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Mass Effect: Andromeda – Initiation and three other tie-in novels to act as “prequel and sequels”

E3 2016 Mass Effect Andromeda

You might have to put the keyboard and mouse away to discover exactly how we get from the Mass Effect 3’s highly destructive end to Andromeda’s alternate galaxy. Titan Books, who act as publishers for a large number of tie-ins and movie novelisations, have announced that four books are on the ways to expand the story of the new Mass Effect game (and its likely sequels). The first is called Initiation, written by American speculative fiction author N. K. Jemisin, and will release in August of this year.

Here’s the rest of what we know about the Mass Effect: Andromeda release date and everything else.

It will be followed by three further novels, the final one of which will be written by Mass Effect creative director Mac Walters, who has been involved with the tie-in comics at various points. In their upcoming product round-up, Titan Books say that “the novels will act as prequel and sequels to the events in the games and will become part of the overarching Mass Effect saga. They will focus on key characters and answer the many questions fans have been asking.”

This would suggest that Initiation is planned as a bridge between ME3’s destructive end and Andromeda’s alternate galaxy, while the following three will expand upon whatever story is told in the game. The release date of August would suggest it was planned to originally launch a little closer to the game itself, before that was delayed into 2017. Meanwhile book two will be in March, three in September and Walters’ final entry in March 2018.

I look forward to being the only person I know who has read it, just as it was for the original tie-in novels for the first game. The trilogy written by at-the-time Mass Effect writer Drew Karpyshyn were actually fairly good, though with these outsourced jobs it’s harder to judge how it will go. Bioware are unlikely to hand the reigns of their franchise to just anyone, but they’ve been burned before with outside writers not understanding the subtleties of the universe. We’ll find out the specifics some time in August.