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dilfpercyshelley 's review for:
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance
by Oliver Bowden
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
a story that i could stay with only because i enjoyed the games in which it is based.
it had terribly clunky writing, no fluidity and so much repetition of almost identical sentiments that it makes me question if the book was even edited.
the many anachronisms and uses of slang also made me question the editing. they completely remove the reader from the setting and are often interspersed randomly and suddenly. in addition, everything is shown not told. nothing is implied. a perfect example of this is after ezio gets revenge and kills his family’s betrayer, he happens to immediately open a letter to the betrayer’s wife explaining why he did it. a section so clunky, obvious and unnecessary, yet one that is repeated after almost every significant death in the novel - instead of simply implying the evil doer’s motivations, it is spelled out in a ‘accidentally found’ letter.
To be more specific about the clunky writing and repetition, everything is over explained. At some points the author even says “ezio did this because ….” or “ezio thought this because…..” and the sheer amount of times that the author says something along the lines of “ezio wasn’t a boy anymore….he was a man” is so frequent it’s comical. why was this not picked up on by an editor? at one point that line is written four times in the space of two pages.
it had terribly clunky writing, no fluidity and so much repetition of almost identical sentiments that it makes me question if the book was even edited.
the many anachronisms and uses of slang also made me question the editing. they completely remove the reader from the setting and are often interspersed randomly and suddenly. in addition, everything is shown not told. nothing is implied. a perfect example of this is after ezio gets revenge and kills his family’s betrayer, he happens to immediately open a letter to the betrayer’s wife explaining why he did it. a section so clunky, obvious and unnecessary, yet one that is repeated after almost every significant death in the novel - instead of simply implying the evil doer’s motivations, it is spelled out in a ‘accidentally found’ letter.
To be more specific about the clunky writing and repetition, everything is over explained. At some points the author even says “ezio did this because ….” or “ezio thought this because…..” and the sheer amount of times that the author says something along the lines of “ezio wasn’t a boy anymore….he was a man” is so frequent it’s comical. why was this not picked up on by an editor? at one point that line is written four times in the space of two pages.
Furthermore, the use of the training and tutorial sequences completely baffled me. As others in the reviews have said, it makes sense within game, but is completely useless and strange within a book adaptation. In fact, a lot of it makes little logical sense (why did ezio, after enduring much worse injuries and fatigue, fall asleep against that tree whilst holding the most precious artefact known to man???) but you need that kind of fantasy to be able to have a story like this about a singular man. it just isn’t realistic otherwise.
My final gripe is with the representation of the female characters in this adaptation. poor claudia!!! the author stood religiously to including the tutorial scenes that make no sense in the book yet still decided to make it HARDER for himself by making claudia a nun for a while? instead of being actively involved in the plot? she was in moteriggioni with her mother! helping ezio and mario! the one actual change you bother to make is the one that gets rid of the only female character that actually does something, which has to be critiqued.
All in all, a bad adaption. Not just for it’s terrible writing but for it’s actual adaptive skill.