Revelation

Mass Effect: Revelation, written by Drew Karpyshyn, is the first novel in the Mass Effect universe and a darn good one at that.  Set several decades before the events of the first game, it tells the story of David Anderson - Commander Shepherd's eventual mentor and chief promoter - and his first encounter with Saren, the turian spectre.


We last saw Saren in Evolution blasting his own brother and an army of nasty bio-synthetic turians into oblivion with an orbital canon, and then vowing revenge.  Well, in Revelation, we get to see that anger has forged him into a cold and calculating killer.

By Chronology		By Publication Date
Title	Publication Date	Title	Publication Date
Evolution	9/21/2011	Revelation	5/1/2007
Revelation	5/1/2007	Mass Effect	11/16/2007
Mass Effect	11/16/2007	Ascension	7/29/2008
Incursion	6/21/2010	Galaxy	6/22/2009
Redemption	1/6/2010	Redemption	1/6/2010
Ascension	7/29/2008	Mass Effect 2	1/26/2010
Galaxy	6/22/2009	Incursion	6/21/2010
Paragon Lost	4/7/2011	Inquisition	6/21/2010
Mass Effect 2	1/26/2010	Retribution	7/27/2010
Retribution	7/27/2010	Paragon Lost	4/7/2011
Inquisition	6/21/2010	Conviction	7/26/2011
Deception	1/31/2012	Evolution	9/21/2011
Conviction	7/26/2011	Invasion	11/19/2011
Invasion	11/19/2011	Deception	1/31/2012
Infiltrator	3/6/2012	Infiltrator	3/6/2012
Homeworlds	4/25/2012	Homeworlds	4/25/2012
Mass Effect 3	11/18/2012	Mass Effect 3	11/18/2012

Sidon

The story opens with an incident at an Alliance research facility on a planet called Sidon.  Lt. Anderson and his squad are sent in to investigate.  They encounter and efficiently dispatch a group of mercenaries that have seemingly killed all the scientists inside.  As they delve further into the facility, Anderson finds evidence that suggests the scientists at Sidon were betrayed by one of their own. Unfortunately, one of the mercs, in a nasty bit of revenge, sets of the explosives they rigged.  Anderson and his team barely make it out alive.

Cut to Kahlee Sanders, a scientist recently stationed at Sidon.  We learn that she fled the facility shortly before the attack with several classified files in tow because she began to doubt the morality and ethics of those in charge.  While sitting at a bar on the human colony of Elysium, trying to decide what to do next, she learns of the attack on Sidon.  After being accosted by a mercenary posing as an Alliance MP, she runs to find help.

Edan Had'dah, a well-to-do batarian, meets with the Blue Sun mercenary group on Camala. The fake MP turns out to be a member of of the Blue Suns and failed the mission Edan had given him.  The batarian had also enlisted them to attack the Sidon facility. Fearing that Sanders has information linking him to the attack, Edan hires the krogan bounty hunter Skarr to track her down and kill her.

David Anderson

Anderson meets with Ambassador Goyle, the Alliance representative on the Citadel. From her, Anderson learns that the Sidon facility was in fact researching AI. If you'll remember from our last Codex post, this is considered a major No-No by Citadel Council space thanks to the geth uprising (more on the geth coming up).  Goyle tasks Anderson with locating Kahlee as she may know who was behind the attack.

Meanwhile, our favorite psychotic turian, Saren, ambushes an illegal weapons deal at a warehouse on Juxhi, killing nearly everyone involved.  After interrogating one survivor, Saren follows the trail to a Blue Sun merc - upon whom he exacts nasty violence - and learns about Skarr.

Anderson tracks Kahlee to Elysium and to Jon Grissom, a famed Alliance soldier who lead the team that went through the first mass relay.  Grissom, hailed as a hero, has retired and wants nothing more than to be left alone.  He is also Kahlee's father.  Grissom tells Anderson that he sent his daughter away from Elysium. Anderson leaves.

Later that evening, Skarr barges into Grissom's home.  Grissom and Kahlee try to fight him off, but the krogan easily has the upper hand until Anderson returns and jumps into the fight.  Even with Anderson help, the krogan is relentless and nearly kills Anderson when Saren appears.  The spectre injures Skarr, and the krogan flees into the night. When Saren questions Kahlee about Sidon, she tells him that they were researching human biotics, though Saren suspects that she is lying.

After Skarr's failure to kill Sanders, Edan orders him to take a band of mercs and destroy the batarian manufacturer that supplied the Sidon facility, again part of his cleanup to erase his involvement in AI research.  Skarr and the Blue Suns are brutally efficient in their task.  Saren investigates the remains of the facility after the attack as do Anderson and Sanders.  From the sole surviving employee of the manufacturing plant, Saren learns of Edan's involvement.

Kahlee Sanders

Kahlee confesses to Anderson that she knows who the Sidon traitor was: Dr. Shu Qian, the head scientist at the facility. Dr. Qian had found an alien artifact from a time before even the Protheans.  Gradually, the artifact became Qian's sole obsession, and he began to go outside the bound of what was ethical with their research.  Anderson relays this to Ambassador Goyle wh in turn, tells the Citadel Council.  The Council officially sends Saren after Edan.  Goyle requests that Anderson be allowed to participate as a possible spectre candidate. Anderson agrees to join Saren and then helps Kahlee meet with Alliance military in order to get her off Camala. However, Saren takes advantage of the situation and tips off Edan's contacts. Skarr and the Blue Suns attack as the marine try to get Kahlee off-world.  They kill all the marines, destroy the rescue ship, and capture Kahlee, now considered an important asset by Qian and Edan.

Saren tracks them to an element zero refinery.  He and Anderson forge an uneasy truce; Saren agrees to allow Anderson time to rescue Kahlee before destroying the refinery.  Secretly, Saren has become interested in Qian's alien artifact for his own personal reasons.  Anderson sneaks past the work camps and into the facility.  He locates Kahlee, but Skarr stands in his way.  After a hard fight, Anderson kills Skarr and rescues Kahlee just as Saren destroys the refinery.  Unbeknownst to everyone else, Saren has also killed Qian and Edan, stealing the head scientist's files in the process.  The humans meet up with the spectre and they leave for the Citadel.

Saren's report on the mission paints a bad picture of Anderson and the Council reject his application to the spectres, feeling humanity is not yet ready. Saren also cleverly leaves out any evidence of the alien artifiact. Throughout the story, Anderson and Kahlee become attracted to each other, but sadly decide to part ways amicably.

Saren learns from Qian's research that the artifact is actually an enormous starship of devastating power called Sovereign (cue the dun-dun-DUN!). Believing he can resist the influence that the ship on Qian and Edan, the spectre heads off into space to find the ship and use it as his instrument of revenge against humanity.

Overall, Revelation was a fantastic novel.  It really adds a lot more meat to the things that happen throughout the Mass Effect franchise, and provide a good basis for what comes next.  Karpyshyn's writing is excellent and he does a great job of pulling the most out of a particular scene.  You really get a sense of who these characters are and what drives them.  And he writes some friggin' awesome fight scenes!  I made several mental notes on the way he wrote and hope to incorporate some of that into my own writing.

On Thursday, we'll have a few more Codex entries.  Coming up on Monday we finally get to the first blog post for the Mass Effect game.   Be excited!