Assassin's Creed: the Secret Crusade

As a huge fan of everything Assassins Creed, this book takes the first game and amplifies it. It fills in some missing info or something that you missed or didnt understand in the game. It also gives a forward and back story about Altair's life and family other than just what the game goes into.

If you love the AC series, then definitely read this book.

* May contain spoilers*Although i am not a gamer, i love all things assassin and having already read black flag and forsaken and enjoying both i was really thrilled to read about my favorite assassin of them all Altair. Although i found the secret crusade a good read it did have moments that irritated me.Despite being a master assassin Altair sometimes acted like he couldn't see past his nose and the constant hatred of Abbas racked my nerves indeed Abbas character walked all over my last nerves i found myself wishing that his father had slashed his throat before slashing his own.Altair constantly pining for Maria so soon after meeting her was annoying, can you at least get to know her better before pining?but the main issue that bothered me most of all was the almost constant reference to atheism,i do respect others belief or nonbelief but i don't want to have to keep reading about it. I don't know perhaps that is the way it is in the games and that's why it was often expressed in the book
Anyway i still love Altair and it was a good read with just a few personal quirks that bothered me.

Let it be known!

ASSASSIN'S CREED: THE SECRET CRUSADE IS NOT NEW.

You read that right. The Secret Crusade doesn't tell any untold story, per se. Instead it tells the story from the first game in it's entirety. Now, don't let that deter you from checking this out.

By and large, Altair was a silent hero in the game. In The Secret Crusade he has a voice. He has feelings. He expresses said feelings. That is where AC fans should rejoice and come running. There is a prologue that tells the story of how Al Mualim came to raise Altair as his own. From Altair watching his father be hung to his early pre-assassin days. A nice addition.

From there though, it's business as usual. It's an easy read because I could still imagine every level perfectly so I had no problems trying to picture where he was. Heck, I even remember what most of his targets looked like. However, as I said, even though you know what's going to happen, knowing how our hero felt before, during, and after an assassination is great. Knowing how conflicted he became the further into the story you get added a better emotional connection to him. He is the foundation upon which the entire franchise was built upon, it helps to be able to delve a bit further into his psyche.

Is this the most well written book? No. But you shouldn't expect that from a game tie-in. It does what it sets out to do nicely enough, shed light on the Master Assassin himself and tell of his rise to prominence. For AC fans this is a nice little read, but I really don't see a broad audience picking this up and getting into it. So this one seems to be aimed more at gamers interested in digging a bit deeper into the AC treasury.

Like many people here, I found myself disappointed and oftentimes bored by this book. I realize Altair wasn't the most exciting character in the AC series, but this book seemed nothing more than a retelling of AC from the standpoint of a fanfic writer. I really like Altair and looked forward to reading new tidbits about him, but this book was a big disappointment. My apologies to the author, I'm just trying to be honest here.

Given the absolute horror that the books based on Ezio de Auditore's adventures have been, it was not without some significant trepidation that I cracked open the volume for Altair. What followed was bland, tedious, and petty.

While I sympathize with the author, shackled hand and foot by the storyline of the video games he is portraying, there were many other options to explore. The murders should've been a third of a page, at most, because every single person who's played the games knows how that turns out. Better yet, this should've been his dealings after AC1. And they are, two-thirds of the book are boring repetition of material better left to the players happy recollections, rather than played out in a bloodless blow by blow.

The final third of the book is far more worthwhile, but is still yoked under the auspices of not being allowed to tell more than Ubi will allow. While it contains many easter eggs for the attentive reader regarding what future games will include, the majority of the book was so mind numbing as to make me give up before the portion that actually made it readable.

This book is a pretty interesting expansion on Altaïr's life story. About 2/3 of the book recounts the stories of Assassin's Creed 1 and Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, and about 1/3 is new material that expands on Altaïr's life before and after the events of 1191. I liked the framing device of having the book being Niccolo Polo's journal and some of the setups that are laid for the story of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

I understand why some people are mad about the fates of some characters in the book, but Assassin's Creed has never been about happy endings. These could have been done differently, but I thought they were decent elements that focused Altaïr even more on his work of shepherding the Assassin Order.

I will admit that the author's style is not up to par with many other professionals and you probably will notice it. But I didn't find it to be terrible and was still excitedly turning pages to find out what happened next even though I knew many elements of the story.

All in all, I think many fans of Assassin's Creed will enjoy reading this simply because it is such an intriguing universe and this expounds upon it. Altaïr is an interesting character that hasn't quite gotten his due, and this book does a good job of filling in his life story and showing what happened next.

Just from the way this book has been presented to me and the information it has added to the world I will say I am not pleased. From parts I've read I will say it is boring and sloppy and the characters are not the characters we love. If anything this is worse than fanfiction because I have read fanfiction with a more interesting and better thought out plot than this as well as better characterization of characters. I'm extremely disappointed that Ubisoft allowed this author, who I won't even vindicate with a name, to so badly mangle their characters and to give some of them such unlikely and unfulfilling ends. There are many people very, very, upset with this book and how it portrays some of our most favorite characters and if anyone at Ubisoft sees this I hope you realize you have pissed off possibly a good portion of your fanbase by letting your characters continue to be ill represented in the Assassin's Creed books.

This book is fantastic. I like books that have fantastic in it but are also very adventurous. This book includes all of these characteristics. Another reason for my rating is that some history was put in it. I recommend this book to people who like adventure books but that can support scenes of torture because there are many gruesome parts.
I'm looking forward for the last of the series: Revelations.

I Just cant belive how badly this book is written, the prose is a pain to keep up with. And the plot is awfully done, so awful that it seems like a fan fiction. Not only that but the author keeps screwing the characters, ensuring that he is the last to write the story about them.

If you like AC then you would do good to skip this one, check out the comics of the fall. Those are good AC material but this one it's just sad.

only read the free preview becausemy son loves the game n i thought maybe that if i read the book i would understand wwhat he sees in the game n from what i read so far i want to buy all the books i juat need tto figure out what is the order the were written in so i can read them the right way

I think this book was pretty well done. The writing isn't fantastic but the story is good. A good portion of the book is retelling Assassin's Creed 1 but anyone who likes to read books based off video games would not be disappointed. It adds to the story of Altair and I was impressed. I found myself wanting to turn the page each and every time. It was not a let down by any means. I'd give the book 4.5 to 5 Stars.

Assasins creed choose 'nintendo land' asa tag, which means that when someone searches on the kindle store, and types in 'nintendo land' it will pop up with assasins creed, instead of nintendo land. This is a foul trick. That is why I rate this book a 1*.
Nintendo land = A wii U game.

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.