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Assassin's Creed Fragments #2
Assassin's Creed: Fragments - The Highlands Children
Discover this action-packed Assassin’s Creed Fragments novel about siblings tested and separated by the bloody carnage of war between England and Scotland.
Scotland, 1296. The winds of rebellion are blowing.
The wars of independence for Scotland are on the brink of changing the history of Great Britain.
Under assault from King Edward I, the besieged city of Berwick-upon-Tweed is delivered into the hands of the English, who massacre and burn everything in their path.
Aileas and Fillan, 16-year-old orphan twins, get separated on that horrific night. Aileas is carried away and disappears while Fillan manages to join forces with a Scottish clan fleeing to the north, into the very heart of the Highlands. The young man understands that they are to meet a mysterious group named the Brotherhood of Assassins, the only ones capable of protecting Fillan from the Order of the Templars, a group of warriors doggedly pursuing him.
While he tries to find any trace of his sister, Fillan must delve into his past to understand his true destiny and discover why the birthmark he carries on his wrist makes him a target for the Order of the Templars. He must find out why his life is suddenly in danger, just as the cry for liberty resonates across all Scotland.
Scotland, 1296. The winds of rebellion are blowing.
The wars of independence for Scotland are on the brink of changing the history of Great Britain.
Under assault from King Edward I, the besieged city of Berwick-upon-Tweed is delivered into the hands of the English, who massacre and burn everything in their path.
Aileas and Fillan, 16-year-old orphan twins, get separated on that horrific night. Aileas is carried away and disappears while Fillan manages to join forces with a Scottish clan fleeing to the north, into the very heart of the Highlands. The young man understands that they are to meet a mysterious group named the Brotherhood of Assassins, the only ones capable of protecting Fillan from the Order of the Templars, a group of warriors doggedly pursuing him.
While he tries to find any trace of his sister, Fillan must delve into his past to understand his true destiny and discover why the birthmark he carries on his wrist makes him a target for the Order of the Templars. He must find out why his life is suddenly in danger, just as the cry for liberty resonates across all Scotland.
- GenresScience Fiction
400 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2023
10 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 8, 2021
Dans ce roman, nous suivons deux jumeaux, Fillan et Ailéas, en pleine guerre d’indépendance de l’Ecosse. Suite à l’attaque sur leur village, Ailéas va disparaître tragiquement, laissant Fillan seul avec son deuil. Très vite, il va être pris en charge par un groupe travaillant pour une mystérieuse confrérie.
⠀
Comme beaucoup, j’ai toujours un peu d’inquiétude avant de me lancer dans un roman à licence mais j’ai été plus qu’agréablement surpris par celui-ci. Il faut dire qu’il ne s’agit pas ici d’une novellisation d’un jeu mais d’une histoire inédite qui ne reprend que l’univers de la licence Assassin’s Creed. On a bien quelques clins d’œil au jeu comme le saut de la Foi et la lame secrète (ainsi qu’un petit Easter egg à la fin) mais ça reste assez discret.
⠀
Au final, c’est surtout le conflit entre Assassins et Templiers qui nous permet vraiment de savoir qu’on est dans l’univers étendu du jeu, mais c’est avant tout un prétexte. L’histoire peut-être lue indépendamment, même sans connaître l’univers des jeux, et c’est vraiment un bon point. J’en profite d’ailleurs pour dire que les trois tomes de cette série sont des histoires indépendantes, sans ordre de lecture et avec des personnages et des contextes historiques différents à chaque fois.
⠀
Pour parler un peu plus en détails de ce tome, j’ai plutôt bien aimé les personnages, surtout Kyle et Sören qui sont des personnages secondaires mais dont j’ai beaucoup aimé la personnalité. J’ai eu un peu de mal avec Fillan au départ à cause de son côté geignard, immature et un peu capricieux mais il gagne finalement assez vite en maturité.
⠀
Au niveau du déroulement, on a un roman plutôt efficace avec pas mal d’action. Je mentirais en disant que je n’ai pas vu venir les différentes révélations du livre mais ça ne m’a pas tellement gêné.
⠀
J’ai aussi bien apprécié le contexte historique, avec notamment l’intervention de quelques personnages réels, d’autant plus que c’est une période de l’histoire que je ne connais pas. Par contre, et je pense que ce serait le cas pour à peu près n’importe qui de ma génération, j’étais un peu perturbé à chaque fois que l’auteur parlait de « Highlanders ». Je sais bien que les habitants du nord de l’Ecosse s’appelaient comme ça, mais dans mon esprit ce mot reste synonyme d’immortel…
⠀
En tout cas je ne regrette pas d’avoir lu ce livre. Il n’a rien de révolutionnaire en soi mais il m’a fait passer un excellent moment. Par contre j’avoue que j’attends le troisième tome avec beaucoup d’impatience puisqu’il sera signé Adrien Tomas (je vous ai déjà dit que j’aimais Adrien Tomas ? 👀).
