quarians in the novel. Of the alien species in the Mass Effect universe, the Quarians are probably one of the more interesting ones. They created the Geth, who rebelled on them and drove them from their home world (and played a huge part in the first game). They live as part of a vast Migrant Fleet that roams the galaxy, and live most of their lives in environmental suits, giving them an aura of both mystery and suspicion that’s well suited for exploration. They do get a little attention in Mass Effect 2 during Tali’s loyalty mission, but their lifestyle was not really given the attention it is here. Also, the effects of the environmental suit on Gillian played perfectly into her story as well, like a natural fit. I hope other species get fleshed out a little more in the upcoming third novel.

NOT SO MUCH

Assumptions. (Spoilers) I was really distracted by the reaction of Kahlee to Gillian’s changes after they leave the Academy. My first though was that she was acting strangely due to unknown effects from the Cerberus medicines she was given, but that’s not even considered. But when there is some discussion about how her autistic tendencies are lessening and her biotic growth is improving, it’s immediately assumed that it’s because she is no longer affected by the Cerberus drug. It just seemed a little convenient that their assumptions were correct, as they didn’t seem like the right ones at that stage of the novel. Grayson also rightly assumes exactly where the group flees to from Omega.

Character Missteps. The lesser characters in the novel seemed a little one-dimensional. Jiro’s motivations seemed unclear. Nick, the student who mocks Gillian and gets tossed across the cafeteria for it, is given multiple scenes to establish his character, when he could have easily been introduced in the cafeteria scene to similar effect.

RECOMMEND?

I would not recommend this book to anyone unfamiliar with the Mass Effect universe. But it works well as a gap-bridger between the first two games, and it was nice to see references to some of the events of the story built into the game, like the introduction of Omega, or Talia’s antagonism towards Cerberus because of what they did on the flotilla. It’s not a long read, and if you are craving more Mass Effect, give it a shot. Don’t expect a literary masterpiece, but rather a solid tie-in novel.(less)

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Jan 01, 2010 Adam Radford rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is based off of the games Mass Effect. The book follows the tale of Gillian Grayson, a biotic child, and Cerberus, a paramilitary pro-human organisation. Biotic powers allow those gifted with them to generate mass effect fields and alter the universe around them. The "Ascension" project is a program that helps Biotic children acheive their full potential. Gillian Grayson is the most promising student in the program however she is borderline autistic. Her father is an agent of Cerberus,...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Rachael E. Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fun read as a Mass Effect fan. The plot's alright, (even though the main protagonist and conflict are a bit here-and-there- who's the protagonist? What are they fighting for?) the prose is nothing special, in fact its fairly clumsy or ugly at times, but it's worth it to get to go in depth on some of the most interesting parts of the Mass Effect universe. Its worth reading just for the insights into quarian culture alone, which is really cool and interesting.
Pel was about the only character I...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi

This second novel in the series maintains a lot of the action of the first. However, it has less political/diplomatic intrigue, and has a much more personal edge. This is because the plot heavily centres around a young autistic girl in the Alliance's Ascension programme, and on the challenges being faced by those who care for her.

The Illusive Man features a number of times, but always at arm's length, much like in the second game in the series. The story also involves the quarians significantly....more

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Jan 01, 2010 Matthew Ardill rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of the game

Where the first book was a servicable read this felt like a short story that never truly found it's footing. I constantly asked my self "why should I care about these characters?" Kahlee from Revelations makes a return in an improbable turn that feels more like a device to link this story to it's predecessor. The Illusive Man a major player in the upcomming Mass Effect 2 game is expanded upon and the nature of Cerebus the shadowy villianious organization hinted at and glanced over in the first g...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: awesome-character-growth, based-on-game, mass-effect

