Review: Assassin's Creed: Renaissance

Title: Assassin's Creed: Renaissance

Author: Oliver Bowden

Publisher: Ace

Date of Publication: 2009

Number of Pages: 516

Find it at: Book Depository

Summary

Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, a young man embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance. To eradicate corruption and restore his family's honour, he will learn the art of the assassins. To his allies, Ezio will become a force for change, fighting for freedom and justice. To his enemies, he will become a threat.

Review

Even if you're not a gamer, the chances are that you've heard of Assassin's Creed before. Ubisoft is releasing a new installment of the game every year. I have played some of the games before and what impressed me the most was the story. So, when I heard that a series of novels was coming out I was excited and I anticipated books heavy on historical elements. I was also curious to see how all of the unique aspects of the gameplay would fit into the plot. Lastly, from which game would the novels begin? As it turns out, the starting point is Assassin's Creed II and the story of one of the most popular assassins of the series, Ezio Auditore.

Ezio is a man who has lost everything. His father and brothers are accused and executed falsely by the ruling families in Florence. In order to remain alive and save his mother and sister, he flees his hometown and ends up in his uncle Mario's palazzo. There he learns that he has a heavy heritage to live up to. Is he ready to accept it, though? He decided to cooperate with the Order of the Assassins because they are after the same men he seeks revenge from. As he dives deeper and one mission leads to another, he discovers the truth behind the ruling games and the fight between the Assassins and the Templars. Moreover, his list for the people he has to go after in order to restore his father's name is filled constantly with even more powerful names, with the peak being Rodrigo Borgia.

So, to sum things up, take a hero with a powerful motive, add a family heritage, a lot of historical figures and facts, sprinkle a lot of action and you're done! Seems like a recipe for success, right? Well, that's where all the problems begin. It's the first time that I've encountered a story with so much potential not being taken advantage of, at all.

First of all, I couldn't care for a single character in the whole novel! Yes, we follow Ezio in his journey and he is in danger at times, but I couldn't feel fear for him. Although we have his backstory and his motives explained, I never figured out the character traits that make Ezio who he is. His thoughts and feelings are somewhat generic and things that you'd expect to hear from a person with these experiences. As for the secondary characters, well, they weren't developed at all, so I can't really say anything about them.

The other big problem of this novel is that the story doesn't have continuity, at least one that feels natural. While reading Assassin's Creed, I was constantly under the impression that the author wrote it while he was playing the game and he was just writing it down at the same time. To make things clear, imagine Ezio on a mission. He goes where he has to go, accomplishes with some way or another the assassination and then he meets someone that tells him who he needs to kill next. The first time it didn't bother me, but it happened all the time. Shouldn't Ezio at least question his missions? We are in a totally different medium, so things have to be explained.

This brings us to the last problem. The elements of the game, such as the wall-climbing, the leap of faith and the looting feel unnatural. They are there just because they are essential elements in the game. They are recognizable and if they weren't there I would certainly feel their loss, but I expected them to be included in a way that it didn't shout "Hey, here goes the famous leap of faith! Don't miss it!". In some instances, I even expected a NEW SKILL UNLOCKED to pop up.  

Assassin's Creed was a major disappointment for me. I like historical novels and the action of this one promised to be an enjoyable read. But instead it fell flat, without a memorable hero and a world poorly constructed. At least it made me want to play Brotherhood, the next game in the series. And if you want to get acquainted with Ezio Auditore, then don't hesitate to pick up Assassin's Creed II. This is a clear victory for the video games format.

Join The Reading Armchair on Facebook!

Hello, everybody! This is exciting news! The Reading Armchair is now on Facebook. You can visit and like the page at The Reading Armchair. I'm really happy that the blog is expanding little by little and I hope for more exciting news in the future :)

Weeckies: How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman

Hello, everybody! I've been preparing this feature for quite some time and today it's finally the day for the first post. In Weeckies, which is a mixture of weekly and quickies, I'll be talking about short stories. For the first week of Weeckies, I have chosen a story by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman. It's called How The Marquis Got His Coat Back and you can find in the short story collection Rogues which was co-edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

If you're a Neil Gaiman fan, then the title of this short story alone lets you know that we have the return of a character previously known to us. The Marquis refers, of course, to Marquis de Carabas, a character that first appeared in Neverwhere. I was more than happy to read more of his adventures, as Marquis is one of the characters I instantly liked from the novel. Plus, returning to London Below was more than appealing to me. It's a totally different world located below London simultaneously to our own and has its own rules. The paths of London Below are not the paths of London Above: they rely to no little extent on things like belief and opinion and tradition as much as they rely upon the realities of maps.   

