Assassin's Creed: Revelations by Oliver Bowden

Assassin's Creed: Revelations by Oliver Bowden

Book Warnings:

Major character death

Graphic depictions of violence

Spoilers for both game and book ahead.

If you played the game, you know what happens in this book. Ezio is older, a little wiser, and looking for Altaïr's library. Well, not so much looking for it. He figured out where that was before the book even started. He just needs some keys to get the door opened. And those damn Templars keep getting in his way.

Oh, and he falls in love while all this is going on. Which, good for him. Ezio deserves the best.

And I spent the entire book wanting to learn Italian. Which... Is pretty average for anything Assassin's Creed. Spent three games wanting to learn Italian cause of Ezio. At least the curse words.

It's been a while since I played the game, but if I remember how the game ended, the book goes past that a bit? I honestly can't remember. The book covers his marriage to Sofia, their children, the death of Leonardo, Ezio naming a successor (A POET?!), meeting Shao Jun, and then, finally, Ezio's death. Which... Made me cry... Rude. 

The book also gives a quick overview of what happened to Altair, his family, and Malik. Which... Most of that I will be pretending didn't happen. My babies deserve happiness and I refuse to think anything but the best happened to them.

There were a few instances that some information was repeated. Information would be mentioned, then a few chapters later the same information would be mentioned again. But that was easily overlooked as the book was well written otherwise and a fun, entertaining read. 

I highly recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the games but needs a little bit more. 

Five hidden blades out of five from me.

Upcoming Changes

 Since I finished my reading challenge posts I’ve been working on some new stuff. This means some slight changes with some posts and the introduction of new kinds of posts.

First, I’m going to start a series of Streaming Recommendations (that’s what I’m calling them in my head right now) posts. Basically, I’ll recommend six movies/TV Shows/YouTube channels, let you know what streaming platform you can watch them on and I’ll ramble a bit on why I like them. I’ll probably title them something weird so stay tuned for that.

Second, book reviews will continue and I’m working on improving on those. 

Third, Video Game Recommendations/Reviews. I'm a casual gamer and these will reflect that. I will not be going into detail about specs or whatever for games. I will be going into detail about how pretty things are and who you can kiss, though.

Fourth, I was originally trying to do Fan-Fiction Recommendations with themes for each post (like, soulmate fics, kid fics, arranged marriage fics, etc) but that proved a bit difficult. So, going forward I will just be doing six fics that I really enjoyed and think everyone else should read. 

Fifth, pretty much all of these will have a list of warnings and other relevant tags. Which, I’ll just be using warnings/tags from Archive of Our Own for the most part. I love their tagging system and wish I could have it on all media. I want to know going in if there is a Major Character Death or R*pe/Non-Con. Some book reviews that are coming up might not have this system because I got them prepped before I decided to start doing this. And my brain cannot remember what warnings need to be stated. Also, it will take me a bit to get this exactly how I want so expect some experimentation on it. 

Also, for all of these things, I will try very hard to not have spoilers. I’m not quite good at that sometimes, so I apologize in advance. And will try to at least give a spoiler warning for things. But I’ll probably forget from time to time. I’m just too used to everyone already have watched/played/read the thing I’m talking about that I forget. 

Final note: I have started to notice there is way too much negativity online (in the world, really). Every time I think I find some new YouTube channel or Twitter to follow or what-the-fuck-ever that posts about shit I like, I end up having to listen to some dude go off about how much they hate something for fifteen minutes. It's depressing and annoying. So... I have decided I will be mostly positive on here. I'm not saying I will leave out the questionable bits of things I talk about, but I will not focus on them. Gonna try to focus on the good shit about things I enjoy. So, if you don't like that and would prefer to read someone bitch about nerd-shit, fuck off. This ain't the place for you.

I think that is all for now. Like, subscribe, and hit that bel… Wait… That’s not right… Share with your friends? Yeah, do that.

Six Fan-Fiction Recommendations - Soulmate Alternate Universe Edition

 I love soulmate AU fan-fiction. Looooove it. So, here are six stories that I highly recommend.

1.

The Souls of the Superheroes by Sarcastic-Mess

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes

Clint is an asshole and Bucky doesn’t speak to him for three months. That’s pretty much it. Oh, and they’re soulmates and there is some kissing.

2.

