Fans Tear New Mass Effect Book to Shreds

[fnartilter]

Shitty book with glaring inconsistencies aside, this thread and that google doc are an enjoyable read. Nothing turns my brain on more than reading hypothesis on fictional universes (that I love). It's just so goddamn fun! I'm glad this happened.

For an OT example: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.html

 

[The Funslinger]

(Characters getting killed by a sharpened toothbrush, another character stealing cereal to prove how much of a badass he is)

Well, to be fair, sharpened toothbrushes are a common make of prison shiv.

Spoiler: as for stealing cereal

 

[Leftnt Sharpe]

Let me introduce you to the Leftnt Sharpe Tie-in fiction rating scale, starting from worse to best:

-Author needs to be punched in the face (C.S Goto goes here).
-Tie-in bad (Dietz is about here).
-Tie in average (Karpyshan here).
-Tie-in good (Karen Traviss goes here? Also Sandy Mitchell).
-Dan Abnett (Pretty self-explanatory)

It should be noted that when comparing tie-in books to actual works of literature they should be moved down one category. For example a book that is 'tie-in good' is merely average by normal standards and Dan Abnett would be reduced from 'God Emperor of tie-in fiction mancrush level' to merely good.

Please feel free to rip apart my life's work.

This system should come in hand in the future.
But what do I get to do to Goto if his work is compared to literature.

It is a fate that truly only the most terrible of hacks deserve and it is never spoken of in public.

Author's face needs to be held in the Deep Fat Fryer?

Whilst satisfying, especially in the case of Goto who wrote the single most disappointing book I have ever read in my life, this still allows the author to maintain the ability to write. Thus it is not severe enough, you get an A for slightly disturbing creativity though.

 

[Amaror]

Well Timeline mistakes aren't something new for bioware.
The Dragon Age series is full of them, and i don't mean just Dragon Age 2, where a 4 year war ended in 1 year etc.
The Books of Dragon Age are just as fucked up in the timeline.
I don't remember exactly but according to the books alistair would have been somethink like 50 in DAO^^

 

[DTWolfwood]

13. Quarian clothing - Quarians wear environmentally sealed suits to protect their weakened immune systems. They do not wear "a motley collection of clothing, held together by a variety of straps and metal fasteners". [Error: Lore]

This made me chuckle XD

 

[Keava]

What surprises me more is people actually buying those books. I haven't really seen yet a game tie-in story that would actually be worth reading. The lack of interactivity flattens the story, the writing is usually pretty generic and there is so many restraints on authors that They can't even do anything fun most of the time.

If the publishers these days had enough decency to respect Their customer They would bundle those books with game copies (like Baldur's Gate released in my country contained a book from Forgotten Realms series, as a free bonus, to normal edition) Until that happens tho, I'll treat them just as yet another "Need moar money" move.

 

[Chaos42]

its one of the reasons i stopped reading novels that were for popular sci fi series. Star Trek is a big problem there are lots of errors in those novels -star wars is slightly less but they get a lot of recons since episodes 1-3. Though the Thrawn trilogy were great and i would suggest it to anyone who likes sci fi to read the books -the first one being heir to the empire.

But the other issue is i don't think these people actually know what their doing half the time. Its like they have the basic outlines but have never seen or haven't watch much of the shows -also that they feel they can reinvent things. A lot of it frequently makes little to no sense.

 

[M-E-D The Poet]

And the thing is, as someone who read a 55 page excerpt of the novel, the errors are glaring at times. Some on that list are nitpicky, but others are simple facts. Example:

- Two characters are now 18 when they were 12/13 at the end of ME1, which is said to have taken place two years prior
- One of those characters was also Autistic, now they aren't
- Biotics are now suddenly ranked by power level and can level up if they gain enough experience
- A character who was dead is now alive
- A character who is known as a racist and was introduced to us by talking about how much he hates the Asari now thinks Asari are hot
- Many others (Just look how long that list is!)

Believe me, the list also ignores the simply amateurish writing (Characters getting killed by a sharpened toothbrush, another character stealing cereal to prove how much of a badass he is). It takes actual effort to have this many errors. You have to intentionally ignore the source material when it's staring you in the face.

There's hitting the mark, missing the mark, and shooting yourself in the foot. This book picks the third option.

I wonder tho how many of these are just worded wrong
The turian error is easily explained by the fact that in the mass effect universe Batarian slavers can mean A a batarian who is a slaver B A batarian space ship used for slaving C A Batarian in his profession as slaver, his ship crew and his organisation.

Which could easily turn that error into being "a batarian slaver fleet" instead of 10 batarians who happen to be slavers or whatever it says it's correcting

The only thing I'd nitpick about then is why they're called batarian pirates if they're slavers but the essence is still the same

Just something that entered my head

 

[M-E-D The Poet]

Element 0 isn't something that's physically impossible, it's literally nothing! You can't have nothing as your magical crystals!

Okay, can't quite believe I'm getting into this, but that isn't exactly right. The atomic number refers to an element's number of protons, not the total mass of the nucleus. So Element Zero would just be an atom with no protons (cf neutron stars). It still doesn't make perfect sense, but it's better than, well, nothing

On topic... GOOD GRIEF. I spend an indecent amount of time keeping track of Mass Effect canon in my head (particularly how things would be changed by what happened in my playthrough), and I'm also an amateur author. Something like this just hurts...

But with no protons would that not mean that the substance would have no chemical properties. It would be something more like beta or alpha decay which I don't think would be considered an element so Element zero could be seen as being non existent.

P.S.
This is just based on my vague understanding i obtained in high school.

well... it isn't called element zero for nothing?

