Right then. Guess I am just going to throw my two cents in as well.
I have been a fan of Bioware for years. I love their products, I admire the passion and vigor they pour into their projects, and I have the utmost respect for the hard work they put into making their fans happy and in putting out the best games they possibly can. I can not wait for ME3, I have confidence in it being an amazing, and possibly one of the best games of this generation.
Now, while I generally do not lend much credence to the books, indeed, I view them more as a side dish to a full course meal, a little appetizer to whet the appetite, and thus, nothing to really scrutinize, I do have to say I find the shear lack of regard for characters, canon, and story in Deception to be outright deplorable.
Sure, Gillian, Hendel, and Nick are not in any of the games, they are just characters in these books and I do not really feel much attatchment to them. However, changing the ages for... reasons, I guess, and disregarding Gillian's autism, amongst other things, is just ****** poor writing. I am sorry, but this is unnacceptable.
Worse, I feel, is the treatment of Leng. Let me start by saying that yes, I have read the leaked script, and I personally have been looking greatly forward to Leng's appearance in Mass Effect 3. Finally, a foil, a really awesome, love to hate foil for Shepard, a threat, a character that can go toe to toe with our protagonist...
And he steals people's cereal? What?
And these characters, Gillian especially, that had been being built up for several books now, just die senselessly. Pointlessly. I find it depressing.
So while I have scarcely complained of Bioware or EA's handling of the Mass Effect series, hell, I have been one of their staunchest defenders, I can not, as a fan and as a consumer, support the idiocy that is this novel. If any Bioware representatives read this, I hope they will listen to the very fair requests for this book being made non-canon.
Because the games, the lore, the characters that you guys at Bioware have made are truly great feats of creativity, and you deserve better than this garbage.