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.