Winner winner! Chicken dinner! Or whatever the hell the saying is. I take back everything I said about not wanting to read any other Assassin’s Creed novels. I found THE ONE. During the middle of my reading slump, I found the Audible exclusive Assassin’s Creed: Gold written by Anthony Del Col and is narrated by an entire cast featuring Emmy Award winner Riz Ahmed, Tamara Lawrance, Gemma Lawrence, Anthony Head, and more. This audio serves as a standalone from the series, so you can pick up and go without getting lost in the regular timeline of events.
"Assassin’s Creed: Gold is a stand-alone tale from the Assassin's Creed universe in which we meet Aliyah Kahn, a card shark and hustler who’s been dealt a rough hand in life. Surviving through her smarts and street scams, Aliyah struggles to get by until she loses big time to a mysterious older man, Gavin Banks. Her only option to repay Banks is to become an Assassin. During her training, Banks tells Aliyah of the centuries-old battle between the Assassins and Templars, imploring her to help him decode a secret message inscribed on an illegal form of currency during the Great Recoinage of 1696.
With a cast of characters beloved the world-over by fans of the franchise, Assassin’s Creed: Gold tells a gripping tale of imminent economic collapse, featuring appearances from Warden of the Royal Mint, Isaac Newton, con artist and counterfeiter William Chaloner, blind assassin Omar Khaled and assassin trainer Rose Galloway. Equal parts adrenaline-fueled and thought-provoking, Assassin’s Creed: Gold draws a compelling parallel with the financial chaos of Isaac Newton’s 17th-century Britain and the economic uncertainty of our more recent history."
I need all of my audiobooks to sound like this. This was a PRODUCTION! It had all the action pack sounds, score, and the cast acted the hell out of their parts. It felt like I was watching the movie that should have been. I never heard immersive audio like this before.
It also helps that the story was engaging too. This narrative surrounds itself with the historical figure, Sir Isaac Newton. I don’t know much about Newton and his work besides his discovery of the laws of gravity and motion, but it was interesting to see him as part of the royal police who went after coin counterfeiters.
Although I would like to say that this story was all about Newton, he wasn't the DNA focus.
The main character, Aliyah Kahn, is a spunky card shark and hustler who has the DNA match to relive Newton’s assistant, Omar Khaleds story through his blind eyes. Yes. Blind. It was an interesting take on things.
Two things stood out that interrupted my good time. The first is Aliyah telling her personal story in the middle of the Animus narration, and the second is the big finale. While Aliyah recalls her past life’s story, she gives her account of how she ended up the way she is in the present age. I get what the author was trying to do; he wanted to give Aliyah a little background and interlock it into Omar’s story, but it felt off. Like the timelines didn’t sync right away. I enjoyed learning about Aliyah and her predicaments, but I wish it were done while she was out of Omar’s memory.
As far as the big finale goes, I thought there would be more when meeting the final level boss. I don’t want to give too much away, but when Aliyah finally meets that missing person in her life, I thought there would be more. More anger, more sentiment, more revenge, more of something. It felt kind of dry and unsatisfying. Still, the production took away most of this feeling because it was just friggin awesome, so I didn’t harp on it for too long.
Overall I rated this book 5-stars. The third time was definitely the charm. I love how Gold was told, and the production was hitting. The Creed novels have redeemed themselves, and I hope to hear more stories like this one. Del Col, I think we need a sequel!
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