“The Ming Storm: An Assassin’s Creed Novel” by Yan Leisheng is a historical fiction that delves into the Ming dynasty, offering readers a blend of fantasy, adventure, and video game lore. The novel follows Shao Jun, the last representative of her clan, as she seeks vengeance against the Eight Tigers after the fall of the Assassins in China. Her journey takes her to Europe to train with the legendary Ezio Auditore before returning to her homeland to confront her adversaries.

The book has received mixed reviews, with an average rating of 3.50 on Goodreads. Some readers appreciate the vivid world-building and the detailed martial arts styles, while others feel that the novel’s flow is hindered by its technical specificity. The characters are well-drawn, and the historical setting is richly evoked, though some believe the constraints of a gaming novel format may have limited the author’s storytelling potential.

Overall, “The Ming Storm” seems to cater to fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and those interested in Chinese history and culture. However, it may not fully satisfy those looking for deep character development or a seamless narrative experience. The novel is now part of a trilogy, with subsequent books also considered non-canon to the Ubisoft game series, which may affect how some fans perceive the story.

Clever writing. I always wanted to root for the main character even though I didn't always agree with the choices. It was a great read

I am a huge fan of Assassin's Creed, and know the lore quite a bit. I gobble up extra lore anytime I can get it.

Unfortunately, I struggled a little with this book. It's good in some areas, but I didn't feel like I got to know the character as well as I would have liked, and felt disconnected from the book as a whole.

I loved the book and found it epic! I must say I have never played the game and I have seen the contrast in reviews as it seems to deviate from the theme of the game. But for me having never played that wasn’t an issue. I believe it was very well done and as always books, movies and games translate differently to a new medium. So I hope others can embrace it for what it is an absolutely amazing book.

I highly suggest reading it. If you’re on the fence I say give it a try with an open mind. I’m not a gamer but I love a good read and this definitely didn’t disappoint!

I don’t play Assasin’s Creed, and you don’t have to to enjoy this book! The writing was great and maybe this book will inspire readers to find a new game they love!

Full review on socials.

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn't able to listen to The Ming Storm before the title was archived.

I had no idea the Assassin's Creed franchise merged over to literature. The Ming Storm was my first experience with this, and unfortunately, I was left bored to sleep.

I purposely chose a tale that wasn't part of the gaming series to picture the story with my own imagination. Even though AC has briefly touched on Asian culture with Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Asia, it's nothing compared to The Ming Storm. Just like in any AC game, we're placed in a world filled with detailed culture, lost history, and a kick-ass character searching for truth. It even has footnotes on ancient texts and locations! But it's missing something.

Reading the story was a swing and a miss for me. There was so much description to digest, and it made it difficult to get through. The story was interesting, and the concept of turning a video game into a book was also alluring, but I ended up DNFing at 43%.

Overall I rated this story 2.5-stars.

This one left me with mixed feelings, but largely didn’t work for me. I did enjoy the historical aspect as well as how that was merged with the speculative elements, but unfortunately that ended up lost to a large extent beneath a vast cast of characters that I struggled to keep track of and in the technical details. Had there been a little more focus on the adventure/action aspect, which were interesting, and less of the names of moves, and technical aspects which while necessary in the game, lose a lot when translated into fiction then it would flowed a lot more easily and been a gripping read, rather than one I kept taking breaks from.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aconyte Books for this ARC. I love the games and I really enjoyed this book and would recommend checking it out, especially if you like the videogames . The plot was good felt like an interesting way to include the magical aspects with the more mundane parts. Another great entry on the world of AC

When Aconyte first put out an Assassin’s Creed novel – Geirmund’s Saga, by Matthew J Kirby- last year, I let it pass me by – I had a vague recollection of possibly having played a demo of one of the earliest titles in the Assassin’s Creed series many years ago now, but certainly never got properly into the series, or developed any real awareness of the lore.

My resolve was tested again in 2021, with the announcement of Aconyte’s second Assassin’s Creed novel, The Ming Storm. The promise of a kung-fu novel along with some fantastic cover art was enough to suck me in, and – despite a few interruptions for illness – I ended up reading both stories over the course of a few weeks. Today I’m going to take a closer look at both of them.


The Ming Storm by Yan Leisheng is a bit of a departure for Aconyte, in a few ways. For one thing, I believe it’s the first time that they’ve published a book which is a translation, as The Ming Storm was originally published in Chinese. It was also originally a 2019 release, which seems to make it the oldest story that they have put out so far.