"The mind with many secrets can never rest." Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Ascension
Like the first novel Mass Effect: Revelation, Ascension is well-written and well-paced. It isn't a literary masterpiece, but I found it to be a fun, gripping and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Unlike the first ME novel, Ascension takes place on the ME timeline parallel to Shepard, the main character in the ME games. Ascension is the name of the biotics program at Grissom Academy, named after the estranged father of K...more "The mind with many secrets can never rest." Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Ascension
Like the first novel Mass Effect: Revelation, Ascension is well-written and well-paced. It isn't a literary masterpiece, but I found it to be a fun, gripping and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Unlike the first ME novel, Ascension takes place on the ME timeline parallel to Shepard, the main character in the ME games. Ascension is the name of the biotics program at Grissom Academy, named after the estranged father of Kahlee Sanders, one of the teachers at the prestigious boarding school.
Ascension is about Grayson, a Cerberus operative and his autistic adopted daughter Gillian who is a student at Grissom. Gillian is a Cerberus experiment given to Grayson when she was a baby. The Illusive Man instructed Grayson to raise her as his own, and Grayson, being a company man, did exactly as he was told. However, being alone and lonely, he came to honestly love the little girl. Enrolling her at Grissom Academy was also part of the experiment.
Grayson is a troubled man who uses red dust (drugs) to forget the pain of his life. Among those pains is his inability to reconcile what he allows to be done to his daughter by Cerberus in the name of advancement. Grayson believes in the Illusive Man's cause and he knows that the experiments are cruel and harmful, yet he loves his daughter so much that it hurts him to visit her at the boarding school knowing that he will just have to leave her again.
"Sometimes, however, he couldn’t help but think about her—like now. Knowing he was going to see her made him acutely aware of how much it would hurt when he had to leave her behind again." Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Ascension
Grayson is a sympathetic character and he has awesome growth in this story. He goes from being a fairly pathetic crack head to a man with truly brave and redemptive qualities.
I had a bit of difficulty with Kahlee Sander's though. She was too understanding, too forgiving, and too good to be true. When Hendel, a fellow teacher, calls Grayson out on his drug use and irresponsible behavior, Kahlee always defends him, even when he is at obvious fault. As much as I sympathized with Grayson (as a father), he needed tough love and Kahlee was the sweet soft-hearted shoulder to cry on and always ready to forgive. I found her a bit nauseating.
This book was fun, fairly fast-paced, with just the right amount of character growth.(less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Victor Hugo Kebbe rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, popcorn-sci-fi

Unlike the previous book (Mass Effect - Revelation), it took a long time to be (loosely) hooked by this one, with such a poor plot. If in the previous book you didn't have to know the Mass Effect lore, this one unfortunately requires that the reader must know about what happened in the first game, showing an adventure that just touches some major events of the ME storyline. Sometimes it seems it was hastly written, showing that the pace and rhythm was not the same all the time. I was disappointe...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you haven't played the first Mass Effect game, this title will confuse you. Unlike the first book in the series this is set between ME 1 and ME 2 games. I haven't played ME1, and haven't finished ME 2 or started ME 3 games. So some of the events early in the book that were referenced while I understood the regions and areas being mentioned, the events that happened I was unaware of and that is one thing that drives me nuts that there is an 'event' that shapes things but the book doesn't updat...more

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May 18, 2012 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I absolutely loved this book. It's a must read for any fan of Mass Effect. Kahlee Sanders is easily becoming my favorite character in the Mass Effect universe (besides Commander Shepard of course). I was so excited when I found out she was in this book, the lack of David Anderson really made me sad though. The characters are well developed and I was so into the story that I didn't want to stop reading.

Drew Karpyshyn did a very good job writing the fight scenes. As gruesome as some were, I loved...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Warren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought this book was ultimately a lot of fun. has kind of a boring start (first 100 pages?), but the character building finally pays off when children start going nuts and harming other children in a terrifying cafeteria showdown. telekinetic autistic rage, for the win. Drug addict assassin parenting for the win. Insights into the gypsy alien race of Quarians, ftw. (I felt their lifestyle was focused on to mirror the sensitivities of the damaged little girl).

