Generally, one doesn't expect that much from a tie-in novel, but even with low expectations this was a weak book. The prose is serviceable, but lifeless and utterly bland. There wasn't a single line or turn of phrase I bothered to remember after reading it. This deficiency could have been redeemed by an interesting story or characters, but the book had neither. The author refuses to even stick with a character. The book changes POVs constantly, often darting off to some unimportant background character for no other reason than that they are in the position to relate plot-relevant information to the reader. Most of these characters die soon after. Because of the book's short attention span, the reader is left with little idea of what makes even the major characters tick besides some really basic traits. For a book-only character like Kahlee Sanders, this is just boring. But when it involves flattening out characters that actually show up in the games, it's downright tragic.

I wouldn't argue that Saren was magnificently characterized in Mass Effect, given the limitations of the video game media on that score, but the implication of far more to him and the hints of a layered person is there. And it's completely lost in this book in the interest of Saren being a distant, scheming homicidal sociopath. Around the sixth time he blithely watched some random person die agonizingly I felt that there wasn't anyone didn't already get the point, yet Karpyshyn continues to belabor. Saren's counterpart, Anderson, brilliantly voiced by Keith David in the video game series, is presented here with no apparent personality traits outside of Good Noble Soldier.

The basic plot itself isn't especially poor and, I imagine, could have made for an exciting romp in someone else's hands. But here it just plods along leaving you eternally wondering when it will really get going. In addition, given that the encounter between Anderson and Saren that this book is supposed to be about had an intense effect on Anderson decades down the line, it's shunted all the way to the end of the book like an afterthought, with no substantial lead-up or build to it.

Not the worst thing I've ever read, but perhaps the most forgettable.