A review by marilynw
Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente

4.0

I'm a big fan of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games so I read all the related books as soon as they come out. My four star rating is based on loving the games, having played them over and over, knowing the lore, and wanting more content in the games, and if not there, in books. I don't see how the books could be really enjoyed without the background of the games they are linked to but in the case of this prequel, for a series of games that I love to play, I was very happy to be able to indulge in more ME.

The first part of the book introduced us to the characters on a ship to Andromeda that had a big problem. We'd meet a character and then they would go into a long memory of the past that gave us an idea of what the character was like, and this could be pretty tedious at times. At the same time, we did need to care about the characters and I began to do that with several of them. The second, shorter part of the book, then provided the satisfactory "fixing the problem", as best as it could be fixed, with the limited resources and time that the ship leaders had to do so.

I do wish we'd get to see these characters in the next ME game but I'm not sure another ME will ever come out and even if it does, they may go a completely different direction. For all I know, this may be the last new ME content. I know we hear rumors of this or that, but I'll believe there will be another game when it actually comes out.