Oliver Bowden is a pen name for Anton Gill – a writer, historian and gamer in one person. He has written many books and the Assassin’s Creed series based on Ubisoft’s video game is just one of them.
The Assassin’s Creed games are very popular, so popular actually that there are little under ten books based on the games as well as a film which came out recently. The Assassin’s Creed: Renaissance is based on the first part of Assassins Creed II and takes place in Italy, mostly Florence and Venice.
The book follows young Ezio, who is to inherit his father’s banking business and continue the family traditions, but the plans change, when injustice is done to the Auditore family and only by chance Ezio escapes execution. His blood is boiling as the boy plans revenge on those responsible for the injustice done to his family. His whole life changes and he has one sole purpose – vengeance.
My only meeting with Assassin’s Creed has been the film, which I was very excited about, but was left somewhat disappointed. I guess I expected more of the Spanish Inquisition and less of the modern times and weird technologies. Nevertheless, it pushed me to read the first Assassin’s Creed book, which I had bought for my boyfriend a long time ago.
The story was a very light read, which was pleasant and it gave the feeling of Italy without really pushing much of the history in the book. The casual mentions of different buildings, architects and history facts did enrich the book in a pleasant, but unobtrusive way.
I did have a couple of problems with the book though one major problem was that the driving force of the plot didn’t seem to be that important to the protagonist. His lack of worries, about spending years and years of time on quests without knowing why he was doing them, didn’t seem like enough to motivate a human being to fight with such fire inside of him. Sure, he was angry about the loss of his family, but to be honest, the story soon turned to a very different point, which was never explained to Ezio and so all that ‘important’ work that he did, shouldn’t have seemed that important to him. Of course, that is because of the game. You don’t really need the big objective to play the game, but if I look at it from the perspective of the book, it seems like he wasted his life away not knowing for what cause he was fighting.
Another thing, that caught my eye and is something that one could expect from a book based on a game, was the obvious division, where a quest starts in a game and where it ends. It didn’t bother me much at the beginning, I guess I didn’t even notice it, but the closer to the end I was, the more I could see when Ezio has received another quest.
The last thing is that I thought the book to be too long. I understand (again) that it is as long as the game is, but I didn’t like the last part of the book. Suddenly in this cold realism and brute force there’s mysticism, magic and piety, I felt like I was thrown out of a boat and I can see how it only makes things cooler on the screen, but that is not the case in a book. I disliked it so much, that the book lost a star only because of the ending.
Nevertheless, the book inspired me, it made me think of Italy (I visited Rome last year) and it made me long for the wonderful art of Leonardo da Vinci (Ezio’s friend, by the way) and the streets of Florence. And as it did so, I bought tickets to visit Florence and Venice, just like Ezio.
Overall I think that author did a pretty good job of turning a game into a book, it proved to be a decent and interesting read and honestly I’ve read a lot worse books. I gave this book two stars on my goodreads page, as I said mostly because of the disappointing ending. And I hear that it is exact recitation of the game, so I guess those who have played it aren’t really going to be interested in it. But it is also not suitable really for romance seekers as there’s quite little of that.
I will definitely read the next one as on goodreads the ratings are going up and up and I want some more of the atmosphere the book managed to create. I probably wouldn’t re-read it though, wasn’t that good.
Let me know your thoughts on the book, game and other things I mention. I’ve seen that a lot of my friends have put it in their ‘to be read’ lists on goodreads, so I definitely want to know what you think! Cheerio!
January 10, 2017 at 19:20
I really loved your detailed review.. but I would say if you categorize with headings, one can easily get a glimpse.. keep up the good work..:)
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January 10, 2017 at 21:53
Excellent review. I can see how hard it must be to turn a game into a book. You did a nice job of breaking down the challenges.
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January 11, 2017 at 04:51
Glad u did a review of this. I was curious about the books too after seeing the movie so I’m glad to see u liked the book. I liked the movie too but I agree that the parts in the past was more interesting.
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January 11, 2017 at 13:58
I love Assassin’s Creed games and at one point I had to try reading this book. It’s like a must-read for the fans I guess;). Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed due to lack of excitement and some prolonged moments that worked fantastically in a game, but not in the story.
Last week my friend said something about a game to movie/book adaptation – the problem is that games are meant to be played, that you’re the person deciding and acting and the movies/books are meant to be watch/read and therefore should follow a bit of a different pattern. Somethings just don’t work so well when you’re a passive observer.
But I heard the further the series goes the better the stories are, so one day I will actually finish reading this one and maybe even follow up with rest of these books.
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January 11, 2017 at 17:02
You know I didn’t know there was a book. It’s a shame the movie flopped. Nice post.
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January 14, 2017 at 21:29
seems every movie and series this days has a book attached to it. i love it
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January 16, 2017 at 14:19
I am a fan of this game but a book dedicated to the same is a revelation to me….thanks for the like on my blog
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January 22, 2017 at 21:14
I am not a gamer so this whole thing is a new concept for me. I am from the world of “which came first the book or the movie?” Usually if the answer is the movie came first, then chances are that the book will not be worth reading. Even with my limited exposure to gaming, I can readily see two things your review has brought out: gamers are hungry for anything related to a favorite game, and it is really difficult to create an excellent book based on a game. The goals and formats are just too different. Good job of critiquing this book.
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