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ffyddhewitt 's review for:
Black Flag
by Oliver Bowden
Black Flag is one of my favourite games ever, maybe even my favourite, and Edward Kenway is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time. I can’t help but compare this book to its game counterpart and I was fully aware it wouldn’t measure up to the game. However, some of the changes made in this book compared to the game were bizarre.
Initially I enjoyed learning more about Edward’s life before the events of the game for the first hundred or so pages of this book. I thought it was written well too — this is why this was a two star read for me and not a one star.
Unfortunately things then started to go south for me with the weird and unnecessary introduction of a revenge plot, with Edward finding out that the people who burned his and his parents’ house down were associated with the Templars, who he would later go to fight against. He was beat unconscious and thrown onto a ship to become a privateer — yes, he’d already made this decision, but in the game the fact that it was his decision alone was important in conveying his initial greed, a very important part of his character. At this point I started to enjoy reading this book less and less.
From there on, the book relies on the reader knowing the plot of the original game. Obviously a fifteen-ish hour game can’t be crammed into a book in its entirety without being much longer than this one, which already was over 450 pages but in all fairness felt shorter. What we end up getting, though, is a very shortened version of the game’s events. I’ve always loved Edward for the journey he takes — from a cocky, naive pirate to the wiser assassin we know by the end, who has learnt his lessons the hard way. We don’t reach this point by the end of the book, because while many of the more emotional and introspective moments of the game are included, we’re pretty much only given their dialogue, without much reflection from Edward. How much did his conversations with Mary Read and Anne Bonny mean to him here? In Edward’s letters to his daughter he writes of his admiration for Mary, but we don’t really see why.
The writing itself also gets lazy. How many times does Edward “engage” his blade? More times than we’re told how a character says any particular sentence, at least, as we’re usually just given lines of dialogue on its own.
Something I really hated about this book was how it handled its female characters. The nature of Edward’s relationship with Caroline is pretty reflective of the era in which the book is set, but there was absolutely no reason for Edward to notice Mary’s breasts on multiple occasions, nor for him to have any romantic feelings for Anne (which were mentioned once and then immediately forgotten about — was that added in the day before publishing or something?). His relationships with Mary and with Anne were purely platonic in the game and were still very important, with him sharing meaningful moments with both characters. It was insulting to the two women to have Edward see them in such a light, especially when he didn’t in the original game.
Another thing I was disappointed by was the almost complete lack of Adéwalé, a favourite of many including myself in the game. He’s a great character, already there for the author to use, and he was wasted! Again, Edward notes his admiration for Adé, but the reader hasn’t earned that sentiment as we aren’t actually privy to many of Edward and Adé’s conversations or what Adé does to be such a good companion to Edward, at least not without already being familiar with the game.
And don’t get me started on that ending. Edward Kenway, the man who lost so many of his friends due to the Templars’ plight, the man who goes on to become a legendary pirate and master assassin, takes a deal from a Templar? Okay, I could see him accepting a pardon on behalf of his crew, as he would have genuinely wanted the best for them by this point, but I don’t believe he would’ve given in that easily at least for his own sake. To top it off, this occurred in the last two pages of the book. It felt like the author felt the need to extent Edward’s story beyond the last cutscene, and again tacked this on at the last minute.
Despite a strong start, this book managed to undermine Edward’s character development as well as his relationships with several important and interesting characters. The game has such a strong plot and cast of characters, and somehow this book manages to both waste and ruin them. I’ll be pretending I never read this.
Initially I enjoyed learning more about Edward’s life before the events of the game for the first hundred or so pages of this book. I thought it was written well too — this is why this was a two star read for me and not a one star.
Unfortunately things then started to go south for me with the weird and unnecessary introduction of a revenge plot, with Edward finding out that the people who burned his and his parents’ house down were associated with the Templars, who he would later go to fight against. He was beat unconscious and thrown onto a ship to become a privateer — yes, he’d already made this decision, but in the game the fact that it was his decision alone was important in conveying his initial greed, a very important part of his character. At this point I started to enjoy reading this book less and less.
From there on, the book relies on the reader knowing the plot of the original game. Obviously a fifteen-ish hour game can’t be crammed into a book in its entirety without being much longer than this one, which already was over 450 pages but in all fairness felt shorter. What we end up getting, though, is a very shortened version of the game’s events. I’ve always loved Edward for the journey he takes — from a cocky, naive pirate to the wiser assassin we know by the end, who has learnt his lessons the hard way. We don’t reach this point by the end of the book, because while many of the more emotional and introspective moments of the game are included, we’re pretty much only given their dialogue, without much reflection from Edward. How much did his conversations with Mary Read and Anne Bonny mean to him here? In Edward’s letters to his daughter he writes of his admiration for Mary, but we don’t really see why.
The writing itself also gets lazy. How many times does Edward “engage” his blade? More times than we’re told how a character says any particular sentence, at least, as we’re usually just given lines of dialogue on its own.
Something I really hated about this book was how it handled its female characters. The nature of Edward’s relationship with Caroline is pretty reflective of the era in which the book is set, but there was absolutely no reason for Edward to notice Mary’s breasts on multiple occasions, nor for him to have any romantic feelings for Anne (which were mentioned once and then immediately forgotten about — was that added in the day before publishing or something?). His relationships with Mary and with Anne were purely platonic in the game and were still very important, with him sharing meaningful moments with both characters. It was insulting to the two women to have Edward see them in such a light, especially when he didn’t in the original game.
Another thing I was disappointed by was the almost complete lack of Adéwalé, a favourite of many including myself in the game. He’s a great character, already there for the author to use, and he was wasted! Again, Edward notes his admiration for Adé, but the reader hasn’t earned that sentiment as we aren’t actually privy to many of Edward and Adé’s conversations or what Adé does to be such a good companion to Edward, at least not without already being familiar with the game.
And don’t get me started on that ending. Edward Kenway, the man who lost so many of his friends due to the Templars’ plight, the man who goes on to become a legendary pirate and master assassin, takes a deal from a Templar? Okay, I could see him accepting a pardon on behalf of his crew, as he would have genuinely wanted the best for them by this point, but I don’t believe he would’ve given in that easily at least for his own sake. To top it off, this occurred in the last two pages of the book. It felt like the author felt the need to extent Edward’s story beyond the last cutscene, and again tacked this on at the last minute.
Despite a strong start, this book managed to undermine Edward’s character development as well as his relationships with several important and interesting characters. The game has such a strong plot and cast of characters, and somehow this book manages to both waste and ruin them. I’ll be pretending I never read this.