Really dug the small story of a ba...more

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Mar 04, 2012 P.C. Haring rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books

Taking place shortly after the events in the first Mass Effect game, Ascention picks up on Kaylee Sanders, a character first introduced in "Revalations" which was the prequel novel to the franchise. Kaylee has since been working on the Ascension project, an Alliance run program designed to train gifted children to tap into their biotic potential.

What Saunders doesn't know is that Cerberus has a vested interest in one of the students and when things go awry and Cerberus decides to separate that...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Sonny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

The novel's focus is a autistic biotic child, a shadowy organization with a shady reputation, and the vagabond Quarians of the Migrant Fleet in the aftermath of the first Mass Effect game. Gamers looking to learn more informarion about the Mass Effect universe will be disappointed. Yes, there are tidbits of back story and future plot points of the games which enhance your video game experience, but nothing too revealing. The novel is written by the same person who wrote the story line of the vid...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Jack Bravo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bioware, mass-effect, sci-fi, videogames

"Mass Effect: Ascension" is the sequel to the first Mass Effect novel, "Revelation". It follows the adventures of Kahlee Sanders, the main character of the first book, as a teacher at a biotic academy and her relationship with Gillian, an autistic girl with huge biotic potential and the subject of a terrible Cerberus secret experiment. If nothing i've said so far makes any sense to you, look elsewhere because this book is not for you. This book is for hardcore Mass Effect fans. Drew Karpyshyn wa...more "Mass Effect: Ascension" is the sequel to the first Mass Effect novel, "Revelation". It follows the adventures of Kahlee Sanders, the main character of the first book, as a teacher at a biotic academy and her relationship with Gillian, an autistic girl with huge biotic potential and the subject of a terrible Cerberus secret experiment. If nothing i've said so far makes any sense to you, look elsewhere because this book is not for you. This book is for hardcore Mass Effect fans. Drew Karpyshyn wastes no time explaining the universe like he did in the first novel. The book just supposes you are familiar with all these terms and planets and races, from playing the games. So with that out of the way, what is in this story for the fanatical ME lovers? Well not much. The biggest draw of the entire thing is a more in depth portrait of the Quarian culture and life on its flotilla. You get to read about the day to day of the quarians inside their ships, their common values and you really get a better picture of how they have survived for so long and the political struggle which leads to events in ME3. The games tell you about the quarians but you never really "see" them, connect with them the way this book allows you.
Other than that there isnt much point to the whole thing. The story is shallow and predictable and it starts so slow I had almost lost all hope for a while. Things do pick up after a third of the way but there are no memorable characters or villains like Saren in "Revelation" and it all seems quite dry. There's no Anderson either, so the book falls solely on Kahlee's shoulders. Unfortunately, for the sake of plot, Kahlee is... well not very bright for most of the story and actually turns quite annoying in a few parts. The author never seems to "pull the trigger" on the Gillian plot either, her importance, her true value and origin and her character is hardly developed past being a simple plot tool. Paul Grayson, her father and Cerberus agent had the potential to be a compelling character, in his struggle between remaining loyal to his beliefs in Cerberus and the love for his daughter, the victim of the Illusive Man's plans. Unfortunately he is just too bland and predictable for anyone to care.
The first part of the book is spent at Grissom Academy, although Grissom himself, a very interesting character from the first book never appears. At Grissom, Kahlee is in charge of the Ascension Project, a study about biotic children so we get many pages about teenagers, their problems, how weird Gillian is and... well not very exciting stuff. Throw in a silly romance of Kahlee with a young teacher and a few twists that are so predictable it hurts, and the book suffers greatly.
This is still a treat for ME fans, especially for the quarian part of the story but "Ascension" never achieves the quality of its predecessor or the level of fan service.
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Feb 13, 2013 Arya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

From what I read so far, the Mass Effect book series has the interesting gift of making the best possible endings. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything about this book, but I'll tell you something: I LOVED the Epilogue of this book. And another thing that makes this book pure awesomeness: ELCORS. Who on this universe would possible NOT like Elcors??

