Review:
Mass Effect: Revelation

"Mass Effect: Revelation one of the most interesting back stories to the universe: How did Lt. David Anderson lose his chance to be a Spectre? If you're a fan of the games this book won't disappoint."

The Mass Effect universe is both rich and interesting and since I've played through Mass Effect 1 at least 7 times (no, really I have) I wanted to gain as much insight and back story in the game as possible. I am also a big fan of Drew Karpyshyn's writing and in this book he has picked up on the perfect back story for the first game. Revelation serves as the prequel to the first game and instead of looking at one of Shepard's stories (such as the tragedy of Akuze), it looks to his old mentor - David Anderson for guidance.

Thanks to the discovery of an ancient Alien base on Mars, humanity is shifted with rapid advances in technology based on the ancient race (the Protheans) who mysteriously went through a mass extinction across the entire galaxy 50,000 years ago. Though the nature of its discovery is shrouded in a sea of speculation - the proof finally makes humanity band together as they distinguish themselves from the aliens. With the advances in technology it is not long before humanity stumbles upon the Mass Relay on the breaches of their solar system, the suspected apex of Prothean society.

When humanity traverses through the Mass Relays they come into contact with other intelligent life forms and make quick moves to attack the aliens they meet. Later identified as the Turians, Humanity and Turian battled each other in a conflict known as the First Contact War which caused substantial losses on both sides prior to intervention from the Citadel Council. The Citadel Council, consisting of the 3 most powerful races in the galactic community stop the conflict and welcome humans into the wider galactic society though Humanity is tainted by the views of the alien races - casting humans as a violent and aggressive race.

After the prologue ends, you are shifted forward 8 years where you begin to directly follow David Anderson - the Human Systems Alliance's most promising young soldier and a model for the strength of the alliance as a whole. David Anderson is sent on a mission to a top secret Alliance facility that is conducting research considered illegal in Citadel space to investigate why the facility has lost contact. When he gets there, things go horribly wrong as he finds nearly all personnel dead with the exception of one who signed off earlier that day and is a suspect in the murder.