These are recommendations made by Tropers for authors and sites of Mass Effect fanfic, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.
You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. You can do it by expanding on the notes about the author or website, or linking similar or related authors or websites. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.
Best at Everything
- Recommended by: ADHD_Pyro, USA Bobcat
- Synopsis: Shepard recruited the best in the universe for his campaign against the Collectors. This includes...
- ADHD_Pyro: From the twisted minds over at SpaceBattles.com comes a veritable cornucopia of crossovers with everything imaginable. In particular, their fusion of ME2 with Metal Gear Solid is incredibly well done.
- Masked And Dangerous: As one of the writers on this thread, I can die happy now knowing something I contributed to got a recommendation on this site.
- Meta Skipper : A good thread for a good laugh. Appears to be slow to update, sadly.
The Bioware Big Bang
- Recommended by: Ghastdream
- Section of Mass Effect Fanart and Fanfic from the Bioware Big Bang Challenge.
Chi Kyoku
- Recommended by: Murus
- Synopsis: A set of five loosely related stories, the last of which is unfortunately a dead fic. F!Shepard/Garrus ship-fics.
- EDIT: Dead Fic no more! Chi Kyoku is risen, and actively writing once again.
- Comments: Murus: These are distinctly relationship-oriented fics written by a high-schooler (at the time). Normally, that would be a big flashing sign for me to go read something else, avoiding this in a wide circle. But I didn't... and Chi Kyoku ended up being one of those people who are a shining example on why a book shouldn't be judged by its cover. For this is not some immature horror show. What we have here is a set of wonderful, well-written stories that approach their subject with subtlety and maturity. The Garrus/Fem!Shep relationship is layered, develops slowly (in a good sense) and, above all, feels real. Also, there isn't much action... yet I didn't mind that at all. Considering my usual interests, preferences and avoidances when it comes to fanfiction, that speaks volumes of just how good Chi Kyoku's work is. Go now, and read.
If You Were Commander Shepard
- Recommended by: Meshakhad
- A thread consisting of people writing their own dialogue for Mass Effect. Runs the gamut from lampshading plot holes to creating moments of pure awesome. Not all are good, but many are excellent.
Lady Alila
- Recommended by: Meimay.
- She focuses on Femshep/Garrus but at the same time love to explore the "what if"s from all 3 games: what if Garrus decided to tag along in the Omega DLC, what if the clone managed to replace Shepard and fooled her crew in the Citadel DLC, how much affect Mindoir really had on Shepard and the likes. Well-written action scenes, good characterizations, heart-warming and well-placed romances, plots twists and intense cliff-hangers to make you want more. This author's fics are a must read.
LogicalPremise
- Recommended by: KhaosKyuubi, RapidR3DR, Luppo564, Katkiller-V
- Author of the masterfully written "Of Sheep and Battle Chicken" fanfiction and the AU surrounding it. In addition to the fic itself, as well as the planned and, according to the author, outlined sequels, this Author has written numerous pieces of work that help to flesh out the world and the characters therein. Reading them is not necessary to enjoy the main work, but it will enhance the experience. As for the fic itself it is nothing short of a masterpiece. While it is certainly darker than the source material it is by no means Grimdark for the sake of being Grimdark, and it all feels very fleshed out and organic. The AU contains several OCs that, while important to the plot, do not play a major role in it and do not in any way, shape or form eclipse the main protagonists. Plus it includes plenty of both dark, and not-so-dark humor in addition to tense and tightly-written action and tender and heartwarming moments.
- Seconded , this guy is incredible, he's basically re-written the entire backstory and setting of Mass Effect with hints of Warhammer 40,000 and Shadowrun, without lots of blatant references. I really recommend the Cerberus Files, a complete document on the histories and militarys of the asari and salarians.
- Thirded. This is one of my all-time favorites, and I'm not even a fan of pairing with Liara. Or asari in general. The world for this fic is incredibly fleshed out- seriously, the author has several entire fics acting as supporting documents for the universe, that he's pretty much made free to use.
- Fourthed. Starts mildly AU and just runs from there, and basically takes anything boring, lame, or unexplained about mass effect and spins one-off sentences and characters that are brought up once as a joke in the game into vital OC's who are integral to the plot in brilliant ways. Plus, the author is one of the fanfiction authors I've seen who most understands the importance of editing and is a good writer to boot.
Melaradark
- Recommended by: Zhenra Zeyro
Munkeestuff
- Recommended by: Firebert
- Tumblr that features some hilarious drawings featuring Javik. Warning: Contains ME 3 spoilers.
RaeDMagdon
- The writer who singlehandedly created the Aria/Tevos ship, and then proceeded to run with it in stories that span multiple generations, featuring excellent characterization and lots stupidly well written erotica. Also available on tumblr and Ao3!
Sinvraal
- Recommended by: Echo Garrote, Damsel of Distress, Spark Moon, Universitas, Joysweeper, Estelindis, Lavanya Six
- Writer of the excellent Iunctio fic, mentioned below, as well as the Wrex fic also under her name. She also has written several more fic expanding her own version of the Mass Effect universe. Some fluff, an excellent story that happened between the two games that features Cerberus as the antagonists. She has recently finished writing her fic for the sequel called Exitus, which has the same superior quality of Inuctio, including a POV from Legion that's unique, in character, and brilliant.
