The Secret Crusade (Assassin's Creed (Unnumbered)) [Mass Market Paperback]

As others have said this book chronicles the first game in the Assassin's Creed series and the PSP game Bloodlines, taking events and dialog from the games verbatim. There is however so much more here. Where in the game Altaïr is an undefined vessel for the player to fill, this work fleshes out the person. There is a grand story here, but the telling of it is very compressed. Events are described quickly and perfunctorily, and the scene is not set in a detailed manner. This is I think due to the "reading a journal" style of writing combined with an arbitrary page count limitation. Given total freedom, a scholar of Bowden's training could have written a 1500 page epic, the kind one reads over a whole winter of chilly evenings. I believe the Masters of the Creed franchise decreed that such an attempt would take too long and would be too long for the intended audience. A pity, as I think the actual audience is people like me who want to wring every possible scrap of information from this amazing story. That said, I enjoyed it thoroughly and was very satisfied in how storyline set in the games but never resolved were completed. Like the games, you feel "close" to actual history, while at the same time are given the sense of being privy to something hidden, something very, very important. A must read for fans of the Creed franchise, and an enjoyable quick read for those who wonder what this whole Assassin's Creed thing is about but cannot or will not play the games for whatever reason.

I'll be as unbiased as I can. I like the book, only because I'm a hardcore Assassin's Creed fan, so that is why I gave it a three, which is already generous because it
leans more closer to a two star novel. As a book fan I would only give this one or two stars. Here's why.

The story of the first game and Bloodlines is retold and it is interesting to read it, seeing how everything connects in the first game in a cycle that is repetitive, but not as repetitive as in the game, cause the author manages to bring some variety to it, but this could have been done much better. The story is not very descriptive, it just mainly repeats events, conversations from the game. It lacks describtion of the locations of the characters in general, which makes them lack depth. It's not worse as the first game, but with the oppertunity to create this novel, he could have really added more depth. Yes he did not manage to do this. It's mostly just all directly from the game. (Minor spoiler ahead) Mostly I misssed the conversations Altaïr has with Malik as his character really shows, and how it shows how he slowly changes, not just jumps from one point to the other.

When we get to the part of Bloodlines it gets a little better, but I don't think this is because of the author's writing, but because the game itself didn't have a story where this cycle just repeated itself (assassination, back to Masyaf, assassination, back to Masyaf and so on...). That is what made this part more readable, but again I don't think we owe that to the author. Once again he isn't very descriptive and could have added much more to the relationship between Maria and Altaïr.

The only good thing I can add is that between the events of first game and Bloodlines there are a few scenes of Altaïr's younger life, which is kind of a build up for what happens in his later life. It's third part where it at least got more interesting, where the stories of Altaïr's begin, but while it is interesting to read what happened afterwards, you do once again get the impression that it could have been done a lot better. What you miss were more personal conversations again with Maria and Altaïr and other characters. The over all story of the book never really gets very personal.

For Hardcore Assassin's Creed fans who want to know as much as possible it might be worth it to buy this book. But I wouldn't recommend it to others.

Bowden's third book seems like a tired retelling of the original game's story with added bits that seem like they have been imagined by a thirteen year old boy. Bowden's subpar writing is completely saturated with incomplete sentences, emotionless dialogue, repetitive description, and enough epithets to make you forget the characters' names. I'm assuming the incomplete sentences were meant for dramatic effect, but they are numerous and awkward. I did not expect much from a book based on a video game series, but this book is awful beyond my expectations! If you must know what happens, save your money and read it in a book store.