Assassins Creed : Brotherhood

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood is a novelization of the 2010 game of the same name. Unlike Ico,
where the author stated explicitly that the book would differ from the game in certain
respects, Brotherhood is a 100% carbon copy of the game, but in word-form.
As a longtime writer and respected Renaissance historian, there isnt a much better choice for
the Assassins Creed series than Mr. Gill. He has extensive knowledge of the time period in which
the Ezio trilogy takes place, and hes written his own novels on the time period. Yet Assassins
Creed :Brotherhood is exceptionally poorly-written. Most of the prose is dry and uninteresting,
with a few interspersed purple passages that manage to hold my interest. His character
development is sadly lacking (though thats a mixture of his fault and Ubisofts). Each character
has its own distinctive personality, but that is entirely because of dialogue, which Mr. Gill had no
say in.
I find myself extraordinarily disappointed by this book. I could never give his writing a greater
compliment than it being decent enough, and each time I began to get my hopes up, the writing
would take a dramatic downturn, throwing me into a whirlpool of frustration.

Mr. Gill deserves credit for a few things. His knowledge as a historian does allow for a few
insights and references that arent possible to an ignorant reader. The recurring mention of the
new disease, which I recognized as syphilis, takes on a surprisingly important role in the story.
Its both historically accurate and absent from the game, and its intriguing to watch the syphilis
outbreak carve a niche into the novel. In addition, Cesare Borgia places his life in Fates hands.
As for me, I cannot die. Fortuna will not fail me! He declares. The allusion to Fortuna, the
Roman deity symbolizing luck/fortune, harkens back to the epic poet Lucan. In Lucans Civil
War, Caesar similarly placed all his chips into Fortunas hands when fighting Pompey, and he
came out victorious. The reference is subtle but appreciated.
Ill mention just two more (relatively) obscure references that will amuse the learned reader.
Cesare Borgias doctor mentions using mercury as a temporary treatment for syphilis, and,
almost at the same time, he describes the increasing mental instability of syphilis patients.
Whats ironic here is that mercury poisoning itself, when ingested (even through skin contact),
can result in the same symptoms as Gill describes for syphilis: skin discoloration, swelling, and
even brain damage.
Finally, Gill recognizes the political ramifications of each event. Italy at this time was a
geographical area ruled by a host of warring factions, and the author does a splendid job of
recognizing each consequence and ramification of characters ideology, connections, and national
origin. It matters that the Borgia family is Catalan and not merely Spanish. It matters what the
Popes country of origin is. The book does a great job of fleshing these intrigues out when it
would make a difference.

Having said that, the diction in this novel is typically mediocre in the worst way boring and
forgettable. It encourages your eyes to skim over it without taking any information in. Below, Ill
transcribe a small paragraph midway through the book:
Ezio took up a position by a cedar tree and waited. He didnt have to wait long. Minutes after
Ezios arrival, a tall man dressed in a livery he did not recognize came up to him. A badge on his
shoulder showed, on one half of the crest, a red bull in a golden field, and on the other, broad
black and gold horizontal stripes. Ezio was none the wiser for this. (Bowden 258).
This paragraph is representative of most prose in the novel boring, uninformative, and typically
lacking araison dtre a reason for existing. The sentences arent complex, and the sentence
beginnings arent varied. Almost every sentence in this paragraph is a subject + verb. Where
are the prepositional phrases, the infinitive phrases, and the introductory adverbial clauses?
Why arent some of these fused into compound sentences? I havent read Mr. Gills other work,
but I doubt he would be a successful writer (coming on 30 years now) if the rest of his work was
this paltry.
And for a respected historian, I do expect a higher quality of historical references than what he
provides. Chapter 44 ends with Ezio passing young Michelangelos brilliant new sculpture of the
Piet on his left (370). While I appreciate that Mr. Gill tries to (blatantly) remind the reader
that all these historical figures (da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc.) are still young and in the prime of
their careers in this setting, he doesnt do anything with these notes. Are we supposed to be
impressed because a famous artist is mentioned? Name-dropping is neither interesting nor
engaging. To earn a readers respect, Mr. Gill needs to do something with these characters.
In a nearly identical instance, Pope Julius II, in a conversation with Ezio, mentions Leonardo da
Vinci: I rather liked that portrait he did of Francesco del Giocondos wife (412), an explicit yet
veiled reference to the Mona Lisa. But what is the purpose of this mention?
If a reader recognizes that the wife refers to the Mona Lisa, then okay, (s)he has that revelation,
and wonders what the point was. An ignorant reader, not understanding this reference, would
shake his/her head and still ask what the point is. Its a lose-lose scenario, and while its
understandable that Mr. Gill may have wanted to insert that line, it ultimately serves no
purpose.
This could partially be ignored if the actions being depicted were interesting, but they typically
arent. Although I prize character development and interaction, I found Bowden so poor at it that
the action scenes were comparatively great and even then, not consistently so. Its a crap shoot
as to whether any given conflict, battle, or chase will be engaging, and while the odds are decent
(~30%), they are nonetheless stacked against you.
There were few genuinely interesting passages. The presence of Leonardo da Vinci is one
guarantor that the book will temporarily be worth reading. da Vincis portrayal in the games has
been that of genius inventor/comic relief, and it carries over well into the novelization. A
personal favorite is also the presence of Nicolo Machiavelli, since his dialogue almost always has
a definite point to it.
Its not that I oppose non-essential goings-on, so long as its interesting. But Mr. Gill cant even
get the essentials well-written. Near the beginning of the novel, Ezio does a number of errands in

Monteriggioni. The purpose is mainly to introduce us to a bunch of characters and facets of the
town (notably the cannons and city walls), so that when the town is destroyed and pillaged in 2030 pages, the reader will feel anguish. But I didnt feel anything but boredom.
When an author isnt good at prose, its best to curtail ones writing. Yet the novel runs in excess
of 500 pages. And the most frequent notes I wrote in the margins were the following: meh,
mediocre, and decent (enough). Im confident that this book couldve been shortened by 100
pages without losing too much.