⠀
Comme beaucoup, j’ai toujours un peu d’inquiétude avant de me lancer dans un roman à licence mais j’ai été plus qu’agréablement surpris par celui-ci. Il faut dire qu’il ne s’agit pas ici d’une novellisation d’un jeu mais d’une histoire inédite qui ne reprend que l’univers de la licence Assassin’s Creed. On a bien quelques clins d’œil au jeu comme le saut de la Foi et la lame secrète (ainsi qu’un petit Easter egg à la fin) mais ça reste assez discret.
⠀
Au final, c’est surtout le conflit entre Assassins et Templiers qui nous permet vraiment de savoir qu’on est dans l’univers étendu du jeu, mais c’est avant tout un prétexte. L’histoire peut-être lue indépendamment, même sans connaître l’univers des jeux, et c’est vraiment un bon point. J’en profite d’ailleurs pour dire que les trois tomes de cette série sont des histoires indépendantes, sans ordre de lecture et avec des personnages et des contextes historiques différents à chaque fois.
⠀
Pour parler un peu plus en détails de ce tome, j’ai plutôt bien aimé les personnages, surtout Kyle et Sören qui sont des personnages secondaires mais dont j’ai beaucoup aimé la personnalité. J’ai eu un peu de mal avec Fillan au départ à cause de son côté geignard, immature et un peu capricieux mais il gagne finalement assez vite en maturité.
⠀
Au niveau du déroulement, on a un roman plutôt efficace avec pas mal d’action. Je mentirais en disant que je n’ai pas vu venir les différentes révélations du livre mais ça ne m’a pas tellement gêné.
⠀
J’ai aussi bien apprécié le contexte historique, avec notamment l’intervention de quelques personnages réels, d’autant plus que c’est une période de l’histoire que je ne connais pas. Par contre, et je pense que ce serait le cas pour à peu près n’importe qui de ma génération, j’étais un peu perturbé à chaque fois que l’auteur parlait de « Highlanders ». Je sais bien que les habitants du nord de l’Ecosse s’appelaient comme ça, mais dans mon esprit ce mot reste synonyme d’immortel…
⠀
En tout cas je ne regrette pas d’avoir lu ce livre. Il n’a rien de révolutionnaire en soi mais il m’a fait passer un excellent moment. Par contre j’avoue que j’attends le troisième tome avec beaucoup d’impatience puisqu’il sera signé Adrien Tomas (je vous ai déjà dit que j’aimais Adrien Tomas ? 👀).
April 17, 2024
This is the second book in the “Fragments” trilogy of “Assassin’s Creed” novels, which are AC stories about siblings in different settings in the Assassin/Templar conflict. The last one, “Blade of Aizu,” is a good historical fiction story, but overall it’s a bad AC story because the “Assassin’s Creed” elements had no real role in the story. They could be excised without any of the story actually changing.
“Highlands Children”, on the other hand, skips that problem entirely. The “Assassin’s Creed” stuff comes right to the forefront of the story, along with other little things that fans will recognize, like what’s obviously a Piece of Eden (though it’s not called that in the story). I do wonder if there’s something else that’s supposed to be going on with the main characters, given that the twins are supposedly destined to be involved with the Brotherhood–it *sounds* like some Isu shenanigans that’s promptly going to be ignored by the rest of continuity.
Whatever. It’s still fun here, at least.
Scottish history! The Sack of Berwick! Fighting against the English! William Wallace! The Stone of Scone! It’s all here, and while I don’t know if I’d say it’s accurate (I don’t know enough about the little details to say for sure), it’s definitely entertaining. Some things felt a little bit rushed, but at the same time (Fillian’s relationship with Kyle, the traitor Plot), I think drawing it out too long would be a mistake too, and this IS meant to be a self-contained storyline, so it does well enough with what it has.
One thing that I know wasn’t accurate was the surprising amount of Celtic paganism? This is a time when Scotland is entirely Christian. I didn’t mind so much, because it was at least the right *kind* of pagan religion, unlike “Sword of the White Horse”, and there wasn’t this annoyingly overused "Our understanding of historical religion is taken from 'Mists of Avalon'" thing I see too often (like "Sword of the White Horse").
Being self-contained, though, it makes me wish that this story would get referred to in a later installment? I strongly suspect it’ll just be forgotten, as with most tie-ins. Which is a shame, because I think it’s pretty good…
Maybe I just want “Assassin’s Creed” in Scotland? Or just to see Aileas and Fillian again. This was good.
