Natural Order: Team Retribution

An angry Mike restricts the eldest Brady boy to the house for 10 days, forcing him to miss a highly anticipated rock concert; a just punishment, but mistakenly disproportionate in Greg's eyes. I heard we almost lost Brent. What do you mean? The Stonewood Saints asked him to play for their team. How would they like it if we went there and burnt down their rink? That genuinely seems like an appropriate response to you? If you take sexual advantage of her you're going to burn in a very special level of hell.

A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater. Joey ate my last stick of gum, so I killed him. Do you think that was wrong? That is so not the opposite of hiding someone's underwear! I'll kill a man who dares to, like, invade my personal space.

Revenge systems have been around for a very long time, with our primate cousins leading the way. Chimpanzees and macaques will freely inflict punishments on strangers and rule breakers and, with their excellent memories, cannily postpone retaliation until a suitable opportunity arises. Revenge has also been vital to human tribes for protecting food sources, territory and social order: Stripped of its pejorative association, revenge can simply be seen as quintessential justice for the avenger.

Revenge restores the balance and reclaims status. It can be instant, fuelled by rage, or deferred, a dish served cold. For abuse sufferers, revenge can sometimes feel like the only way out — for example, Virginian housewife Lorena Bobbitt in the s. The jury sympathised with her poetic reckoning, and she went on to publicly champion the rights of abused women.

But not all penis-severers have been received so charitably. This is evidence, some say , of misogyny in justice systems. But, in daily interactions, revenge also has a softer face, like the airline check-in clerk who, after a string of abuse from a customer, politely wishes him a good flight and then quietly redirects his bags elsewhere.

A basic given for civic order is that the state appropriates revenge.

See a Problem?

This will suppress vigilantism — up to a point. People will be inclined to seek extrajudicial means when they believe the justice system is skewed against them because of their ethnicity, status, skin colour or gender. See the family resemblance? Retribution does a great job of taking us back through many of our old favorite characters from the Mass Effect books, including Grayson, Sanders, and Anderson. For Mass Effect fans, it really gets behind the scenes on Mass Effect as a series, opening the closed-doors that we were so desperate to peek through. It even illustrates the backgrounds of the natural satellite, Omega, and the school for psychics, Grissom Academy, while expanding organizations like Cerberus and other Terminus System gangs with more minutiae than made available in the games themselves.

In Mass Effect 2 , I spent a lot of time fighting numerous gangs and blindly barreling through the streets of Omega, working on hints from Cerberus given by emissaries of the Illusive Man. Though we met the Illusive Man in previous Mass Effect books and games, Retribution also introduces one new character who becomes an important figure in the series: Kai Leng, a stealthy ninja with a penchant for killing. Through this introduction, Karpyshyn delivers additional character growth prior to his role in Mass Effect 3 , since it almost seemed like he sprung out of nowhere without taking this book into context.

This book offers, quite literally, nothing to a newcomer—not even an engaging enough science fiction story outside of the context of what Mass Effect already is. I had a thing for Miranda, Tommy liked Jack better. When I was a kid, Tommy was like any big brother—kind of a bully, kind of only saw me as a burden, kind of uninterested in playing the role of big brother. On a side note: Age gap or something, right? I probably would have tried to as a six-year-old though. Either way, Tom, as he preferred to be known as back then, may have been a lousy big brother, but he was a great son and got along really well with my father.

But those two were as thick as thieves. As I became a pre-teen, I was jealous of the relationship Tom had with Dad—they drank together, they got high together, they even traveled together. He sat with me one night, after a couple of weeks of nonstop tears, and he and I just talked like adults about who Dad was, memories we had of him, whether or not he was or would be proud of us.

It was the first time in my life that I felt like my older brother and I ever had a serious conversation. Some people grow up in some ways, but stay young in other ways. Tommy and I still nerd out about all kinds of shit, including the Mass Effect games. Mass Effect , as a series of novels however, did not mature. I do, however, know that Kai Leng is not supposed to be Kail Leng.

It happened in the blink of an eye; Orgun was moving so fast he seemed to be nothing but a blur. Karpyshyn, like most authors writing action thrillers, depends on his cliches as much as any other layman asshole. Just refer to the above quote: At least try to be creative with it.

Live-Action TV / Disproportionate Retribution - TV Tropes

It was years before I took writing seriously too, but I dabbled with it a lot in high school. It felt right to write. Though my friends came over to watch movies or play video games, Tom insisted that we go out and party, like he did when he was our age. In spite the buds of a mutual respect between us, he treated me like a child after Mom left.

