★★★★★ 4
True to the game and high on philosophy, but no it's not the Fanfic lover's playground....
Format: Paperback
I read several reviews of this book and was wary initially of buying (to the point where I read parts of it in a bookstore before buying it here). Finally finished it and 500 odd pages later, this is not just a pithy sewing together of cutaway scenes and story clips. Is it classic literature? No, but it wasn't meant to be. It's sometimes hard to translate action in to book form, especially when done in the luscious hi-def glory that Ubisoft was able to achieve. But what it lacks in geographical description, it makes up in explaining and demonstrating the philosophy of the story of the game itself. You understand what makes an Assassin different from a Templar, you understand what made Ezio tick, what made Altair tick and while it is subtle, it is genuine characterization and if you don't get the memo, then you just aren't trying.
While some complained because Sophia wasn't painted with more detail or that the relationship between some of the characters could have been explored better (like the political tension in the royal family for example), I'd still argue it wasn't necessary. This is not Suleiman's story or Yusuf's story, nor was it a love story though there is one; it's Ezio's and Atair's stories and the simplicity of their thoughts and actions were well drawn. It wasn't meant to fill in the gaps, fanfic is much more satisfactory in those cases. The only drawback of this book is that sometimes it borders on being preachy, but I don't think the makers of this game were exactly subtle about whose corner they wanted you to be in.
True to the game, absolutely direct about it's philosophy, and it doesn't try to masquerade as anything more than it should be for 10 dollars.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2014
