Mass Effect: Retribution Novel Released

At some point yesterday, Drew Karpyshyn’s third Mass Effect novel, Retribution, became available for purchase. I haven’t read his earlier works (Mass Effect: Revelation and Mass Effect: Ascension) yet, but the reviews on Amazon lead me to believe that they’re pretty good. Anyway, here’s the description:

Retribution is set in the universe fans know well from the video game and novel series one in which humanity has explored the very farthest reaches of the universe, only to discover the ruthless Reapers, a race bent on extinguishing all organic life. One man is bent on discovering the Reapers’ secrets, the mysterious Illusive Man, the leader of a pro-human, black ops group, Cerberus. And he’s devised the perfect plan: implant a human subject with Reaper technology in order to study the enemy.

He also has the perfect test subject Paul Grayson, an ex-Cerberus operative. Grayson betrayed Cerberus in order to save his daughter. So when Grayson is kidnapped and made the subject of Cerberus’ evil experiments, the Illusive Man will finally have his revenge…

And then GameInformer proceeds to give us five reasons why we should pick it up:

1. Continuity
The story picks up shortly after the events of Mass Effect 2, and includes most of the major characters from the two previous novels, Revelation and Ascension. However, this book seems to have a greater connection to the games than its predecessors. Of course, it won’t be required reading to enjoy the next game in the series, but I will say (without spoiling anything) that it will be difficult to have Anderson or The Illusive Man make appearances in Mass Effect 3 without at least mentioning the events of this book.

2. Learn more about the Reapers
Mass Effect 2 concludes with the threat of an imminent Reaper attack. How are these sentient machines preparing for their assault? Who are their agents paving the way? How do they manipulate these agents from the farthest reaches of space? Retribution provides answers to these questions…though they aren’t always complete answers.

If that wasn’t convincing enough, why not check out the first chapter for free?