He made empty promises to take me places or do things with me, only to doze off and forget he ever agreed to anything to begin with. My life became the computer—not just for writing either, but for socializing, meeting people, exploring new ideas. She threatened to take my computer away—a threat that involved taking me from some of my friends, the girl I was learning to love, and the comfort of infinite information at my fingertips as a result.

Worst of all, she threatened to handicap the story-telling that I only just started growing into. I guess it was no surprise that, upon graduating, they all left the suburban embrace of Aurora, Illinois for a town so small that it barely registered on a map, while I headed up to Chicago to explore its limitless mysteries.

Unlike Chicago, Mass Effect 's mysteries are barely worth looking into after reading this novel. Karpyshyn, however, has no love of mystery. Though we never learn his name, his past is broken down to a few pages of inconsequential military history, prompted by him gearing up to fight for his life against a fairly mundane enemy. Yeah, he really seems like a badass now. Anything we might have felt for him prior to the final action scenes is made null when he has a sigh of relief after the Illusive Man pats him on the back for a job well done.

This force of nature, out to destroy reality as we all know it, sets out to explain to Kahlee why they need to destroy humanity, as if wanting her approval. Are they supposed to be that weak? And just like that, all the mystery of Mass Effect is pasteurized and served in a heaping pile of who-gives-a-shit.

Mass Effect: Retribution

Well, the games were still pretty good at least. It happened surprisingly quickly—I came down for a visit and Tom was talking about getting married. I just wanted to chill and hang out. As the drinks flowed, Tom challenged me to a game of chess. Not exactly a fun drinking game, but I never say no to a challenge. I beat him in fewer than five moves, and just like that, Tom became Tommy. The dynamic of our relationship became a mutual respect from that point forward, growing and evolving into a friendship. So whenever I discover something nerdy or interesting, Tommy inevitably hears about it.

For his birthday, I even bought him a set of personalized, Mass Effect dog tags, reading Thomas Shepard; Earth-born; paragon. What this book really is, is Karpyshyn desperately trying to bend the Mass Effect franchise to his own will, before it was taken out of his hands completely.

The Conversation

Better luck next time, man. Dec 14, Diana rated it liked it. I am a hardcore ME fangirl, and this is a great little puzzle piece in the canon, if imperfect I'm a dedicated Mass Effect fan. I threw the Big Fit after 3 goddammit Bioware, the end , I own not one but two N7 jackets one's a trackie, shut up ; my reusable Starbucks cup has "Shepard" sharpied on it and it never ceases to amuse me.

I'm part of the fandom if you are too, message me because I've got some good shit bookmarked. The lock screen on my phone is not my children, but femShep Alliance recruitment poster. You get the idea. I don't want Bioware's canon to fuck with my ME experience. Shepard is not a dude, period. But here I was driving to LA for school in need of both haste and something to pop on my phone, and there was Retribution, so I took a chance. Shepard is referred to, but not in the book firsthand at all, and never did Karpyshyn use gender identifiers omg, thank you dude; it's such a small thing, but it was perfect.

The book is more a side story about The Illusive Man's TIM first fumbling attempts to understand Reaper tech, and his machinations that lead to general chaos and misery. We get a lot of Anderson, Kahlee Sanders, Kai Leng who, pre-upgrades, was apparently already a badass , and Aria, omg.

The narrator made a decent impression of Anderson and TIM's accents, but his female voices are like breathy cartoon-Shakespeareans, so that's distracting, especially since Karpyshyn did a great job of writing Kahlee and Aria.

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Also, the games would have us pronounce "Kahlee" as "Kayley" and this book would tell me it's "Kali". All I could see was Anderson as a thuggee chanting to Kahlee-Ma. This is clearly a problem I wouldn't have had if I'd read it. TIM's motivations are clear and horrifying in that we can see clearly the slippery slope down which he's heading, adding a satisfying layer for those of use that have played the games and know what happens next.

It's like one long nooooooooo TIM whyyyyy. Frustrating yet necessary, it's a great little puzzle piece in the canon. I do however take issue with several things: I understand that the novels have to be written under no assumption that your reader knows all the backstory. But dear sweet baby Keelah, wtf. Sanders and TIM spend long minutes thinking out expository information. Anderson and TIM tell people things for a good long while. I wanted this story, but maybe it would have made a better graphic novel or DLC.

They're written capably and not helplessly; they have agency and are clever and brave, but every last one of them is inescapably examined sexually, their body and appearance described as a product of how hot they are, in depth.

