Book Review: Mass Effect Andromeda - Nexus Uprising

Mass Effect Andromeda is a sour note in the history of the Mass Effect franchise, there's no dancing around that reality. It was a product which suffered issue after issue during it's development. Those issues didn't stop once the game was released either, as critics and general audiences ripped this game apart for it's underwhelming plot, janky and buggy gameplay and just all around failure to live up to the expectations set by the prior games. The reason I bring up the game is because just like it's failure to deliver the type of experience fans wanted, the novel tie-in; Nexus Uprising only succeeds in reinforcing the disappointment this entry in the franchise is layered in.

Nexus Uprising, written by Jason M Hough; is based around the preceding events of the multi-species colony hub called the Nexus as it arrives in the Andromeda galaxy. Part of a unified effort under the name of the Andromeda Initiative, multiple species agreed to set forth to the Andromeda galaxy from the Milky Way on individual colony arks. The aim was to hibernate thousands upon thousands of species as they made their way outwards to escape the Reaper threat and forge a new home across the stars. This hope relies on the Nexus, which acts as the main hub port for the arks to dock on as they each arrive into the galaxy. That hope is quickly put to the test as soon as the Nexus arrives in Andromeda however, as a strange energy form called the Scourge lays waste to the Nexus and damages all of it's main systems to a near critical state. Finding herself woke up in a unideal way, security chef director Sloane Kelly is tasked with assessing the situation and working together with the emergency response crew to ascertain the damage and work on a plan to maintain the Nexus before the main arks arrive. This serves as the primary foundation for the novel's narrative, as we follow Sloane and the rest of the Nexus command try to patch up the ship and stamp out any developing issues as they arise.

I'm not going to pretend for one minute that I liked this story. This book spans 475 pages and in all that time I never felt my investment was being rewarded or respected. There are multitudes of problems with the book but but it's biggest problem is easily it's narrative. You're expected to follow multiple perspectives and watch the situation on the Nexus fluctuate constantly and usually that level of unpredictability would be fun and engaging but somehow this story makes it so unbearable to work through. Part of this issue lies behind the characters themselves; Sloane especially. I honestly don't get how every single character in this story feels so rotten and grating to read from. Sloane Kelly feels like a over-exaggeration of a "no-shit" style character to a point where she is the only character in this story and the games who swears on a constant, unnecessary basis. She is needlessly aggressive and defensive in every situation and she layers every action with a sickening sense of judgement, so why on earth did the story want you to root for her!? The rest of the Andromeda operation crew is no better either! They're all a bunch of morons who can't get on the same page and constantly seek to undermine everyone for no reason whatsoever. The fact the book asks you to invest time in experiencing the story through these character reflects how tone-deaf it feels.

Speaking of tone and pacing, oh my lord what a dumpster fire! Every single page in this book drags and drags to a point where I really, really didn't want to finish. I was THIS close to quitting on a book and I've never done that before. Every scene in this book is extended upon several pages and you are just sitting there wanting it to get to the bloody point! I love the Mass Effect universe and would happily sit there and read a 500 page dissection of the Krogan geophage, but you can't ask me to get behind this book's contents. It's riddled with a constant need to feel smart and clever when in reality is anything but and it never knows when to finish up a scene without overexplaining or analysing the bread crumbs on the table.

Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising has achieved a mighty feat in my eyes. It has cemented itself as the worst book I've read in my life so far. How on earth you can take a franchise I adore to the utmost degree and make it this condescending and boring I will never know. Mass Effect Andromeda itself may have had it's issues, but deep down you had a sense of real potential and hope for a great game lying underneath all it's mistakes. I'm less so inclined to see that with this book, there's nothing remotely salvageable from this mess of a story and you would do well in avoiding it, even if you do like Mass Effect Andromeda it's simply not worth it.