"Assassin's Creed; Renaissance" Book review

Hey, Jess here!

I thought it would be a good idea to go through a series instead of going between different books from different series. And because I did an Assassins Creed book last time, I will do this series first.

So Assassin's Creed; Renaissance is also written by Oliver Bowden and it was released in 2009. This was the first Assassins Creed novel Bowden has written.

The story follows Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the protagonist of the videogame the novel is based on. It mostly follows the story well and so it is basically an retelling of the videogame. This also means that in this novel there is no 'different way' of telling the story (as I have explained for Assassin's Creed; The Secret Crusade). But there are also some differences between the game and the novel. The most important difference is the lack of present day scenes. Those who have played the game know this, but for those who haven't: in the game there are present day scenes. In these scenes you follow the ever going fight between the Assassins and the Templars in the present day and it shows how you (a.k.a. the specific character) go into the animus to access the memories of their ancestors.

Another big difference involves the famous Eagle Vision. In short; this is a sixth sense that is enhanced in some people and can make them see how a person or object relates to them because of a colored glow (or aura). This Eagle Vision is not present in the novel and leads to other differences such as who discovered the hidden map on the codex pages.

Other differences actually add more than there is in the videogame. For example, in the novel Ezio's encounters with Cristina are described while they barely appear in the game (though you see them as flashbacks in Assassins Creed; Brotherhood). Also a account is provided on how Ezio had met Cristina.

But most differences are minor. With this I mean that if you haven't played the game, you would not even know it and it surely would not matter. A few of these differences are;

·         In the novel you learn the real name of that the character known as La Volpe, which is Gilberto, while in the videogame this is never mentioned.

·         In both the novel and the game, you will meet a character named Rosa. In the game Ezio and Rosa meet and will do some missions together and occasionally flirt a little, but in the novel it is revealed that there is more to their relationship.

·         In the game you see Ezio wearing the same outfit (the Assassin's robe) for almost the whole game after he gained it, while in the game he wears different outfits that are suitable for different missions. Most of these outfits were used as a disguise.

·         Also, in the novel it is more than once described how Ezio uses more than one weapon simultaniously, but in the game he is able to use only one weapon at the time.

·         And a little related to the previous one; Altaïr's equipment never appeared in the novel.

As it may be obvious, the main character is Ezio. In the beginning we see Ezio as a young man just getting into a large fight with Vieri de' Pazzi. Fortunately for Ezio, his brother Frederico comes into action at a later point, because Ezio got hurt. We then follow the young Ezio while he makes some errands and things like that. But it doesn't take long for a major event to happen in which half of Ezio's family dies. Because of this, he learns his father's biggest secret and gets introduced to the Assassin's, but takes quite a while to actually become one of them (because a certain ceremony has to be executed).

During the story, Ezio comes across many enemies and allies and he goes to many places. Unfortunately it's not always entirely clear how much time has past or how he has gotten to a certain place. This may be little confusing, but I don't think it ruins the whole reading experience. At the end of the story, Ezio has become older and also a little more mature. But other than that he hasn't changed too much. Other character don't change much eiter. This may seem as poor character development (and I won't criticize anyone who thinks so), but I do have to remind you that this is only the first part of Ezio's trilogy. So there is more to come and look forward to. And for the other characters; most of them are grownup people. I'm not saying adults don't or can't change, but they have had a lot of development behind them already and usually have a certain kind of character. Besides, most of them aren't that very long present in the story (or alive...) to develop much. That said, I still won't disagree immediately with anyone saying the character development isn't good, I'm trying to show another point of view.

So my overall opinion about this novel is that it's a nice casual reading for anyone, no matter if you have played the game or not.

Luckily for us, this book is easily available for all of us. A few websites I can recommend are bol.com, Waterstones, and more global, Amazon.

To be continued...