To be clear, world-class marathoners run 26 miles in 2. Sanders is not an augmented human, soooo. I mean, I guess? How was she going to fall for TIM's story without checking it further? Once they had the lab data, she'd know exactly what happened, but instead she takes TIM's call and his money, but that's understandable as though everything was business as usual. I'm glad for it, and I may read or listen to another, but the execution left some to be desired. Aug 28, Jonathan Ford rated it really liked it. This is the third of the three Mass Effect novels that Drew Karpyshyn wrote.

The events of this book take place between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

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Paul Grayson is still hiding out from Cerberus but his luck is running out and the Illusive Man has a special form a vengeance in store. Kahlee Sanders has in the mean time kept in contact with Grayson and have formed a pen-pal like friendship with him. When he is captured by Cerberus, Grayson fears that Kahlee will be their next target and is ab This is the third of the three Mass Effect novels that Drew Karpyshyn wrote. When he is captured by Cerberus, Grayson fears that Kahlee will be their next target and is able to warn her.

Kai Leng captures Grayson and the Illusive Man exposes Grayson to reaper technology, and things turn south real quick as the reapers take over Grayson and change him into a living weapon. Kahlee in the mean time tries to save Grayson and David Anderson does his best to help her. This is a fitting end to the Kahlee, Grayson and Anderson story arch. Karpyshyn did a good job tying in the plots to the Mass Effect story-lines while which is not the easiest of feats as the games themselves can have very divergent story lines.

This one I felt was better than the previous two. I'd put it around a 3. Oct 18, Michael rated it really liked it. This is the 3rd book in the Mass Effect series by Drew Karpyshyn. This book is based on the game by BioWare. I don't play video games so I don't know how it compares to the game but it is a good read in the Space Opera genre. In this one the Illusive Man has captured Grayson and is doing experiments on him in an effort to find the secrets of the Reapers before they can destroy mankind. Shortly before he is captured Grayson manages to get a message off to Kahlee Sanders with all the information t This is the 3rd book in the Mass Effect series by Drew Karpyshyn.

Shortly before he is captured Grayson manages to get a message off to Kahlee Sanders with all the information that he has on the Illusive Man and the Cerberus program. She decides she must try to save Grayson and stop the Illusive Man before his experiments kill Grayson. She enlists the aid of her one time friend and Alliance hero Captain David Anderson. Together they will fight alien and human foes alike in their effort to save Grayson. This book is a great read in this series and I recommend it. Mar 09, Ivan Subev rated it really liked it.

Sep 29, Jane Halliday rated it really liked it. It was a sad ending for me. I kept clinging to the hope that something could be done about it, but yeah The book was tons of fun, even if it made me suffer a bit xD. I liked it better than the last one, but it may be due to the fact I already knew most characters, so there was no need for time to get used to them. The Reaper angle gave the plot an interesting flavor, at least for me.

I consider this one to be the best of the three books. I've seen reviews about the fourt Aw man: I've seen reviews about the fourth, so it's likely this one will be the best out of the four, but we'll see. The book was ok. Had the elements I wanted, but lacked the interesting story as its prequel. I really fell for Gillian and the fact that she's not part of this book probably contributed to me not being able to give it a higher rating. It was an interesting story overall, and I was glad to read about the characters in it, as well as getting a deeper understanding for my favourite universe.

Would recommend it to someone interested in the Mass Effect universe, but wouldn't reread it. I have high hope The book was ok. I have high hopes for the next book since it seems like Gillian will be back! Oct 28, Nai. La saga Mass Effect ha sido todo un descubrimiento aunque se apoye en la historia principal que se deja para las consolas. Jan 24, Beryce rated it really liked it.

Jul 01, Sayomara Vesper rated it liked it. Overview Expanded media for a video game is a hard thing to get right. Normally, when reviewing a book I look at it on two levels: Revelation I was impressed it wasn't just a good Mass Effect book, but it was good book in general. So wit Overview Expanded media for a video game is a hard thing to get right. So with that in mind, I decided to give Mass Effect: The book is set during the game Mass Effect 2. Shepard is alive and working for Cerberus, but the characters don't ever interact with him.

The book is primarily from the view of four people. First, there is Admiral David Anderson, the man who was rejected from the specter program 20 years ago in the events of Mass Effect: Revelation, now a high ranking Human Alliance Admiral. Next, Kai Leng, one of Cerberus' top "wet-work" agents. Finally Paul Grayson, a former Cerberus operative who betrayed Cerberus to protect his daughter. To be honest, it did not sound that interesting to me, so I chose not to read it. However, if you want more back story about what is going on in this novel, it's there.

Plot The basic plot starts off two years after Paul Grayson left Cerberus. During that time, he has managed to get a job working on Omega.



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We spend a few chapters on his life there.