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Reader Comments (67)

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:04AM king kagi said

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Well then , that seems like an interesting read.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 12:54PM InfernoShade said

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@king kagi
Let me save you time. I've read all the Halo books except Dietz's. Why? Because it was unreadable IMO. I tried but it was very terrible. While I can't speak to his other work, if this is an example, I'm certainly not going to bother wasting time reading anything he's written.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:10AM Faceless Troll said

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Too bad the creators of Mass Effect are on record as saying there is no canon. :smug:

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:15AM NukeAssault said

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@Faceless Troll

Non canon? Non problem!
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:54AM Chief Oddball said

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@Faceless Troll

That may be, but from reading the Google Doc, it seems like a large part of the problem is that Deception throws out all sorts of continuity established by previous novels, to say nothing of what the ME games themselves establish. I could understand the novels taking some creative liberties and departing slightly from what the games tell us, but when the books aren't even be consistent amongst themselves, that's a real problem IMO.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:27AM Faceless Troll said

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@Chief Oddball It's your own fault for reading licensed fanfiction.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 3:56AM (Unverified) said

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@Faceless Troll Ya.. you deserve to be downvoted for the one. The last three Mass Effect books were fantastic. Personally I find video game novels to be very well written most of the time.

The Halo books are among my favorite books ever written. The Gears books make playing the games much more fun, knowing more about the characters and their motivations. If that's not your thing, fine, but there's no reason to bash it when you obviously haven't even read the books yourself.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 4:00AM Faceless Troll said

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@(Unverified) When was the last time you read a novel that wasn't related to a video-game or a movie?
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 5:34AM Dick Socrates said

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@(Unverified) If you're going to read a book, read a classic. Don't waste your time with video game novels. Even if it's entertaining, it's a waste of time, literally.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 5:57AM Design by Adrian said

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@Dick Socrates Not a waste of time. I loved ME1 & 2 so much I want to continue living in the story! I finally understood why people continued reading Star Wars and Star Trek books.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 8:40AM Lerkero said

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@Faceless Troll

I think what they meant is that there is no videogame continuity due to differences in choices among players.

There is still some continuity in the overall Mass Effect universe: events the player doesn't control, characteristics and cultures of races, positions of planets, technology, etc.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:04AM sammo21 said

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@Faceless Troll For one, your name describes you to a tee. Secondly, they have gone on record saying that there is no official canon with Shephard's character...not the universe itself. Lastly, you're a moron.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:16AM Vic Fontaine said

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@Dick Socrates
Huh, that's the same arguement people used on my playing video games, especially in college! I don't get how people like you can be such judgemental twats!

And those "so called classics" suck with very few exceptions. Take "Great Expectations" for instance, if I recall my high school English class correctly Charles Dickens basically treated that one like a soap opera, padding it out as long as possible because he got paid by the word and wanted to send out as many chapters as possible. I just don't get why these books get so much attention at school, it's just another breed of fanboyism. Just because a book was written 100+ years ago doesn't automatically make it better than, say, Bioshock Rapture.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:23AM Vic Fontaine said

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@Vic Fontaine
I also forgot my last point (must be all those videogames and gamer books making my brain rot): How is reading a “classic” not a waste of time? Do you magically win a prize when you finish the book?
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:55AM R Planteer said

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@Faceless Troll

I own War and Peace, Sherlock Holmes, and tons of other classics.

I also own several of the Halo books and some trashy mangas. Being able to enjoy one doesn't exclude you from enjoying the other.

Grow up.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 11:53AM Faceless Troll said

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@R Planteer

The fact that it occurred to you to list a bunch of hoyty-toity novels that nobody reads instead of any other popular contemporary author means my point has been made.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:15PM RogueJedi86 said

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@Faceless Troll

I take issue with you calling the ME novels "licensed fanfiction". 3 of the 4 ME novels were written by Drew Karpshyn who also wrote the ME games. I think when a story is written by the guy who wrote the source material, it's a little higher than "fan" fiction.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:26PM Ruinkind said

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@Faceless Troll

You're looking nice and fat, what with all the people who have been feeding you today. I, for one, congratulate you. Superbly trolled my good sir!
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Posted: Feb 5th 2012 4:41PM Halfcentaur said

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@Dick Socrates Way to murder the creativity of millions of human beings over a pretentious standard.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:11AM Threepwood42 said

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Why couldn't Drew have just written it? I just started the first novel he wrote in the ME universe and am quite enjoying it, sad to hear that this one is such a steaming pile o' the brown stuff....

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:44AM PN04 said

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@Threepwood42
I'd say just stick with the Karpyshyn novels. They're highly enjoyable and don't cause any horrendous damage to the timeline. I could say I'd have accepted the new novel if it never referred to any of the characters from previous continuity, but there are some things you should at least try to maintain a leash on otherwise why would anyone stick around for the long haul?
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:37PM RogueJedi86 said

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@Threepwood42

If I had to guess, it's because he's got a busy schedule. He writes the ME novels, the ME games(even if he only cow-rote ME2, have no idea his ME3 role if any), his Darth Bane novels, plus the writing he's been doing for Star Wars: The Old Republic(a big enough job that he moved to Austin just to work at BioWare Austin writing for TOR). Among other things on TOR, I know he had a big hand in the Jedi Knight story, so you could think of the JK story as a continuation of KotOR.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:19AM Dex22 said

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So... is that why it's titled "Deception?"

