Personally I found the first novel was a bit disappointing and very forgettable. Not *bad*, just...well bland I suppose. The second and third novels were a significant improvement and all the comics to date have been getting better with each new iteration...even if I suspect Invasio's only real purpose is to introduce a more overtly militaristic Cerberus and establish why (I presume) in ME3 Omega has changed hands. I'm actually hoping Aria will be a squadmate.
Yeah, I wouldn't be against Aria as a squad member either. I just finished up a bunch of the Omega side missions on my current ME2 play through, and I really do like her character.
Personally I'd just like to see her reunion with Wrex. That ought to be entertaining! Last I heard they had just signed a production deal and were yet to even hire a writer, never-mind a director. So by all accounts it's still in the early stages of pre-production. Even assuming everything goes smoothly (which rarely happens) I wouldn't expect to see it on screens before 2014 or '15 at the earliest.
I think the last confirmed "news" regarding the live-action adaptation was that Mark Petrosevich was in negotiations to write the screenplay, but I haven't seen any further word on that possibility. There is an anime film coming out in the summer.
Deception has been out for around 20 days now. Don't buy it, however. It has numerous canon and continuity issues, so a new edition is being prepared. No additional details have been released as yet regarding this new edition, so we don't know when it will replace the current one.
I don't think I'll even buy the revised edition. It sounds like the book's problems go beyond inconsistencies with the lore.
Any continuity errors/oversights/blatant contradictions are just symptoms of the greater problem, which from what I gather is the author. The second edition may be more in tune with the canon, but unless they get someone else (like one of of the games' writers) it'll probably still be rubbish.
Probably. My only previous experience with Dietz's writing were his Star Wars: Dark Forces novels and Halo: The Flood. The SW ones I read way back in 1998, so I probably wasn't as aware of bad writing then as I am now, and The Flood was unremarkable though not horrible. Sadly, I'm stuck with a copy of Deception, because I had pre-ordered the eBook version before any of these issues were known. If I'm able to update the eBook to the revised edition, I'll read it since I already paid for it, but if I have to buy it all over again I won't bother at all.
I tried to read the first book, but I ended up bored to death. I couldn't stand the author's style . . . too much tell and not enough show.
The first one is definitely tedious, but I found the second one to be much better. I mean none of them are exactly Hugo Award material but 'Ascension' at least is worth the read. The third...it's OK I suppose. It serves more as a prologue for a certain character from 'Ascension', plus an insight into what Cerberus are upto between ME2 & 'Invasion'. The scenes between TIM and Aria were a highpoint IMO.
I enjoyed all three of Karpyshyn's novels, though I'd agree that Ascension was probably the best of them.
The first book was cool because it set up Saren and Sovereign... the second one I found horribly boring. I was not expecting the next chapter in the Mass Effect saga to be staring an autistic little girl... The third one was a little better. It's too bad they can't use characters from the actual story (aside from Anderson).
If it was going to happen, it would have been right around now. In time for ME3, when interest in the franchise is at it's peak. It's all downhill for Mass Effect from here (well, from March 6th). If the movie isn't happening now, I'd be willing to bet that it's not happening.