Now speaking more seriously, this book is pretty neat. Once again, we're following Kahlee Sanders in her journey, this time as a teacher at Grissom Ac...more

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Jan 04, 2013 Jordan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, sci-fi

Unlike the first Mass Effect book, this book is probably best read with some knowledge of the series. Having just read the first book might suffice, but to fully enjoy it, it would be best to have at least played the first Mass Effect game as its events are mentioned several times. Kahlee Sanders returns from the first book, now working in the Alliance Ascension program for biotic children. Unknown to her, the pro-human group Cerberus has infiltrated the program and is using it for their own pur...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Rinn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, sci-fi, reviewed, video-game

After finishing Mass Effect 3, I found myself wanting to immerse myself in all things Mass Effect, I suppose because the trilogy is now over, and the ending was rather disappointing. I first picked this book up in the library two years ago or so, and found it very dull. But I thought I'd try it again, and I somehow made it through.
It reads like a fanfiction. Not an awful one, but not a great one either. Karpyshyn's writing style is merely mediocre. The only reason the story was remotely interest...more

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Mar 05, 2012 Sesana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, adventure, video-games

Timeline note: Ascension is set almost immediately after the events of the first Mass Effect, and before the opening scene in Mass Effect 2.

Picking up the character of Kahlee Sanders from the first Mass Effect novel, Ascension is a Cerberus-heavy story that doesn't seem to have much of an effect on the overall Mass Effect universe. It can still be a very interesting story. Karpyshyn is a good enough writer, and he knows the setting. Maybe a little too much. There are parts of the book that read...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Urania rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I finally read Ascension, just for the sake of completion. I'm going to keep this one short, since I've already reviewed Revelation and Retribution, and this one's basically par for the course.

The events outlined by the novels are canonical and relevant to the Mass Effect games, and the dialogue quality is about as good as you'll find in the games. Most of the novel, though, reads like a bloated synopsis, and I'd say you might be better off reading one of several excellent "x things you need to...more

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Jan 27, 2011 Adam Boudreau rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

After reading the first novel and playing the video game, I was pretty excited to see they were going to continue with the novels. I'm kind of hoping that Mass Effect will branch out to a much larger universe because there is simply so much potential! By that I mean, I hope Mass Effect will garner interest from other writers instead of just having Drew Karpyshyn writing everything. I'm certainly not saying that Drew is a poor author, but I wouldn't want his ideas to burn out and there is simply...more After reading the first novel and playing the video game, I was pretty excited to see they were going to continue with the novels. I'm kind of hoping that Mass Effect will branch out to a much larger universe because there is simply so much potential! By that I mean, I hope Mass Effect will garner interest from other writers instead of just having Drew Karpyshyn writing everything. I'm certainly not saying that Drew is a poor author, but I wouldn't want his ideas to burn out and there is simply too much to write about for one man! Mass Effect is a huge universe to explore and I personally want to see as much of it as possible, after all, I love exploration.

Okay onto the review. "Ascension" picks up where the video game ends, but unlike the first novel, it doesn't use any characters from the game. They merely mention the events and how the current characters feel about such things, so if you're expecting the novel to tie directly into events from the video game like the first novel you'll be disappointed. Personally, I'm elated, I like seeing Mass Effect branch out to new territory in the universe. That way the game can focus on the game story lines and the novels can deal with those repercussions and write about something else.

"Ascension" sees the return of Kahlee Sanders whom we met in "Revelation". She's pretty much our main character in this novel. Since her last work in AI research she has decided to go into the field of studying biotics and their amp technology. Needless to say this novel centers around biotics, humans that have been exposed to something called Element Zero and can now display telekinetic powers. While "Ascension" doesn't go into exact detail of how their powers work we do get to see how they are trained to use their powers and such. Kahlee is one of the lead scientists at the Grissom Academy where the children biotics have been brought. There's a special student among them named Gillian who happens to be autistic and requires a lot of extra care, but there's something special about her biotic powers as well. Little did they know that the eyes of a secret organization called Cerberus have been studying them as well and things go wrong concerning Gillian's special case. Kahlee with a few others need to flee the installation with Gillian to try and get to a safe location!

