Spilled Milk.

I spent all day reading Mass Effect: Ascension.  It was absolutely fantastic.  The first Mass Effect book, Revelations, was good, but it had to introduce all the characters and the whole of Citadel space, as well as the relationships and histories between and of the different species.  The plot was interesting and gave a welcome insight into the histories of the almost main character, Captain Anderson, and the main villain, Saren.  It did, however, feel like all the action took place in the first and last two chapters, while everything in between was just the characters finding out what had happened immediately before the events of the first chapter.

In contrast, Mass Effect: Ascension was able to get right into the action, and stay there, having had Revelations and the first game already set the scene in sharp detail.  It didn't need a lengthy explanation of what a 'biotic' was.  It didn't need to tell us about the Quarians and the Migrant Fleet.  Instead it could go straight to using them in the story, making it much faster paced.  The only bit I didn't like quite as much was the gruesomely grotesque depth in which the victim of Pel's torture was described.  The character who was tortured had only briefly been mentioned but I cringed as I read about his wounds.  Not that I'd change any of it, I just felt it was a bit intense compared to the rest of the book's descriptions of violence. 

I've still got eight books waiting to be read.  I think I'll have a break from epic science-fiction and read The Hunger Games next.  I'll try and start the first book tomorrow.  Maybe I'll go on my bike, too, if the weather isn't too bad. 

I'm finally finishing this blog about three hours after I started it because I couldn't concentrate on what I was writing when my mum had the TV on.  She wouldn't even turn it down during the adverts.  All she had to say was, "No one cares about your blog."  Odd, then, that she is so vehemently opposed to me writing anything about her.  Request denied.