A review by esotericelixir
Nexus Uprising by K. C. Alexander, Jason M. Hough
2.0
I'm a massive fan of the Mass Effect series and do a playthrough at least once a year (at a minimum). This is, however, the first Mass Effect book that I have read - to be honest, I don't think I'm going to be running out to get to the other books. I don't know if it's because this type of story translates better in a video game format or if this particular story isn't written in a way which gripped me.
This is the prequel setting the story before the events of Mass Effect: Andromeda. It didn't particularly shed too much light on what you aren't able to glean from playing the game, but it did give you a closer insight into the happenings. It also shocks me that they were able to get the Nexus functioning as much as they did prior to Ryder making their way, particularly with how they didn't seem to make too many great decisions (and they're meant to be the best of the galaxy ...)
Sloane Kelly is not someone that I warmed to in the game and this book didn't do too much to change that. Her personality was rough and abrasive, mixed together with selfish behaviours really cemented the fact that I choose to side with Reyes. I'm not sure if we were meant to empathise with Sloane or if we were meant to see her as the protagonist or antagonist - it wasn't very consistent and I found it quite tough to feel any sort of feelings towards her apart from "when will this book be over". Tann and Addison remained the same annoying characters they were in the game.
This book switched viewpoints quite often without any clear direction when it was happening and boy did the book drag. It felt like about 3/4 of the book could have been chopped and not much would have changed - which is not a good look for a book.
This is the prequel setting the story before the events of Mass Effect: Andromeda. It didn't particularly shed too much light on what you aren't able to glean from playing the game, but it did give you a closer insight into the happenings. It also shocks me that they were able to get the Nexus functioning as much as they did prior to Ryder making their way, particularly with how they didn't seem to make too many great decisions (and they're meant to be the best of the galaxy ...)
Sloane Kelly is not someone that I warmed to in the game and this book didn't do too much to change that. Her personality was rough and abrasive, mixed together with selfish behaviours really cemented the fact that I choose to side with Reyes. I'm not sure if we were meant to empathise with Sloane or if we were meant to see her as the protagonist or antagonist - it wasn't very consistent and I found it quite tough to feel any sort of feelings towards her apart from "when will this book be over". Tann and Addison remained the same annoying characters they were in the game.
This book switched viewpoints quite often without any clear direction when it was happening and boy did the book drag. It felt like about 3/4 of the book could have been chopped and not much would have changed - which is not a good look for a book.