I don't want to give too much away, but the involvement of Cerberus isn't kept a secret from the reader, in fact it's mentioned in the prologue, so I don't feel I am ruining the story for anyone. You get to visit a couple other interesting locations in this novel aside from the Academy. You get to visit a chaotic world with all kinds of variant aliens called Omega. The place is virtually lawless and there is constant fighting between species, as you can tell a lot of conflicts take place here. The other place we get to visit, that was definitely the highlight of the novel for me, is the Quarians' Migrant Fleet. As you can expect there is a healthy dose of Quarian characters, but that's what made it really fascinating for me. We get to learn a good amount about their culture and politics amidst all the intrigue and action. This is the first time we get to see real insight into their culture and I'm hoping that this is the first in a long string of novels that develop the various races. I would especially like to read a book dealing with Turian history and their home world!

Now I didn't rate this five stars like the first book so there must be a negative side to it. It was sort of a big one for me, but the Migrant Fleet kind of made up for it in the end. Basically I don't like the way this novel is organized. When the underground organization Cerberus enters the picture you know who all the double agents are right away. You don't find out as Kahlee finds out, you know well before hand. This is sort of frustrating because characters like Kahlee and Hendel act like they don't know anything about it and the reader knows why, but it's frustrating to go through the motions. It's just incredibly annoying when you have to read about a character suspecting something about the agent when you know for a fact their suspicions are true. You know for a fact they will eventually find out, you just intuitively know this because Kahlee is star and so far Drew hasn't really shown that he'll kill off a main character in a novel that quickly. Anyway, this makes for a sort of frustrating read in the beginning until the characters catch up with the readers knowledge, then it gets really good. I can see how this could be a huge turn off for some people, but the story was interesting enough for me to overlook these factors and keep reading. The worlds are just so fascinating that it does keep my interest. I loved reading about the academy and Omega enough to keep me engaged.

Other than that one negative side I thought this was a fun novel. I tore through this pretty quickly for me, and I'm usually kind of a slow reader. Once the action sequence kicks in, things go a lot faster and then you sort of forget about the negative flaw. If you liked the first book and the video game I would still recommend this. It's not as heavily dependent on the video game like the first novel, so you could easily read it stand alone right now. Even though Kahlee is a main character in "Revelation" the aspects of that story aren't as required, except for maybe knowing who her father is. Other than that it's a pretty descent science fiction read.(less)

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Sep 28, 2010 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is set in between the events of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. Over a decade has past between the first and second books in the Mass Effect franchise. The story is more personal in Ascension with the backgrounds established in Revelation being more fleshed out. Gamers who are interested in learning more about Cerberus will certainly be rewarded as the book revolves around a Cerberus project, which is not the Lazarus project. We will also get to see more of the Quarian society. Events...more

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Nov 15, 2009 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Unlike the first Mass Effect novel this is set after the events of the game and features Kahlee Sanders from the first novel. Its an enjoyable read, light read - just the sort of thing if you want to put your feet up for a day and do nothing. I really enjoyed this novel because it features the Quarians and their Migrant Fleet - two things I really wanted to know more about in game. As the first book echoed the back story for Captain Anderson, hopefully this book echo's some of the plot of the se...more

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Nov 28, 2009 William Johnson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: since-joining-goodreads, 2009

Reprinted from my website Secure Immaturity:

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 r...more

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Jun 03, 2009 Rhiannon Floyd rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, own, science-fiction

I expected this book to be somewhat similar to Revelation, both in the way it was written as well as the way Revelation added something to the overall Mass Effect story that was subtle, yet made you consider the game in a different way. Unfortunately, Ascension fell short for me.

