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3.0
Assassin's Creed: The Magus Conspiracy
ByPublisher Description
The war between Assassins and Templars wreaks havoc in the Victorian era, in this breakneck thriller which opens up a whole new chapter of the Assassin’s Creed universe
London, 1851 – When Pierrette, a daring acrobat performing at the Great Exhibition, rescues the mathematician Ada Lovelace from a gang of thugs, she becomes immersed in an ancient feud between Assassins and Templars. But Lovelace is gravely ill, and shares her secrets with Pierrette, sending the acrobat in search of a terrible weapon which she’d been developing for a shadowy figure known as “the Magus”. Pierrette’s only ally is Simeon Price, Lovelace’s childhood friend, who belongs to a Brotherhood devoted to free will. With Simeon’s aid, they uncover a startling web of political assassinations destabilizing Europe. As they race to foil the Templars’ deadly plot, murders and bombs are everywhere they look, but hope is nowhere in sight.
London, 1851 – When Pierrette, a daring acrobat performing at the Great Exhibition, rescues the mathematician Ada Lovelace from a gang of thugs, she becomes immersed in an ancient feud between Assassins and Templars. But Lovelace is gravely ill, and shares her secrets with Pierrette, sending the acrobat in search of a terrible weapon which she’d been developing for a shadowy figure known as “the Magus”. Pierrette’s only ally is Simeon Price, Lovelace’s childhood friend, who belongs to a Brotherhood devoted to free will. With Simeon’s aid, they uncover a startling web of political assassinations destabilizing Europe. As they race to foil the Templars’ deadly plot, murders and bombs are everywhere they look, but hope is nowhere in sight.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities12 Reviews
3.0
SuckerPunched79
Created 8 months agoShare
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Hutch_Reads
Created 9 months agoShare
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chigangrel
Created over 1 year agoShare
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“Thanks to NetGalley and Aconyte Books for the advanced copy.
I like to start my reviews for these sorts of books with the disclaimer that I am a fan of the Assassin's Creed games and universe. I am used to the many missions and open world of the newer games, but I do prefer the tighter stories of the older games... and this book is more like the new games. Another disclaimer to add is that if you are wholly unfamiliar with Assassin's Creed then this is not the novel tie-in to start with, as it kicks off right away under the assumption you understand this world, its history, and its factions.
Heartfield's AC story is meant to be an epic, sweeping narrative emcompassing 20+ years and numerous Templar plots and Assassin foils... and when I sweeping, I mean meandering. There are as many plot points as years in which the story takes place and few (almost none) are concluded by the end of the story. I'm confused if this is meant to be the start of a series? Pieces of Eden, characters, motives, historical events - all are mentioned, some even highlighted and then all are dropped or never mentioned again?
The characters suffer most under the weight of all these potential plot points, as I feel like we barely get to know them, even though we spend, again, 20+ years following them. There are so many names and characters that it's hard to keep them all straight, and so we really only get to know the superficial. It's a lot of telling and very little showing, basically, and it really frustrated me. This is especially disappointing after the wonderful character work and tight pacing of the last AC book I read, Jaleigh Johnson's https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61964124.Assassin_s_Creed_The_Golden_City .
I also found myself disappointed with the setting of this one. I was so looking forward to the Egypt storyline and it's... literally just the very beginning? The bulk of the novel takes place in France, with a little in England, Germany, and Switzerland. We get mentions of the Fry twins (and just a little cameo from Evie) and their work in London, as this is set during the same time period as Syndicate, but nothing of Bayek and Aya. They're two of my faves so when I saw this took place partially in Egypt, I got my hopes up.
Sadly, I don't think this story would have even made a good AC game... but I do love this world and the whole Assassins vs Templar conflict. Three stars for that, I suppose.”
Matthew J Townsend
Created over 1 year agoShare
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About Kate Heartfield
KATE HEARTFIELD is the Aurora Award-winning author Armed in her Fashion, and the bestselling The Embroidered Book, a historical fantasy novel. Her novellas, stories, and games have been finalists for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, Sunburst and Aurora awards. A former journalist, Kate lives near Ottawa, Canada.