As far as video game tie-in novels go, this was half decent. As a sci-fi writer myself it was a little difficult getting through it with an objective eye, and I had to catch myself a bunch of times from trying to apply my own sensibilities to Savile’s prose.
It’s no Rendezvous With Rama or Eon, though it does spark with the magic that made Clarke and Bear’s books so amazing.
Did it excite or inspire me to want to play the game it supposedly draws from? Not really. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with exactly how much external lore really adds to a gaming experience, and this particular work doesn’t really stand out to me as “required reading”.
After checking out Savile’s body of work, though, it really made me feel like my own output as a writer has been nothing less than anemic.