Assassin's Creed: Daughter of No One Review
By Sioph LealAssassin's Creed: Daughter of No One by Maria Lewis expands on the master assassin Roshan introduced in Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. Dual timelines allow explorations into Roshan’s character at different parts of her life, with each chapter filled with something new and action-filled.
We know Roshan is a master assassin from the game, but the story sets her up in a precarious position, in the bowels of a prison where escape is not an option, but with the help of the assassin, she gains her freedom and joins him and shady figures to steal a mysterious object. From the moment we meet her in the prison, Roshan is a resourceful survivor who values the lives of other creatures with one desire: to be free. For most of her life, she was a slave to her husband and then on the run, but with the Hidden Ones, she can gain that freedom.
There is a lot of action in the two timelines, and what Lewis does well is manage to keep both timelines moving forward and feel that they are their own story while remaining connected. The second takes place five years later and is where the heist and most of the action take place. The different timelines work well and give an interesting take to the story to show Roshan’s evolution. The style of writing works for a video game book with lots of visual elements that make a good companion to the game and draw in fans of the game.
Apart from the two timelines, that is the only interesting part of the book. Just when things are about to get interesting, the chapter abruptly ends. The chapters are short, which doesn’t allow any action or development to grow, which could be forgiven as a stylistic choice, but it takes away from the story and happens in nearly every chapter. Conflict is constantly randomly bought into the book only to die down by the same chapter and ignored for a separate conflict that pops up. Add an unnecessary romance plot for Roshan that is both thrown in and discarded after a few pages; it seems there was a lack of direction and perhaps a conflict between what the writer wanted to explore and the style of the book. Both, unfortunately, lack
As for the main character, Roshan’s story was promising and sounded intriguing, but she comes into conflicts easily and solves them even easier, such as a sudden betrayal from her first mentor. For a few chapters, he was generous and a source of freedom for Roshan, but out of nowhere, he is not trusted, but then it is resolved in the same chapter. There is no nuance or buildup, just a familiar formula of sudden conflict, resolution, and chapter end. Roshan’s personality doesn’t come through the pages, nor do the side characters. Part of the problem is the short chapters that don’t allow for anything to grow. When something interesting happens with the plot or character, they fade away into nothing.
Where the game lacked in Roshan’s character, the book provides more insight but not enough to make Roshan compelling. As a game DLC, this could work, but in written form, it wouldn’t.