Robotic cosmic horrors! Alien politics! Interstellar hookups! Sounds like Mass Effect! Though the sci-fi trilogy is over a decade old, the gaming community will continue to tell the legend of Commander Shepard for eons to come. Looking to fill the Normandy shaped hole in your tender, mass affected heart? Crack open one of these novels and you’ll swear you’re reliving the trilogy again for the first time. For your eyes only, commander, here are 10 sci-fi books that feel like playing Mass Effect.
The Three Body Problem
While The Three Body Problem is light on the deep character work that made Mass Effect great, it’s heavy on the interstellar space battles that made the game awesome. Cixin Liu’s novel is the story of Earth in the not too distant future, which has come under the threat of an alien attack. Named after the physics conundrum that has baffled scientists for centuries, the three body problem has finally gotten a solution via extraterrestrial intelligence: give up. The alien Trisolarians spent eons attempting to solve the problem, which was causing cyclical civilization collapses on their home world that orbits three suns, and finally decided to abandon their planet to take ours. Full of high stakes battles where hyperintelligent species bash each other over the head with rock hard science fiction, it’s like fighting in the Reaper War all over again.
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers’ is a story of a small group of space explorers tasked with digging wormhole tunnels across the stars to facilitate interstellar travel for the rest of humanity. When you’ve got a homo sapiens/extraterrestrial crew all crammed into a ship roughly the size of the Normandy, you know there’s gonna be serious Mass Effect levels of interpersonal drama within. Chambers’ novel eschews grand space battles to tell intimate tales of the human and alien heart. It’s less about where the crew is going, but why they’re on the journey in the first place. In short, it’s like one big Mass Effect loyalty mission – the moment your cohabitant crew mate becomes your found family.
The Xeelee Sequence
The Xeelee Sequence by.Stephen Baxter features an alien menace that makes the Reapers look like a bunch of low rent Cerberus grunts. Set over millions of years, this series details humanity’s never-ending war with the Xeelee – a mind-boggling eldritch species that make their homes in the even horizons of black holes. Despite defying all human comprehension, humanity decides to pick a fight with the strange species anyway – throwing the galaxy into a millions of years long war of attrition. No, the humans don’t win. It was never an even a competition, rather an exercise is cosmic futility. The next time you have to face down Sovereign, be thankful that alien robot squid god is made of normal matter as opposed to whatever bizarre substance the Xeelee are composed off. Bose-Einstein condensate? Gesundheit.
Ninefox Gambit
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee takes place in an authoritarian universe where Cerberus won. The galaxy is controlled by the Hexarchate – an oligarchy of six governmental agencies all neatly rolled into a tyrannical whole. Captain Kel Cheris is an agent of the Hexarchate, attempting to win back the organization’s favor after failing to put down a heretical rebellion in the realm. In order to reclaim glory, Kel attempts to take back a heretic controlled fortress – aided by genius tactician Shuos Jedao. Thing is, Jedao is dead – snuffed out by a military massacre he orchestrated. A computer generated construct of his mind however is still very much kicking, and Kel downloads it directly into her brain. It’s basically what would happen if Shepard downloaded a genius like Mordin Solus into his mind, and then had to deal with the maddening consequences of having to listen to Mordin 24/7.
Escaping Exodus
Nicky Drayden’s Escaping Exodus is the story of Seske Kaleigh, heir to the matriarchal ruling line responsible for piloting a city-sized spaceship – basically Shepard with a slightly different job description. In many ways, Shepard has it easy, sure he’s gotta battle the Reapers, but at least he doesn’t have to contend with the ethical dilemma of piloting a spaceship that’s alive. Unlike the Normandy, Seske Kaleigh’s interstellar home is organic – a starship carved out of the hollowed out innards of a gargantuan space beast. Despite humanity’s claim to the contrary, Seske begins to suspect that her biological spaceride is not only sentient, but in excruciating pain. In this universe, humans are the bad guys – a job usually reserved for universal unsavories like Mass Effect 2‘s Collectors.
Gideon The Ninth
Looking for a high drama space opera with enough gay tension to cut with an omni-tool ? Aside from the upper decks of the Normandy, Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon The Ninth is your best bet. Set in a Dune-like star system where nine planet ruling houses vie for the favor of an undead Emperor, the titular Gideon finds herself in indentured servitude to the Ninth House and its necromantic heir Harrowhark Nonagesimus. In order to win her freedom, Gideon accompanies Harrow to a decrepit mansion in order to compete in a series of trials to ascend to undead godhood. It’s essentially a murder mystery featuring a mistrustful version of the Normandy crew, whose suspicions against one another are only rivaled by their unspoken queer longing.
A Big Ship At The Edge of The Universe
A Big Ship At The Edge of The Universe is the story of Boots Elsworth, a low-rent Shadowbroker-style character who ekes out a living selling fake treasure maps to non-existent spaceship wrecks. Her hustler’s life is interrupted by the entrance of Nilah Brio, a famous racer who is on the run after being framed for the murder of a competitor. Seeing a way towards riches, Boots convinces Nilah to help her seek out the legendary warship Harrow – an artifact that plenty would be willing to buy. After assembling a rag-tag crew, the pair embark on a race across the stars to find treasure at the finish line. If Mass Effect and Fast and Furious had a baby, this would be their high octane lovechild.
Saga
Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga is peak Mass Effect levels of romantic drama – an epic about aliens in love. Once soldiers on opposite sides of an intergalactic war, Alana and Marko attempt to flee from the conflict to protect the life of their hybrid baby daughter. Full of strange beings like ghost nannies, cyclops romance-novel writers, and an empire of retro TV-headed robots, Saga is a witheringly romantic and profoundly weird space opera about an interspecies couple attempting to find their way. It’s also really horny, like Garrus x Femshep levels of steam. You’re welcome.
An Unkindess of Ghosts
Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts takes place on the HSS Matilda, a space vessel whose society is structured like the antebellum South. Confined to the lower decks due to her dark skin, Aster toils day in and day out performing manual labor. After tensions between her and a particularly nasty overseer come to a boil, Aster realizes that only way to escape from bondage may be to stoke the fires of civil war. A story about a group of underdogs rebelling against authoritarianism, it’s exactly the sort of story the Elusive Man would hate – and that’s a good thing.
Trouble And Her Friends
A classic of queer sci-fi, Trouble and Her Friends is the story of India Carless, a woman who once rode the information highways of the metaverse as the famous hacker Trouble – taking aim at governments and corporations alike. After retiring from the business, India is called back for “one last job” style story when a new hacker emerges using Trouble’s old identity. It feels like an extended universe Mass Effect story centered around Liara T’soni, forced to take up the mantle of the Shadow Broker once again and dive into a cyberspace full of inscrutable AI, corporate counter hackers, and old ex-lovers.
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