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:20AM nerdydesi1 said

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Worst.......novel...........EVER!

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:47AM Faceless Troll said

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@nerdydesi1

I take it you don't read much.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:50AM DreamingDarkly said

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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:24AM ailurus74 said

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inb4 100+ irrational "further proof that Bioware doesn't care about us anymore and ME3 is going to suck gg EA" comments as always.

:|

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:49AM neojames82 said

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@ailurus74 Well they don't.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:47AM PN04 said

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@neojames82
I think Bioware cares...EA is still evil, just not as evil as Activision, but still evil. As for the book
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:23AM (Unverified) said

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@PN04 I think they've overshot Activision at this point.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:35PM darkinchworm said

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@(Unverified)
Project Ten Dollar and Project Yank Our Damned Servers Out From Underneath You LOL Good Luck With Those Online Achievements...

Need we say more?
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:24AM Schlecht said

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Man, that's a very unfortunate and common problem with game series based novels. The only ones I read that didn't have any really have any canonical errors were the Gears of War books that are between Gears 2 and 3.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:29AM commonperson said

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Drew was probably busy writing his Star Wars novel which was actually pretty bad too. I've noticed a marked decline in quality of the 'bioware books' it's a shame. Bioware are usually careful about this kind of stuff. I wonder if they'll even aknowledge the issues as the last ME book had implications to ME 2.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:29AM (Unverified) said

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@commonperson DA Asunder being lukewarm and full of mistakes, and now the latest ME novel being written by some ink slinger with little familiarity with the setting? Yeah.

Bioware Books
2009-2011
Taken too soon.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:40AM Uberdave said

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I'm just going to leave this here:

bill@williamcdietz.com

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 1:46AM BioSehnsucht said

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Actually, even though you saved the day at the end of ME1, the Citadel still was damaged... apparently some of these "experts" never played ME2. Or paid any attention during the ending of ME1... like big chunks of ships / that reaper falling into the citadel had no impact?

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:04AM trevorcanuck said

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@BioSehnsucht
Exactly what I was thinking--Shepard prevented the plan from succeeding; didn't prevent it from happening.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:15AM AquaKinesis said

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@BioSehnsucht

The point is that Anderson said it was damaged because of the Citadel trap being successful, even though Shepard prevented it from happening. True, Anderson was probably just referring to the battle of the Citadel, but the author could have at least worded it better.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 9:16AM Uncommon said

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@AquaKinesis I wont defend the book, but in ME2 when you visit the Citadel I believe a security officer mentions the damage after the attack on the citadel and that they were still making repairs.

Also, even though the reapers did not fully realize victory, everyone still fell into their trap. The trap did not fully spring though so I guess you are correct.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 2:00AM Haizeus said

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Judging by the script leaks, I'd say he has the same level of respect for Mass Effect's canon as Bioware.


huehuehue

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 3:02AM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

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This brings back memories......

*Flash back of the big error in Terminator 3*

John Connor was not 13 in T2. He was 10 damnit

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 5:13AM Slurpstwo said

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Isaac Isamov too old school for some folks here i guess...

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 5:30AM Osprey Dawn said

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Dietz? I remember his Halo book being pretty bad too. A shame, I could have done with some more Mass Effect reading.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 6:58AM Iamdude said

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Let's hope that this is not indicative of how ME3's continuity is handled.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 7:20AM rowd149 said

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Did one of the bad Halo novels come from this guy? *checks* The Flood by William C. Dietz. Yup, all you had to know that this would be a stinker was to be familiar with this guy's other licensed work. Pure dreck.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 11:16AM SurlyDuff said

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@rowd149 The Flood was the laziest licensed book I've ever read. It was like he just watched somebody playing Halo: CE and he transcribed it court reporter style. Simply awful. The Flood is the only Halo novel I didn't finish... but Glasslands may be the 2nd.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 8:29AM Teliko said

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I knew I had reason to worry about the terrible author behind The Flood writing this. I was looking forward to pick that book up today, too. Goddammit.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 8:39AM Uncommon said

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BioWare books are going down hill fast for me. I really enjoyed the first two Mass Effect books and the first Dragon Age book. I think I will stop investing in supplemental media for BioWare games.

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 10:25AM (Unverified) said

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@Uncommon Ditto. I think the ME3 art book will be the last non-game Bioware thing I pick up. They've fatally diluted the quality of their supplemental products in the past 12-16 months.
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Posted: Feb 1st 2012 11:03AM Uncommon said

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@(Unverified) Yeah, you cant mess up timelines or canon much in an art book, haha. I stopped getting the comics and novels for ME. They are just pumping them out at this point. The first rounds of books and comics at least SEEMED to be produced for the fans, not just for revenue.
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