History Literature / MassEffectRevelation

* TheDreaded: Saren has a reputation for his ruthless in the Attican Traverse. Even Skarr, a ''[[MindOverMatter biotic]] [[MadeOfIron Krogan]] [[Really700YearsOld Warlord]]'', is driven off by a bullet in the chest (a minor wound to a Krogan) when he sees that Saren was the shooter and expresses fear towards him.
-->''"I make a point never to get involved in Spectre business... especially this one! Turian bastard."''

** Though nowhere near as extreme as them, or open, Anderson's still got some prejudices against aliens.

* GrumpyBear: Jon Grissom started as this. A few years of having to play posterboy for humanity turn him into a total jerkwad to everyone.

* FirstContact: The book begins just after this happens.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Qian is heavily implied to have become this.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Groto Ib-ba, a batarian Blue Suns mercenary, walks into a high-class brothel and asks for a human consort, [[spoiler:intending to torture the girl [[ForTheEvulz for his own amusement]]. As Saren explains before [[PayEvilUntoEvil torturing him]], his request immediately tipped off the staff that he was up to no good, and if Saren hadn't convinced the staff to let him deal with it, then the second Groto tried anything, a bunch of krogan bouncers would've come bursting through the door]].

* EvilIsNotAToy: [[spoiler:At the end, Saren figures he'll use this "Sovereign" to get revenge on mankind. And then all the other Citadel species, putting the turians on top. Anyone familiar with ''Mass Effect'' can guess how that works out for him.]]
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Groto Ib-ba, a mercenary member of the batarians, a species whose members each have four eyes]], ''gets one of them burst'' -- not removed, ''burst'' -- by his torturer during interrogation. This particular instance is also one of PayEvilUntoEvil, as the victim in question was also hateful of humans and had planned to "break" a human prostitute as a means of "stress relief". [[spoiler:The novel says Groto even went out of his way in an attempt to pick the weakest prostitute to ensure he broke her.]]

** Edan hates all non-batarians, looking down on them, an attitude largely shared by other batarians.

* TheFettered: Anderson believes in operating this way, refusing to risk innocent lives. Serves as a counterpoint to Saren, who is more of TheUnfettered CombatPragmatist.

* HeadInTheSandManagement: Goyle accuses the Council of adopting this approach with potentially hostile synthetic life, when they attempt to sanction the Alliance for carrying out "study them in order to neutralize them" research on [=AIs=]. The Council retorts by claiming that humans are acting like [[GeneralRipper Generals Ripper]], perceiving everything around them as a threat to be conquered. The asari and salarians then give Goyle a lecture about how mutual cooperation should be a default stance all species should take.
* HumanoidAliens: Early on, the book {{lampshade|Hanging}}s their commonness in the franchise. Anderson subscribes to the most common explanation, that there's some undiscovered evolutionary advantage to the humanoid body structure.
* HumansAdvanceSwiftly: Ambassador Goyle suspects that the Council races are imposing crippling sanctions on the Alliance because they are scared of the implications of this and want to slow down that advance as much as possible. [[spoiler:She isn't aware that it is actually an elaborate negotiation ploy by the Council to ensure that the Alliance accepts the less severe sanctions they wanted to impose all along.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Had'dah notes with some consternation how he's working with a ''human'', but can't figure out why. [[spoiler:It's implied he's already being indoctrinated.]]
* {{Prequel}}

* SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb: Anderson's squad discover this when they finally reach the interior of the Sidon Research Facility.
* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:Dr. Qian's attempted cover-up at Sidon goes belly-up thanks to Kahlee noticing he'd gone nuts and walking off-base for a serious drink or several.]]

* RammingAlwaysWorks: The APC driver who is transporting Kahlee for extraction does this to pursuing vehicles to buy them some time. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome when the impact not only destroys the other vehicle, but cripples the APC and kills the driver.

* StockSubtitle

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Groto Ib-ba, a batarian, walks into a high-class joint and asks for a human consort, [[spoiler:intending to torture the girl for his own amusement. As Saren explains before [[PayEvilUntoEvil torturing him]], this immediately tipped off the staff that he was up to no good, and if it hadn't been Saren, then the minute he tried anything, a bunch of krogan bouncers would've burst through the door]].

* OnceIsNotEnough: Anderson puts a small clip's worth of gunfire into Skarr. [[spoiler:He doesn't have enough experience with krogan to know ''always'' to make sure they're dead before rummaging through their pockets, something Skarr informs him of when he gets up.]]

* OnceIsNotEnough: Anderson puts a small clip's worth of gunfire into Skarr. [[spoiler:Since he doesn't have enough experience with krogan to know ''always'' to make sure they're dead before rummaging through their pockets, something Skarr informs him of when he gets up.]]