Title: Control That Which You Cannot Destroy
Author: jay8008
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Status: WIP
Fandom: Mass Effect 2
Pairings: M!Shep/Jack
Summary: Cerberus' goal was simple in concept: resurrect Shepard to be precisely the same. They failed. Pushing forward, the result was a powerful, untested cybernetic soldier who doubts his own humanity. Now, he will need to lean on his new crew of unknowns, old friends, a past love, and a new one even more fragile than he.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8042302/1/Control-That-Which-You-Cannot-Destroy

I recommended this a while back in a general Mass Effect story rec thread but since it's just updated I thought I might as well put it for review.

Though it has a fairly slow update rate, this is easily one of the best stories in the Mass Effect fandom. The author has taken the time to fully develop Shepard's team and flesh out their interactions. In particular, it doesn't stick to the ridiculous limit of Shepard only taking 2 squadmates on every mission seen in so many fics. The entire team gets involved and the author weaves their actions together flawlessly.

It's by no means a lighthearted story, but it's well worth the time to read it. 5/5 from me.

 

Absolutely brilliant characterization and development. This is one of the best fics I've read, and definitely the best Mass Effect fic I've seen.

It gets an easy 5/5

 

This really deserves more attention that it has gotten so far.

For the most part, the Mass Effect fandom is simply a collection of M!Shep/Tali wank in which every action is copied directly from the games, everything goes right, and only the bad guys die.

CTWYCD throws all of that out of the window.

Bad shit happens to people that didn't deserve it, events evoke real emotional responses from characters, humor extends beyond scenes in the elevator or "I'm Commander Shepard and this is...", and action scenes are delivered in a way that is realistic while still enjoyable to read.

Unfortunately, there is a fair bit of Shepard angst, but it's negligible when compared with the amount of pure awesome this story contains.

This is a must read for any Mass Effect fan, and IMO probably the best Mass Effect fic out there.

5/5

 

It's pretty good, though as stated the woe is me Shepard gets old rather quickly, and is thankfully shunted to the side when the plot needs to move, or characters need to be introduced.

Plot: 3-4/5 You've read this before, but is presented in a way that makes it worth the retread.

Characters: 4/5 As stated before, the characters are very well done and with a few exceptions, are not thrown in your face or added only to

Spoiler

kill off

Interactions are believable and crafted to the tone of the games.

Overall: Solid 4/5 It's one of the few Mass Effect fics that I can honestly say I enjoyed the whole way through.
Honestly, the only thing keeping it from a perfect 5 is that fact that it isn't finished.