They’re Both Red Except the School Bus by yamyamyam

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Clint Barton/Bucky Barnes

Clint loves Bucky. But Bucky is Steve’s Soul Mate. Then Clint touches a thing and gets sent to another dimension and there ain’t no Soul Mates there. Just Alphas and Betas and Omegas. Oh my.

This is a Soul Mate AU mashed up with an Alpha/Beta/Omega AU. So, yeah. If you’re not into those, just walk away?

3.

The Words That Bind Us by trajektoria

Fandom: Mass Effect: Andromeda

Pairing: Reyes Vidal/Male (Scott) Ryder

Scott and Reyes are soulmates. That’s about it. 

4

Markers and Idiots (series) by justdoityoufucker

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka

Soulmate Alternate Universe where whatever you write on yourself appears on your soulmate’s skin. Super cute and I loved this one. I read this before I realized bookmarks were a thing on AO3 and then had to search it up again when I learned what bookmarks were just so I could bookmark it.

5

A Dozen Denials by WordsAblaze

Fandom: Witcher

Pairing: Jaskier/Eskel

Jaskier thinks that Geralt is his soulmate. All the signs point to it being so! But… He’s wrong.

6.

For You, I Would Ruin Myself (a million little times) by meowvelous

Fandom: Witcher

Pairing: Geralt/Jaskier

When you meet your soulmate, you can see colors. If they reject you, world goes back to black and white.

Jaskier meets Geralt, his soulmate. Then Geralt is mean on a mountain.

Stephy Reading Challenge - Book 26

 

Botticelli - Images of Love and Spring by Frank Zӧllner

This whole book was just an in-depth look at five different Botticelli paintings. The paintings are Mars and Venus, La Primavera: A Wedding Picture, Minerva and the Centaur, The Birth of Venus, and The Villa Lemmi Frescoes.

My favorite of these is Mars and Venus.

It was a very interesting read. I like art, but I never looked too closely into the subtle references or meanings in art. I just like pretty things. So it was cool to learn this kind of stuff. 

I also learned what the seven liberal arts are. So now whenever Jaskier mentions them my brain is feeding me a definition. So that is fun while reading Witcher fan-fiction...

Stephy Reading Challenge - Book 25

 

Supergirl at Super Hero High by Lisa Yee

This book opens with Kara (you know, Supergirl) being sent away from Krypton as the planet is destroyed. She arrives on Earth, like, 20 years later. Superman finds her and takes her to live with his parents. After a bit, she goes to Super Hero High.

At Super Hero High, Kara feels like she doesn't belong and struggles to control powers that she's only had for a couple months.

And someone is trying to use the school's Boom Tubes. Which is bad.

Supergirl makes friends and helps save the day, so it all worked out in the end.

I enjoyed this book and think it is a great book for kids. As are the rest of the books in the series. And the original cartoon. Fuck that new series...

My only complaint was that Amanda Waller was too nice. But I guess they didn't want her putting bombs in teenagers. Which she totally would do...

Six Fan-Fiction Recommendations

 1

How to File Form 39-B by thehoyden

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka

Iruka meets Kakashi while high on painkillers. Then they fall in loooooooove.

2

101 Uses for a Barrier Seal (series) by HazelBeka

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka

Just a bunch of one-shots that have Iruka being a badass seals master. 

3

Mistakes Were Made by Spidergwenstefani

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Clint/Bucky

Just a short and amusing story about how Clint met the Winter Soldier.

4.

I <3 NYC by 1electricpirate

Fandom: Marvel

Pairing: Clint/Bucky

Clint finds a bottle of booze and a Bucky on the subway. Shenanigans. 

5.

Fireflies at Midnight by micah_n10

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka

Just a cute little story about a tradition Kakashi and Iruka share with their child.

6. 

The Accidental Warlord and His Pack (series) by inexplicifics

Fandom: Witcher

Pairings: Jaskier/Geralt, Jaskier/Geralt/Eskel, Lambert/Original Female Character, other pairings…

This series, man. It is super long. Over 300,000 words when I typed this. For reference, Game of Thrones (the first book of the series, not the entire A Song of Fire and Ice series) is about 298,000 words. And it is worth every minute of reading it. The basic plot is that Geralt is a warlord. And Jaskier got sent to him as a tribute. Things just progress from there. I've read this all the way through at least three times now. And I will read it all again... and again... and again...