- Spark Moon: Indeed. 'Exitus' is especially remarkable, as it handles elements from the sequel in a very thoughtful and mature manner, especially into comparison with other post-Horizon fix fics. I would also like to add that her Shepard is a diamond in the rough and the enormous gravitas of the situation -Horizon included- is handled with a certain believability that is greatly welcomed in the fandom. I also have to give her major praise for having the guts to kill off characters like Jack, Zaeed and Thane in Exitus, which is sure to fly in the face of a reader who hopes for a No Man Left Behind-esque ending. Her sole Dragon Age story -focusing on a criminally overlooked character- is worth noting too.
- Behenian: Sinvraal writes well, and Exitus is well done, although her guts led the story to non-canonical places. For example, while Jack can die in the suicide mission, Exitus has her offed fighting the Collectors boarding the ship. In-game, a cutscene shows all the squadmates boarding the shuttle with Shepard. Contrast with Exitus, where Jack's not the only squadmate helping Joker; Thane and Zaeed are present also. That might well be a better version of events than the original game, but the reason the suicide mission has a Men Left Behind-esque ending is that Zaeed attempts to assassinate Shepard, and Thane prevents it, dying himself in the process. There is no climactic leap by Shepard across to Normandy's hatch: rather, a psychologically broken Shepard is blackmailed and pushed into survival — to further a romance subplot.
- Barachiel: Agreed. The first half of Exitus is even better done than the first story, but I find the liberties taken to be a bit much. Never mind the changes to the events, which I can argue improve the story. Her Shepard veers hard into Wangs-y Deathseeker territory to further prop up the love story. I found it really disconcerting, and thought it weakened the character of Shepard rather severely.
- Joysweeper: Seriously, Sinvraal is by far my favorite Mass Effect writer. She writes the scenes I like most, in-between scenes, and main scenes through the eyes of someone who has different perspectives; she never writes from Shepard's perspective, allowing the Commander to be all mysterious; calls Shepard Shepard instead of her first name; and I like her crew interactions and the way she writes biotics. The only complaint I have is Kelly Chambers. Felt kind of out of left field. If Drew Karpyshyn turned writing the Mass Effect books over to her, I wouldn't mind much.
- Behenian: Specifically, Chambers is turfed from the ship, with ignominy, half-way through the events of the game — another hardly canonical moment, and that is but the rift within the lute. I mean, it's a break in continuity and a stretch given Chambers' character, if a dramatic moment and well-written; and it is only the start, as Sinvraal acknowledges in afterwords... By the time of Certus, the events of ME3 are barely recognizable.
- Estelindis: Agreed with all the above. Sinvraal keeps the characters true to their origins while adding vastly more detail and depth. Yet she does this without going on an information overload. Every little aspect is carefully chosen, and together they create an incredible effect (like a mosaic). While I enjoy Drew's novels, I find her writing style superior in nearly every way (praise for Sinvraal, not scorn for Drew). She happens to be quite happy working at her current job, but I would be delighted if a writing job opened up at Bioware that she was able and willing to take.
Twitter #Solcomms
- Recommended (posthumously) by Blacksun388
- Synopsis: Fan made twitter page (now defunct) that chronicled the the Reaper invasion on Earth from the perspective of every day people around the world. People sent messages from military units, government officials, civilians, rescue operations teams, and local law enforcement across this board and wrote short stories and blogs about their own experiences.
The Unofficial Mass Effect Epilogue Slides
- Recommended by: S1duri, DudeL, brodyaga, digiman619
- Fan-made epilogue generator for Mass Effect 3
- DudeL: I highly endorse this. I know at first the ending leaves a bad taste because of the amount of sacrifice and uncertainty but it still leaves a large opportunity for hope in the universe. This little endeavor shows how feasible that hope is and that the game isn't ruined. Might give an idea for what the Extended Cut will be like.
- digiman619: I second this; even after the Extended Cut came out, it still gives the finality that you want, as the Extended Cut just gave a "Things aren't totally screwed, we'll get over it" ending, and this gives finality not only to the universe, but to the people you saved the galaxy with and that meant something to you.
The Wacky Fun-time Audio Thread
- Recommended by: LoganLee88, pcy623, Firebert
- A hysterical NSFW thread with edited audio from Mass Effect 2, with pairings such as Male Shepard/Zaeed, Miranda/Jack, Grunt/Tali, Tali/Legion, Jacob/Kasumi and Thane/Samara, it's bound to put you in stitches if you aren't already uncomfortable hearing their "getting shot" audio as The Immodest Orgasm. The way the creator pieced dialogue from the game together is more banter than you can find in the original game. Besides that, the thread includes Easter Eggs: cut audio from Mass Effect 2.
- pcy623: That gave me the giggles.
- Firebert: Rite of Passage made me laugh out loud. "And he's a big one." "Impressive!"
- The Bio Ware forums have since gone offline, so here's an alternative link to the Internet Archive where all the links from the forum post are still stored. While the links to the audio files aren't properly archived themselves, the original outbound links are still live and can be used to download the audio files.
ZirconaWorks
- Recommended by: heirofapophis
- This author is only semi-active on Archive of our Own but has a pretty solid series going on of Shakarian fics that are (awesomely) illustrated as well.