But don't worry if you haven't read Neverwhere. This short story takes place after the novel and it just borrows the fact that the Marquis lost his coat (I'm not going to reveal anything more, as I'm urging you to pick up Neverwhere). What is so special about this coat anyway? It's what gives Marquis the confidence to be the person who has become. Someone that reminds a picture of a cat wearing two boots. Indeed, without it Marquis de Carabas seems a little lost. He has at times his usual wit, but going in the dangerous territory of Shepherd's Bush with even an obvious plan? That's unheard! Marquis was always the one that out planned everybody, he could get to places and obtain things that were impossible. In this short story, though, he has an unlikely ally: his brother Peregrine. From the little we encounter him, he picked my interest and I'd gladly find out more about him. 

All in all, this was an excellent short story, about 30 pages long. Despite its length, it managed to suck me into this unique world of London Below. The truth is that it made me want to re-read Neverwhere. It also made me realize that I'd love to read more stories about the adventures of Marquis de Carabas, he is a favourite of mine after all. 

Literary Rome

Hello, everybody! As you know last week I went on a short vacation in Rome, Italy. I had a great time and I loved the city. But Rome has always been attractive to some of the most well-known writers of the previous centuries. During my stay, I had the chance to visit some spots that are significant to all of us literary lovers. Here is a list of what a book lover can see in the eternal city:

Keats-Shelley Memorial House

Located in the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna, this is the place where Keats spent his last days. My photo was taken at night by my mobile, so it's a little blurry.

Found on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats

Antico Caffè Greco

Also located near Piazza di Spagna, this is one of the oldest cafès in Rome (dating back in 1760). Many famous writers, such as George Eliot, Nikolai Gogol, Henry James and Nathaniel Hawthorne visited this cafè.

Villa Borghese

Found on http://www.romeartlover.it/Borghese.html

One of my favourite places in Rome, in Villa Borghese you can find these sculptures of the famour writers Nikolai Gogol, Lord Byron, Alexander Pushkin, Ahmet Shawki, Ferdowsi, Nizami Ganjavi and Victor Hugo (who you can below).

Found on https://www.pinterest.com/pin/425027283561605289

This is called The Gift a piece of modern art by the Joseph Kosuth. You can find it in Museo Nazionale D'Arte Moderna, also located in Villa Borghese. I love this quote by Ludwig Wittgenstein.

National Roman Museum

Among the numerous sculptures that there are in the National Roman Museum, I saw these busts of Socrates and Sappho

These are some of the things that I explored in Rome.
To finish this post, here is a list of novels taking place in the eternal city:

• The Woman of Rome by Alberto Moravia
• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• Of Love and Evil by Anne Rice
• History: A Novel by Elsa Morante
• Daisy Miller by Henry James
• Imprimatur by Rita Monaldi
• A Long Finish by Michael Dibdin
• A Roman Singer by F. Marion Crawford
• Dracula Cha Cha Cha by Kim Newman
• Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Reading Book Post, October 26th

Hello, everyone! I'm back! It took me longer than I expected but due to technical problems, I couldn't really help it. But I've prepared many exciting things for the following week, so wait for them. With a few weeks' absent. let's see what happened in the literary world the previous week.

• A map of Middle Earth annotated by Tolkien himself was found inside a copy of The Lord of the Rings. The copy belongs to the illustrator Pauline Baynes. Through this map we learn, for example, that Hobbiton is at the same latitude as Oxford. 

• The cover of the upcoming Stephen King novel was revealed last week. The novel will be called End of Watch and it is due on June 7th, 2016. I have to admit that this cover has left an impression on me!

• On October 20 we celebrated the National Day on Writing. On this day, many authors used the hashtag #WhyIWrite on twitter. Very interesting thought! 

• We also have some Mark Millar news this week (Yay!). The creator announced that sequels for his well-known works are under their way. So we should expect Chrononauts 2: Futureshock on July 2016, Jupiter's Legacy in the spring and Hit-Girl, although this will be written by a new author.

• Until now, we thought that a sketch by Charlotte Bronte that was found on her school atlas was the picture of a classmate. Now experts say that it might be a portrait of the author herself, years before she wrote Jane Eyre. There is indeed a similar scene in the novel.

• The hotel that inspired The Shining will be turned into the world's first horror museum. Until now, it hosted the Stanley Film Festival. Now that's a thing I'd like to see!

• The Girl in the Spider's Web was published last September. But fans of the Millenium series rejoice: David Lagercrantz has just revealed that there will be at least two more sequels. I'm curious!

• Tomorrow the long-awaited new novel by David Mitchell will be published. The novel will be called The Slade House and it's a ghost story. But read this interview of the writer talking about it.

• Just for fun! This is a random plot generator. You just insert some random facts and it generates a plot. I chose a horror story and the result was really funny (we're talking about a killer pot here!). Try it out and let me know the result! 

• How Would You Die in a Stephen King Horror? Take this creepy quiz to find out! I got that I would be sacrificed by the religiously fanatic kids from Children of the Corn. What did you get?