Book Reviews Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – Geirmund’s Saga

A series of novels from the world of Assassin’s Creed has been with us for almost 11 years. The popular Italian nobleman Ezio Auditore da Firenze was the first to receive the book. The plot of the book Renaissance was an amendment to Assassin’s Creed II and an almost identical transcript of the game’s plot. Books went in this direction until the book version Assassin’s Creed: Unity (in Czech Jednota) when Ubisoft realized that deciphering the game’s story just wasn’t enough. Therefore, they began to use books more to unravel the current story or as an opportunity to follow the sequence of events from a different point of view. In the case of Unity, this was the point of view of Elisa de la Serre, the half-sister of the protagonist of the play, Arne. This review will consider the latest addition to the family, the history of the Vikings. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – The Geirmund Saga from the writer Matthew J. Kirby.

• The authors: Matthew J. Kirby
• Published: phantom seal
• Number of pages: 400
• Guarded: Soft cover
• The year of publishing: 2021
• Language: Czech
• Price: 299 CZK

black viking

It would be nice to mention at the outset that Kirby is no stranger to AC gamebooks. In 2016–2017, he published The Last Descendants trilogy, which honed the young adult genre. However, with the new Viking book, the author decided to go in a different direction, which I very much welcome given the theme and nature of Scandinavian warriors.

Geirmund’s saga is based on the last work Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. It tells the story of Geirmund Hjörrsson Helhid (Helyarskinn), a descendant of a ruling family of Nordic kings, who set out to conquer England in the middle of the ninth century. It was said that Geirmund was a real and even important character whose stories are still being told in Iceland, Russia, Norway or Ireland. The nickname Heljarskinn or “Black Skin” in itself means that Geirmund has come a long way, so there is practically nothing about him. I won’t reveal its origin to you, because that’s one of the things you learn from Geirmund’s wager. Kirby, who placed the Geirmund character in the game’s world, also relies on a lack of sources. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and partially corrected his story accordingly. If you are interested in the following lines and want to read Geirmund Hjörrsson Helhid’s original material, I have good news for you. There is a book black viking from the Icelandic publicist Bergsvein Birgisson, a descendant of Geirmund. The book was even published in Czech translation: In Search of the Black Viking. But now back to Geirmund’s bet.

If you are looking forward to deepening the history of the struggle between the Templars and the Assassins, I must disappoint you. Like the newer installments of the game series, it is relatively far from this main theme. Other than a few winks and mentions, you won’t find a single line in the book about killers. In the Geirmund saga, there is no assassination or Leap of Faith. I didn’t mind at all, because Geirmund’s story is interesting in itself. However, the question remains whether there is a need to keep stories under the Assassin’s Creed brand. The answer is quite simple from Ubisoft’s point of view, it is needed because it is a guarantee that products will be sold. However, a similar debate occurs in the game series as well.

There will be no Assassins and Templars this time either.

Just like in the game AC: Valhalla The first part of the story takes place in the North, and like the game, this is the weaker part. On the other hand, it’s probably a necessary introduction to the story and introduction to the characters. In the beginning, relatively much attention is paid to the complex relationship between Geirmund and his brother Hamund. I’m a little sorry that this part of the saga didn’t get much development and ended with a rather hasty ending.

The story begins as soon as Geirmund arrives in England and we follow his journey in search of his identity and place in the world. He helps the Danes conquer the kingdom of Saxony, and we are seeing the growth of his influence and the progress of the hierarchy.

Geirmund’s character does not appear at all in the original game, and does not link the book itself to the game (with the exception of the set and some characters). The female version of Eivor (the protagonist of AC: Valhalla) and several other characters from the camp appear here a few times, but they do not play a special role in the plot. This does not apply to King Harald and Guturm, who played a decisive role in the fate of Geirmund. But I won’t reveal more.

Pagans vs. Christians

The book is written in a simple way and most of the time we only follow Geirmund, which I liked. Some writers tend to jump from character to character too hard and the reader just gets lost in the book. Fortunately, this was not the case here. In the introduction, I mentioned that Kirby had written youth literature in the past, which bothered me a little because the genre didn’t suit me at all. Fortunately, the author has gone down the path of vulgar words (of which there are few in the book and they are used at the right time) and cutting out heads and various parts of the body. In particular, one part with a severed hand is colorfully written, for which, as a lover of the bloody genre, I put my thumbs up. The book quickly ruined all my reading (apart from a slightly more boring introduction) and I got into the story with no problem. True, some places where the author unnecessarily describes insignificant things managed to distract me from reading, but there were several such moments in the book. The interesting character of Geirmund, who constitutionally struggles with his honor, religion and identity, also has the credit of reading appeal. If you are a fan of Norse mythology, this book offers it to you, but more as a storytelling tool. He definitely doesn’t revolve around her. In responses from abroad, I noticed that terms from Norse mythology are often confusing and not explained in the original edition. If you are not very familiar with it, you can easily get lost. However, this does not apply to the Czech translation, which is taken care of by the regular translations of the AC book series, Katerina Niklová. All important terms are sufficiently explained in footnotes.

Persecuting Christians with the myth that pagans are hell and hell is just plain fun.

We will still focus on mythology, because one of the virtues of books is the clash of two completely different cultures. Norwegian pagans and Christian monks who do not understand each other is a fairly common theme in this 400-page book. And it works great. Persecuting Christians with the myth that pagans are hell and hell is just plain fun.

Fast and a little furious

The end of the book picks up an almost frantic pace, and many pages happen to be too many, which may confuse some readers (myself included). Another 100 pages, in my opinion, would have benefited the book, but it was still quite interesting and readable. If you are a fan of the show, or you just want to read an exciting Viking story, so the book definitely has a lot to offer you. It will also be great for readers who do not like what is happening in the world. Assassin’s Creed.

I’m glad that Ubisoft realized that simply revisiting game stories that had already been written just wasn’t enough. The author managed to create a very interesting semi-fictional character and a story that is definitely worth your attention. If you can forgive the book for a few little tricks, I can recommend it to you with a clear conscience.

You can buy the book on Xzone.