“Highlands Children”, on the other hand, skips that problem entirely. The “Assassin’s Creed” stuff comes right to the forefront of the story, along with other little things that fans will recognize, like what’s obviously a Piece of Eden (though it’s not called that in the story). I do wonder if there’s something else that’s supposed to be going on with the main characters, given that the twins are supposedly destined to be involved with the Brotherhood–it *sounds* like some Isu shenanigans that’s promptly going to be ignored by the rest of continuity.
Whatever. It’s still fun here, at least.
Scottish history! The Sack of Berwick! Fighting against the English! William Wallace! The Stone of Scone! It’s all here, and while I don’t know if I’d say it’s accurate (I don’t know enough about the little details to say for sure), it’s definitely entertaining. Some things felt a little bit rushed, but at the same time (Fillian’s relationship with Kyle, the traitor Plot), I think drawing it out too long would be a mistake too, and this IS meant to be a self-contained storyline, so it does well enough with what it has.
One thing that I know wasn’t accurate was the surprising amount of Celtic paganism? This is a time when Scotland is entirely Christian. I didn’t mind so much, because it was at least the right *kind* of pagan religion, unlike “Sword of the White Horse”, and there wasn’t this annoyingly overused "Our understanding of historical religion is taken from 'Mists of Avalon'" thing I see too often (like "Sword of the White Horse").
Being self-contained, though, it makes me wish that this story would get referred to in a later installment? I strongly suspect it’ll just be forgotten, as with most tie-ins. Which is a shame, because I think it’s pretty good…
Maybe I just want “Assassin’s Creed” in Scotland? Or just to see Aileas and Fillian again. This was good.
January 29, 2025
1296 AD and Edward I of England invades Scotland.
Separated amid the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed are the twins Aileas and Fillan, one of whom is rescued by agents of the Brotherhood of Assassins whilst the other finds unlikely refuge among the English army. However, both are relentlessly hunted by the Lann Fala, members of the Templar Order, and have to try to survive long enough to uncover their lost past and future destiny.
This book is either badly written or badly translated from the original French (or both, I suppose) because the prose here is stunted, awkward and full of terrible anachronisms that really pull you out of the story. Thankfully the text isn't ponderous to read and you can get through it at a fair pace, but it's not a smooth ride by any measure.
I don't often comment on the quality of the actual prose when reviewing a book, but here it was so notably bad that I felt it warranted a mention.
The story, sadly, is also not great.
Everything here is either derivative or simply predictable. You'll have figured out more or less how the whole book is going to unfold within the first hundred pages or so and it never bothers to try and surprise you. On top of that, both of the protagonists give off strong Mary Sue vibes, with them both going from working in a tailor's shop to being unbeatable fighters in a very short span. Luckily the author can just keep repeating the word 'destiny' to handwave away any questions you might have about the believability of the events in the book.
My final gripe is that the book largely fails to take advantage of its historical setting to any great degree.
The tumultuous years which saw Edward I's invasion of Scotland and the rise of folk heroes like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce are ripe with stories to tell but the author does their best to steer the main characters well clear of any of that. Sure, Wallace does make an appearance (and thank Christ it's not a Braveheart-inspired appearance) but he then disappears from the narrative altogether without ever having any influence on it or exploring his guerrilla war against the English at all. This could have been set centuries before or after and it would make no significant difference to the story and that feels like a huge missed opportunity.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
Separated amid the sacking of Berwick-upon-Tweed are the twins Aileas and Fillan, one of whom is rescued by agents of the Brotherhood of Assassins whilst the other finds unlikely refuge among the English army. However, both are relentlessly hunted by the Lann Fala, members of the Templar Order, and have to try to survive long enough to uncover their lost past and future destiny.
This book is either badly written or badly translated from the original French (or both, I suppose) because the prose here is stunted, awkward and full of terrible anachronisms that really pull you out of the story. Thankfully the text isn't ponderous to read and you can get through it at a fair pace, but it's not a smooth ride by any measure.
I don't often comment on the quality of the actual prose when reviewing a book, but here it was so notably bad that I felt it warranted a mention.
The story, sadly, is also not great.
Everything here is either derivative or simply predictable. You'll have figured out more or less how the whole book is going to unfold within the first hundred pages or so and it never bothers to try and surprise you. On top of that, both of the protagonists give off strong Mary Sue vibes, with them both going from working in a tailor's shop to being unbeatable fighters in a very short span. Luckily the author can just keep repeating the word 'destiny' to handwave away any questions you might have about the believability of the events in the book.
My final gripe is that the book largely fails to take advantage of its historical setting to any great degree.
