FimFiction Link - Short ID: 435322/mass-effect-element-of-kindness
Published: Mar '19 — Mar '22
M.E.E.K, in all of its 261k words, fails to inspire any strong emotion in me. The prose is inoffensive, the characterizations are for the most part acceptable, and the plot unfolds clearly. While it oscillates about the mean with recognizable attempts at portraying a living world and descents into cringey Americanisms that undermine it, M.E.E.K never quite distinguishes itself either way. Fluttershy inexplicably joins with Shepard in the beginning instead of staying at the citadel, but the flow of the story is strong enough that it is almost immediately washed away and forgotten. She also becomes a hardened soldier and suffers rape, but this is neither explored in depth enough to be interesting or ignored so much that it feels unfounded. Fluttershy is merely what she needs to be. Indeed, if there's anything that stands out, it is that the story has a persistent feeling of being on rails - hopping between both game and novel events without any sense of agency from the characters.
tl;dr: read it if you just want to see your favorite characters in an action movie, but don't expect much more than what you could already get from the games.