The Book Depository Assassin's Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden
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Price: £10.27
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: Assassin's Creed: Forsaken : Paperback : Penguin Putnam Inc : 9780425261514 : 0425261514 : 04 Dec 2012 : An original novel based on the multiplatinum video game from Ubisoft--Cover. The Book Depository Assassin's Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780425261514
MPN: 0425261514
GTIN: 9780425261514
Author: JoeBoBean
Rating: 5
Review: I have to preface this with the fact that I do love all of Oliver Bowden's Assassin's Creed books and am a huge fan of the games so I am biased. However unlike others have that have said this book is not as good as it does not follow as closely to the game plot; I disagree to me this makes the book better and the mythos of the games so much deeper. Which is why I enjoyed it so much that I found it hard to put down, it didn't hurt that I also really liked Haytham in the game; even if he was a Templar. The story follows Connor understanding his father through his journals from a boy to the Grand Master Templar of the Americas. The underlying theme of the game from Connor's perspective and the books from Haytham's is why can't they all get along? That although the Templars and the Assassins go about things in different ways at the heart of it all they want the same thing. Peace everlasting. As naive as that simple want is. I liked the idea that Bowden took with this book that he didn't centre it on the main character of the game, but instead explored his roots and the roots of his father further, because as much as it is explained in the game it is never truly given much depth and this book managed to show a "what if" side to the ending chapter of the games. Some have said that Haytham was constantly going between being in a sticky situation on one page and the next being out of it, but how is that any different to the other plot lines? This is the sort of book you do not read for realism, but for the sheer joy of escapism in to a beautifully rendered and described landscape, where one moment you are in the High Society of London the next The Frontier and then The Middle East saving your long lost sister. Through the journal entries you become engrossed in a characters life that was fully lived, if not always happily. Which is just like real life and even with some of the seemingly unrealistic plotting; gives the reader something to relate to. I would recommend this book to anyone that appreciates Bowden's writing and the games in general, or anyone that wants an action filled piece of escapism. However I learnt the hard way being at memory sequence 9 when the book came out and reading it in a matter of days that it would have been better to read Forsaken after finishing the game. If you are easily moved to tears like I am, you will need a few tissues.
Author: Israilivic
Rating: 3
Review: Easily as bad as the first book in the series. The 1st person 'journal' format is annoying at first, but it grows on you, until you realize it makes no sense. If it were a journal there wouldn't be blocks of the protagonists life missing with little to no explanation. I feel the entire book (along with the game) was meant to show how the Templars aren't that bad and they think they are doing the world a favor, but really the first 400 pages are just about ignoring Templar codes to wreak vengance on an unknown enemy, followed by showing that one of the top knights is worse than the Templars ever were, and this is meant to be some philosophical revelation? Yeah, there have been worse people than the Nazis, but the Nazis were still bad people ! Just a stupid premise. And my final rant has to be about the cover. Whoever chose it is deceitfully clever. Knowing that anyone who played the game wouldn't dream of buying the book if it had Haytham on it, so they put Connor on the front just to get the books off the shelf. Bravo.
