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A review by vingilot
Desert Oath: The Official Prequel to Assassin's Creed Origins by Andrew Holmes, Oliver Bowden
3.0
Bayek's backstory is told! In a good story with quite a few missed opportunities.
Bayek's father leaves, which sets Bayek on a quest to find him. Helped by his love Aya, he learns more about his father and his business than he ever bargained for. Endangering himself, and those he loves in the process.
Some of these tie in novels are more closely tied in then others. This is definitely in the other camp. This does help it somewhat, it does avoid the all too common pitfall of spending the bulk of it on the backstory which is not found in the game, and then rushing through the game's plot because it feels obligated to cover it too. No this is entirely stand alone, which is a good thing! However it could have used a bit more foreshadowing, and some of the side characters didn't feel the same as they are in the game story.
Also... This book should have been about Aya in my opinion, it is her we don't get to know well enough in the game, and I for one would have love to hear more. The previous book about henry green would have been a good model of how I would have preferred this one. Hell they did not have to change the story much to make it fit, just give it from her perspective.
I can speculate about whether this book too fell victi8m to the all too common sexism in the industry at the time this was written, but that serves little purpose. The game was long rumored to be planned to feature Aya more heavily than she did in the finished product. And this book gives similar vibes.
Anyway, not a bad book, just with some missed opportunities.
Bayek's father leaves, which sets Bayek on a quest to find him. Helped by his love Aya, he learns more about his father and his business than he ever bargained for. Endangering himself, and those he loves in the process.
Some of these tie in novels are more closely tied in then others. This is definitely in the other camp. This does help it somewhat, it does avoid the all too common pitfall of spending the bulk of it on the backstory which is not found in the game, and then rushing through the game's plot because it feels obligated to cover it too. No this is entirely stand alone, which is a good thing! However it could have used a bit more foreshadowing, and some of the side characters didn't feel the same as they are in the game story.
Also... This book should have been about Aya in my opinion, it is her we don't get to know well enough in the game, and I for one would have love to hear more. The previous book about henry green would have been a good model of how I would have preferred this one. Hell they did not have to change the story much to make it fit, just give it from her perspective.
I can speculate about whether this book too fell victi8m to the all too common sexism in the industry at the time this was written, but that serves little purpose. The game was long rumored to be planned to feature Aya more heavily than she did in the finished product. And this book gives similar vibes.
Anyway, not a bad book, just with some missed opportunities.