The tumultuous years which saw Edward I's invasion of Scotland and the rise of folk heroes like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce are ripe with stories to tell but the author does their best to steer the main characters well clear of any of that. Sure, Wallace does make an appearance (and thank Christ it's not a Braveheart-inspired appearance) but he then disappears from the narrative altogether without ever having any influence on it or exploring his guerrilla war against the English at all. This could have been set centuries before or after and it would make no significant difference to the story and that feels like a huge missed opportunity.
* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *
February 17, 2025
DNF. My advice? I'd you're going to write an Assassin's Creed book, make it about Assassin's Creed. So far, the two Fragments books I've read have been about wars and merely have characters referencing the Brotherhood so rarely, it's as though they were forced to randomly squeeze in that word by the publisher.
January 12, 2022
Dans ce second tome, nous allons voyager en Écosse en 1296, durant les guerres d’indépendances. Cela sous-entend déjà de nombreux combats, des batailles épiques : sanglantes et tragiques, des conflits politiques et des manipulations en tout genre.
Le thème principal de cette saga est avant tout de mettre en avant les « aventures » de jumeaux, je préférais d’ailleurs parler de « destin », car je doute qu’ils aient choisi de s’engager dans des voies aussi périlleuses de leur propre gré. Après le Japon, l’Écosse, deux pays que j’aime énormément, autant pour sa culture que son histoire, la beauté des lieux et son folklore, j’ai donc était ravi de découvrir ce pays au travers de « Les enfants des Highlands ».
La plume de l’auteur est toujours aussi plaisante : fluide, addictive et précise. J’aime la façon dont il décrit les décors, les personnages principaux et secondaires, les trames historiques et surtout, les scènes d’actions. Il y a peu de temps morts, le tout est vraiment cohérent et agréable à lire même si, comme moi, vous n’êtes pas fan de roman avec une part historique à l’intérieur. Dans cette saga, elle est intégrée avec finesse et minutie et c’est un point fort que j’apprécie beaucoup chez cet auteur.
Je la conseille à tous les fans de la licence Assassin’s Creed et aux néophytes, car il n’y a besoin d’aucune connaissance spécifique pour savourer ces romans !
Le thème principal de cette saga est avant tout de mettre en avant les « aventures » de jumeaux, je préférais d’ailleurs parler de « destin », car je doute qu’ils aient choisi de s’engager dans des voies aussi périlleuses de leur propre gré. Après le Japon, l’Écosse, deux pays que j’aime énormément, autant pour sa culture que son histoire, la beauté des lieux et son folklore, j’ai donc était ravi de découvrir ce pays au travers de « Les enfants des Highlands ».
La plume de l’auteur est toujours aussi plaisante : fluide, addictive et précise. J’aime la façon dont il décrit les décors, les personnages principaux et secondaires, les trames historiques et surtout, les scènes d’actions. Il y a peu de temps morts, le tout est vraiment cohérent et agréable à lire même si, comme moi, vous n’êtes pas fan de roman avec une part historique à l’intérieur. Dans cette saga, elle est intégrée avec finesse et minutie et c’est un point fort que j’apprécie beaucoup chez cet auteur.
Je la conseille à tous les fans de la licence Assassin’s Creed et aux néophytes, car il n’y a besoin d’aucune connaissance spécifique pour savourer ces romans !
March 31, 2025
The second book in the Assassin's Creed: Fragments series is set in Scotland in 1296. Under the orders of King Edward I, the English sow death in the Scottish lands. Our protagonists, the twins Fillan and Aileas, are suddenly separated when their town is attacked by English troops. Fillan is rescued by a group of warriors, who rescued him with the intention of handing him over to the Brotherhood of Assassins. Aileas is in the centre of an English camp, guarded by an English officer. What the two brothers don't know is that the Templar Brotherhood is looking for them.
Quite a better story than the first book in the series which was set in Japan. The characters of both children develop smoothly, the other characters have a pleasant variety, and each plays an important role in the development of both the story and the characters. Additionally, the Assassins and the Templars are the main protagonists in the story's Good-Evil axis (as it should be in an Assassin's Creed story).
Like the first one, this could be made into a movie, although, based on character descriptions, the casting would be extremely challenging. And yes, of course William Wallace appears in the story.
Quite a better story than the first book in the series which was set in Japan. The characters of both children develop smoothly, the other characters have a pleasant variety, and each plays an important role in the development of both the story and the characters. Additionally, the Assassins and the Templars are the main protagonists in the story's Good-Evil axis (as it should be in an Assassin's Creed story).
Like the first one, this could be made into a movie, although, based on character descriptions, the casting would be extremely challenging. And yes, of course William Wallace appears in the story.
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