Review | Assassin’s Creed: the novel of the movie of the game is silly but fun
With Christie Golden’s grandiose prose, the novelisation of the Assassin’s Creed movie isn’t a complete waste of time
by Christie Golden
Penguin
Before reading Christie Golden’s novelisation of the Assassin’s Creed movie, I knew three things about the massively successful, multi-format franchise. First, it’s a video game invented, essentially, by creative corporation Ubisoft. Second, there’s a pirate character called James Kidd (actually Mary Read in disguise). Third, Assassin’s Creed rivals Star Wars for spin-offs. This is Christie Golden’s second addition to the series published in December alone. The Dan Brownish plot essentially retraces the relationship between gamer and on-screen pixels – 21st-century human Callum Lynch was, in a past life, Aguilar de Nerha, a de facto member of the Assassin’s brotherhood. The high concept is that by witnessing Aguilar fight the dastardly Templar Order, Callum develops the skills (or possibly the delusion) to confront their modern-day incarnation: Abstergo Industries. It is very silly, but worth it for Golden’s grandiose prose which I decided was a parody of knightly excess.