The writing jumped from moment to moment, often repeating itself through the eyes of another character. There were far too many characters whose points of view we got to see, leaving me feeling like there was no clear fo...more

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Aug 08, 2008 Terry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gaming

Some of the darkest episodes in Mass Effect dealt with Cerberus, a shadowy organization who conducted illicit research and were willing to slaughter Alliance soldiers to cover their tracks. In Mass Effect: Ascension we learn that Cerberus is headed by the Illusive Man and that their goal is to ensure humanity’s dominance over alien races. This includes boosting biotic abilities in humans by causing prenatal exposure to Element Zero through a series of staged accidents. The Illusive Man has high...more Some of the darkest episodes in Mass Effect dealt with Cerberus, a shadowy organization who conducted illicit research and were willing to slaughter Alliance soldiers to cover their tracks. In Mass Effect: Ascension we learn that Cerberus is headed by the Illusive Man and that their goal is to ensure humanity’s dominance over alien races. This includes boosting biotic abilities in humans by causing prenatal exposure to Element Zero through a series of staged accidents. The Illusive Man has high hopes for young Gillian Grayson.

Gillian is a student in the Ascension Project and while she tests off the charts, her autism affects her ability to focus her biotic powers. Although Dr. Kahlee Sanders (returning from Mass Effect: Revelation) and Security Chief Hendel Mitra keep a close eye on her, Gillian is exposed to an unknown chemical by a Cerberus agent which leads to a disastrous use of her powers. With the Jon Grissom Academy compromised, Sanders and Mitra are forced to go into hiding with Gillian – even if it means trusting her red sand-addicted father. But is there anywhere in Alliance space that is safe from Cerberus?

Underwhelming. That’s the only way I can describe Drew Karpyshyn’s second novel set in BioWare’s Mass Effect universe. As a standalone science fiction novel, Ascension is limited in scope and comes to an unsatisfying conclusion. As a Mass Effect book, it’s a mixed bag. It’s set after the events of the game, but the monumental events which took place have little ramification in the book. Which isn’t to say that the book isn’t worth reading (for Mass Effect enthusiasts) – just don’t expect to read the further adventures of Commander Shepard. Instead, you’ll find out more about the quarians, learn of the insidious Collectors, and you’ll visit Omega – the Citadel’s dark reflection.

After playing Mass Effect, I had more appreciation for Karpyshyn’s first book. The same could happen after I play Mass Effect 2, but that potential payoff is still a year away.
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Nov 08, 2012 Tancredi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, canadesi

Questo è quel che ti succede a comprare un libro senza leggere attentamente la quarta di copertina. E' il secondo romanzo tratto da una serie di videogiochi. Eppure, è risultato leggibile e molto godibile.
Sicuramente apprezzabile dai fan della serie e dagli appassionati di una certa fantascienza militare, in realtà si può leggere da solo senza chiedere al lettore alcunché. Uno stand-alone capace di approfondire alcuni dettagli della serie, ma anche di raccontare una storia del tutto nuova.

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Nov 12, 2011 Kyle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mass Effect Ascension is a decent story in the Mass Effect series. Ascension’s point of view shifts back and forth from the few main characters of the story in the same fashion as the preceding Mass Effect novel Revelation. The characters have less relation to the your character, Sheppard in the video games. This creates a small amount of disconnect with the characters in Ascension, until they become developed, which they do. I enjoyed learning about them and over the course of the story I cared...more

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Reading Mass Effect Revlation right now, should i pick up Ascension after?	2	25	30. Oktober, 10:24 Uhr

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About Drew Karpyshyn

Drew Karpyshyn is a Canadian author and game designer. After working at a credit union for some time, he eventually became a game developer. He joined BioWare towards the end of the Baldur's Gate series, and wrote the tie-in novel for Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. He stayed with BioWare, where he worked on Neverwinter Nights, and became the Senior Writer on the critically acclaimed Star Wars:...more

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Books by Drew Karpyshyn

Star Wars: Path of Destruction (Star Wars: Darth Bane, #1)

Dynasty of Evil (Star Wars: Darth Bane, #3)

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“The mind with many secrets can never rest.” — 4 people liked it

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Mass Effect: Ascension (Mass Effect #2)

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