Gabriel Guzmán

Av de Mass Effect-serier jag läst hittills är nog Discovery den minst intressanta: huvudpersonen Tiran Kandros har bara en biroll i Andromeda, och av andra kända figurer är det bara ett par som dyker förbi som hastigast, nästintill pliktskyldigt. Huvudmotståndaren, en salarisk biotiker, är inte heller speciellt intressant, och konflikten tycks mest komma av att han inte kan be om det han vill ha tillräckligt snällt.

Historien är samtidigt onödigt krånglig och onödigt simpel: Kandros hittar data som implicerar att Andromedaprojektet har kontakter med geth, och försöker därför infiltrera för att undersöka. Initiativet ger honom i uppdrag att leta reda på en quarisk astronom vars beräkningar är nödvändiga men också visat sig innehålla små men allvarliga fel. Samtidigt är nämnde salarier också av någon anledning på spåret. Det blir ett par stopp och strider på olika ställen, innan allt är över.

Allt är egentligen nästan helt onödigt; man får en förklaring till hur Kandros hamnade i Andromeda, men annars påverkas ingenting, avslöjas ingenting, sägs ingenting. Det hade gått att hitta på någon annan motivation för att han följde med, och då hade alla komplikationer här varit helt poänglösa, mer än som lite underhållning för stunden.… (más)

I don't know if Dark Times was intended to end in its seventh volume, or if Dark Horse losing the Star Wars license brought it to a premature end, but this volume makes me think it was intentionally winding down. Fire Carrier picks up a thread abandoned since volume two, as we revisit the Jedi younglings hiding from the Purge with Master K'Kruhk. This seems like the kind of thing you make sure to tie off when you know you're running out of time, but maybe a side story is the kind of thing you do when you want Doug Wheatley to draw your main arcs but know he can only draw six issues every two years.

In any case, misleadingly Darth Vader-focused cover aside, this is one of the best Dark Times stories, and probably the one that most feels like the series was mean to be-- the last couple Jennir-focused volumes made it more Jedi-centric. But here, like in some of the early Uhumele-focused stories like Parallels and Vector, it's about decent people trying to hang on in a universe arrayed against the very concept of decency. And not just K'Kruhk and his Jedi charges, but also ordinary Imperial officers. There's a whole sideplot about Imperial officers, who were quite recently Republic officers, and how they're trying to make the new government live up to their expectations. The Empire was supposed to be something and it's not, but they want it to anyway.

I enjoyed it a lot. The kind of story that makes you think it could go anywhere (and it does go some dark places), and is all the better for it. There's even a nice tie-in to Legacy, connecting two of Dark Horse's better Star Wars ongoings together.… (más)

I read this a couple months ago and struggled to come up with a review but couldn't think of much to say so I read it again and again had a difficult time composing a proper review. The n it occurred to me that the reason that I couldn't write a review was that the most I could think to say was 'meh'.
The story is okay and the artwork is good but I felt like I was coming into the middle of a story that has been going on for a long time. There wasn't sufficient character building for me to become engaged with any of the characters. Besides, with everyone in similar spacesuits I had a hard time telling them apart.… (más)