Right??

Right?
right!

 

[Weaver]

Hahaha, thats nothing. These people have clearly never read anything by C.S. Goto. His work has been declared purgatis hereticus extremis in 5 sectors.

Them spore mines, dragging a companies standard bearer away.

 

[Warachia]

Not that im surprised that a game related tie in book is sucky.. but did anyone at Bioware even read the thing? Why would they hire someone, and okay that book when its quite obvious the guy knows nothing about the game or the universe.

Sometimes it's not necessarily hiring the guy as it is the guy wants to make a story, so he goes to them to try and get it greenlit, when it is greenlit, it's sometimes out of their hands, and now it's between him and the publisher, who hide behind the excuse of "If it's bad, they won't buy it."

Not to say that's how it happened here, that's just how it could happen, and indeed does happen with other properties.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Not that im surprised that a game related tie in book is sucky.. but did anyone at Bioware even read the thing? Why would they hire someone, and okay that book when its quite obvious the guy knows nothing about the game or the universe.

Sometimes it's not necessarily hiring the guy as it is the guy wants to make a story, so he goes to them to try and get it greenlit, when it is greenlit, it's sometimes out of their hands, and now it's between him and the publisher, who hide behind the excuse of "If it's bad, they won't buy it."

Not to say that's how it happened here, that's just how it could happen, and indeed does happen with other properties.

I dont claim to have knowledge of how book publishing works but i suppose that makes sense... But it still seems ridiculous to me that Bioware/EA wouldnt retain SOME level of creative control over the project, or at least be able to have some quality control.

 

[Warachia]

wait wait wait wait... you helped develop all the codex entries in ME1?

WHAT?!

and you've been a member since 2003?

WAS THE ESCAPIST EVEN ALIVE BACK THEN?!

ok ok ok, so what's your take on this then? Did the author really screw up that bad?

And I could have SWORN that I heard a reference in ME2 that the Turian fleet was caught off guard by the attack and was destroyed... but then, maybe this was a reference to ships patrolling the Citadel... After all (correct me if I'm wrong), isn't the Turian Fleet given responsibility to protect the Citadel?

This doesn't really answer the question (At least to me) as to why humans are the only major power to be in control over the galaxy in ME2 if you didn't save the Ascension... Weren't they in power because they were the only race capable of maintaining order? isn't that much said by anderson and the other humans?

hmmm.. ah well.

Okay, I'll correct you, the turians were guarding the citadel along with other races (the ascension is an asari ship) but since the majority of the fleet protecting the citadel (again, fleet doesn't refer to ALL of a races armada) were turians, that's why shepard mentions that the turians failed to protect the citadel.

The reason humans were in power if you chose to let the ascension be destroyed is partly due to a stronger fleet, and mostly due to clever politicians, if you put Udina in charge he reinforces the notion that the other races need humanity to hold them all together and without them, the council will be stuck in making a decision while an enemy fleet pillages their worlds, in essence, he relies on scare tactics.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Oh, I really hope people are doing this for the Halo books. Because although I haven't read the most recent ones, what I've heard alone makes me cringe.

I have respect for those ME fans. If they're going to memorize everything that ever happened in Shepard's universe, then they deserve to be given something that fits.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

pft, eff that, I'm gonna read the whole book! Then we'll see.

I have my hesitantion to trust fanboy rage because it's quite easy for them to take things out of context (especially when the evidence produced thus far, such as the Turian military bit, is weak at best).

Still, I understand where you're coming from, and it's unfortunate that this would happen.

Please, please don't. This piece of crap doesn't deserve to make any money.

To paraphrase another poster, it isn't worth reading even if you could read it for free.

Not nessecarily bad thing those inconsistents. If there weren't so many I would never have read this article and thus become avare of the fact that new ME book has hit the shelves. Thenagain now I must contemplate whether it's worth buying.

It's not. It's really, really not.

The lore/tech fails are bad, but the plot fails are worse. And the character fails. Those don't count as errors, so they didn't make the list, but they're honestly the worst thing of all. If you enjoyed the previous three books, then please, please don't buy this one. It is an insult to the previous three.

Edit: AND... if you just want to read it for the LOLs, you might want to consider seeing if you can get it from one of the unfortunate Escapist in this thread who made the mistake of preordering it. That way no further sales go to the book, but you still satisfy your morbid curiosity. Plus, the people who are upset about spending money on it might be able to get something back.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Every halo book ever.

Also, Drew Karpyshyn never made a halo novel, as far as i can recall.

Oh, I really hope people are doing this for the Halo books. Because although I haven't read the most recent ones, what I've heard alone makes me cringe.

I have respect for those ME fans. If they're going to memorize everything that ever happened in Shepard's universe, then they deserve to be given something that fits.

We do.

The Halo books are actually really, really good, even compared to actual non adapted sci fi.

If you are referring to cryptum, the people complaing are mostly sour canon nerds who don't like the direction 343 is going.

They didn't break any canon whatsoever, though,

 

[The Wykydtron]

Oh well, tie-in books are hardly paragons of fact checking are they? Remember the amount of crap that was thrown at the Halo books for... Some reason... I've never read them myself but i remember the amount of RAGE was quite large.

Quickly someone declare them non-canon so we can all go home! Or can we all just assume that they are and always will be non-canon? That's what I do anyway.

The epic WRONG! The fans are throwing up probably translates to "I spent fucking ages reading the Codex and i'm gonna fuck you up for wasting my time Random Author Guy!"

Go team awesome!

 

[TheDoctor455]

Huh... that critique sounds like it was written by a former Mass Effect Universe (MEU) moderater.