Mass Effect™ Andromeda: Annihilation

By: Catherynne M. Valente

Narrated by: Tom Taylorson

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

With a new game, Mass Effect Andromeda, set for release in 2017, the launch of a new series of Mass Effect novels is timely. The new game will take the story in a dramatic new direction and is set in a new region of space, with a new and deadly enemy.

Titan is publishing four unmissable Mass Effect novels. The novels will act as prequel and sequels to the events in the games and will become part of the overarching Mass Effect saga. These new stories, developed in close collaboration with the Bioware game team, weave directly into the action of the new game - and will reveal events kept secret over the course of game play - and will add to the canonical Mass Effect saga.

©2017 Catherynne M. Valente (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

I liked everything but the ending

As a fan of the quarians, I was looking forward to this. Sadly, while I was enjoying the story, the characters and loved the writing, the ending left a sour taste in my mouth. I won't spoil, but I felt crushed by it. I wish I could've loved, I can only say I enjoyed now. I'm sure others will too. I recommend it to Mass Effect fans all the same.

this book is an actual masterpiece.

I was hesitant because I've always been kind of wary of video game novelisations, but I love Mass effect and I love Catherynne Valente, so I went for it and I have no regrets. my face is covered in tears and my heart is full.

This is the Andromeda we needed.

Forget the video game this novel was based off of and just get this book! If you love the Mass Effect series do -not- pass up this experience. The author is clearly in love with the Mass Effect universe and her knowledge of it shows. The narrator does an exemplary job from start to finish and the audio is edited with professionalism. Mass Effect fan approved.

Haunting and gripping.

Story: A locked-room horror mystery with a heavy dose of culture clash. If you're into the world building of Mass Effect, you'll have a lot to like as the lesser-focused species get their time on stage. The ending unsettled me, but it seems like it's supposed to. Not at all a light read, but turned my rides to work into no time at all.

Narration: I very much enjoyed Tom Taylorson as bro Ryder, and he knocked it out of the park here as an entire crew of varied voices talking to each other. There are a lot of sections of characters almost monologing, but he made it very easy to get drawn into those character moments. He hits the heavy spots with gravity without making them overwrought, and gives a nice wryness to the rare moments of levity.

Enjoyable story for ME:A fans, but nothing super special.

<in my best Elcor> With indifference: I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It was interesting, and toward the end it touched on a lot of great topics which I wish would have been explored further. With disappointment: Since I expect this to be the final Mass Effect Andromeda novel, I don’t expect any sort of follow-up to these, which given this particular title, is par for the course. <end Elcor>

The story was good, but I’m not sure how it jives with that last scene from Mass Effect Andromeda. I would write that it was good to have a story with few humans, but they were ALL very human: Elcors and Quarians who love Shakespeare; Batarians who are basically just nasty humans; Quarians with (literal) jugulars... anyway. The characters were a little too human, and too many human elements creeped in, making it feel less alien, even by Mass Effect standards. Some interesting topics were broached, like the political/power structures in the new galaxy, but none of them were delved into. It was a golden opportunity that was pushed aside in lieu of a somewhat traditional whodunit. On the bright side, there were giant, floating jellyfish, so there’s that.

This is good (but not great) for anyone who loves Mass Effect, enjoyed Andromeda, and wants to see what happened to the Quarian (and Elcor, Hanar, Volus, Drell, etc) arc. I listened to it fairly quickly, so clearly I enjoyed it.

I only wish we could have played it.

I don't know if the story reader is a mass effect fan, but he really made the story come to life.

The worst of the new Mass Effect books

Never actually made it to the end, my wife and I tried to listen to it on a trip across state and a little over half way we both decided that any pod cast on my phone would be more fun. Slow plot and largely unlikable characters make it more of a chore than an adventure.

Good story, but ending resolved deus ex

The overall story was pretty great, the performance was amazing! The speaker actually acted out the dialects and accents of the various races, even as far as Darth Vader breathing as the volas. Unfortunately, the ending is kind of deus ex, where the solution was kind of just happened upon, but that was surrounded by a great mystery and character building.

Most valuable tie-in and a must read for the fans

First of I've got to say that, though I liked Fryda Wolff as my pathfinder more than Tom Taylorson, he gave an astonishing performance here.
And thankfully the plot itself spared me the painfully obvious twists and gave surprisingly good ones.
Thanks to the author. Definitely adding this book to my collection in physical form.
It gave me a shimmer of hope that Bioware can produce a great story once again.
I'll see you in Andromeda.

Tried 1st Book

Had already tried the first book and couldn't make it through didn't realize this was one in same series till later and couldn't read.

Performance great, story - average

To tell the truth, the narrator is great! The story has its plot and everything, but somehow I felt it weak...

Brilliant listening

I loved the narration, perfectly MassEffecty - in line with established sounds of the universe.

5* voice acting

This book is a must for all Mass Effect fans. A brilliantly written story and an excellently produced audio book, Tom Taylorson made it come to life like a new Andromeda DLC. It added new dimensions to the ME universe for me, fleshing out the history and personality of Milky Way races that aren’t explored in the games.

I don't think I ever enjoyed a reading of a book this much.

The story is great, the acting and delivery is excellent for all characters. Listening to this story is more fun than reading the book.
If someone is planning on listening to a Mass Effect Andromeda novel, this should be the one.

Well-written and performed. Bravo!

It was strange listening to this again after the pandemic as it completely changed our relationship to delay diseases, but it never felt gratuitous or disrespectful while imparting information and telling the story.

It very much feels like part of the Mass Effect universe and of the ME:Andromeda story while functioning as a self-contained story. That's a difficult task to achieve, and it was done well.

The narrator was very expressive and managed to differentiate between multiple characters of different species so well that it was difficult to believe it was just the one voice.

Overall, excellently done.

Good wrap up for Mass Effect Andromeda

Nicely fills the missing fate of the Quarian ark. The reader made a cool job of the racial accents. An intriguing snapshot of an incident in the Mass Effect Universe.

Keelah Si'yah

Great read for Mass Effect Andromeda fans. Not on the same level as the first two Andromeda books, but thoroughly enjoyable. The narrator is incredible.

to an entertaining if fatalistic future

whatever the future holds we will take all our fears, prejudices and misguided notions with us. we can tell ourselves that we want to do better, that we are better; but the truth is we are all even the most alien of us only human.

it was a great listen

Great premise but poor execution

I can see what they were going for and a actually really liked the characters. It was interesting being with non0human characters, the narrator did a good job with voices and accents. Modulating voice and effects for the Elcor, Baterian and Volus characters brought them to life.

The story was slow and was and considering how short the book is, it did endless loops of the same roundabout before finally yanking the steering wheel in the opposite direction.

I didn't hate it but I'd hardly recommend it either.

Only for fans

The whole plot seems like a sidequest in the actual MassEffect games. This is the biggest issue I think. It could have had some more action. The second problem is that if you have no clue about the MassEffect universe or you havent played any of the games, this whole book will hit hard with refrences that at best they're not very well exaplained. Hell, even the main plot is based on the race frustration between aliens, tensions you couldnt possibly understand and care about unless you have some knowledge of the lore, which makes the end as useless as a Vorcha in the Citadel Council if you dont know the history and conflict of the races.