If you’ve ever read a Chinese Wuxia novel before, then the linguistic stylings of The Ming Storm will probably be fairly familiar to you, but compared with a western novel (even a western novel in a pseudo-far-eastern setting like Legend of the 5 Rings), it can be quite jarring. The narrative voice will often digress into philosophical musings and lore-dumps about Kung-Fu, Buddhism and Confucian Philosophy, whilst the actual prose remains strangely plain, verging on sterile. The principle of “show don’t tell” seems to be absent much of the time, so whilst you will be told that a particular character is hot-tempered, foolish, cunning etc, the reader is largely left to take the narrator’s word for it, rather than being shown much to embed the perception.

Shao Jun, the main character, is an interesting enough figure: a former imperial concubine, trained as a member of the brotherhood of assassins, she finds herself largely isolated, unsure who is friend and who is foe, as she struggles to readjust to life in China after a period in Europe, and seeks revenge for many fallen comrades. Likewise, the principle antagonist is interestingly drawn, with complex emotions and motivations, but the conviction that the main thing we need to know about a character is what philosophical school they follow makes it hard to get much of a feeling for any of the supporting figures.

As well as spending a lot of time on philosophical asides, The Ming Storm leans very heavily into the Assassin’s Creed aspect of things – for the uninitiated, you basically need to know that long before the first human civilisations, there were a highly advanced group called the Isu, and since their demise, there have been two rival groups who retained an awareness of them: The Brotherhood of Assassins (generally the protagonists of the stories and games) and the nefarious worshippers of the Isu who go by various names at various times, but are most notorious (at least in Europe) as The Templars. These groups seem to have been fighting each other for the entirety of human history, and they show a lot of interest in various Isu McGuffins of the tech-so-advanced-it-seems-like-magic variety. Shao Jun (Assassin) has come into possession of one of these boxes, but has no real idea what it is. She has returned to China after a period in Europe, looking for revenge on the “Eight Tigers,” (who just happen to be the local Isu worshippers), and whose leader is set on getting his hands on the box.


Overall, The Ming Storm is a bit of a slow read: it has been translated not once, but twice (Chinese to French, French to English), and if there was much poetry or lyricism to the writing in the first place, it largely seems to have been lost along the way. Add to that the very distinctive Chinese style for a Wuxia novel, and the end result is something that can feel quite awkward to a western reader. Combined with how heavily the book delved into the Assassin’s Creed lore, I found the overall result relatively inaccessible.

By contrast, Geirmund’s Saga is a much easier read. Despite being fairly lengthy, it clips along at a good pace, and the eponymous hero gets plenty of opportunity for character development, even if those around him are forced to make do with a little less.

Geirmund is a “Dane” (technically from modern-day Norway) who is fed up with home, and joins a large invading fleet bound for England. Not surprisingly for anyone who has read this type of story before, he proves to be remarkably good at the whole business of waging war, and despite some notable set-backs, soon acquires a reputation for himself, and a growing band of followers.

The twist that moves this story into the Assassin’s Creed universe, is a magic amulet that Geirmund receives then loses, which is used to re-frame the whole story of the near-fall of Wessex in the 870s, taking the role of an unknown object referenced in a key Anglo-Danish treaty, and made the reason for the rise of a prominent Danish king. There were also a few allusions to other characters having a much bigger involvement with the whole Isu side of things (including one who has her own grapic novel series elsewhere), but it’s done gently enough that you could easily miss it if you weren’t looking closely for it. Whilst there might be some hardcore Assassin’s Creed fans out there for whom this fairly light engagement with the lore would feel like a let down, personally, I thought that it made for a much smoother experience overall: a good Anglo-Danish story with some interesting twists, that put me in mind of Bernard Cornwell (although without needing to put the main character through quite such an exhausting repeated cycle of triumph and fall as poor old Uhtred).


As an interesting aside, Geirmund Heljarskinn (Hel-hide in this novel) is a real historical figure, albeit one about whom not a lot seems to be known with much certainty. He definitely came from Norway, as this story tells, was the son of a Norwegian King and his Siberian wife, and was noted often for the dark complexion that his maternal ancestry gave him. The little information we do have about Geirmund’s life comes somewhat later, when he became a very successful setter on Iceland, as well as spending time in Ireland. This foray into the Anglo-Danish battle for the fate of Wessex seems to be an entirely fictitious creation for the purpose of this story, but was well-done, ending with a “well, you always wondered what he got up to in his youth, didn’t you” sort of conclusion.

Overall then, as much as the premise appealed to me, and as much as I feel I ought to like it, The Ming Storm fell a bit flat for me – it’s not badly written, and feels like it fits well into the traditional style for Wuxia novels, but between that styling and the inevitable problem of translations inevitably feeling a bit clunky, it just wasn’t that enjoyable. I’ll be sticking to Rokugan in future for my far-eastern style fantasy. Call me a philistine, but I find it more enjoyable when I can get the flavour of the setting, but with a written-style that’s more obviously intended for a Western audience.

Geirmund’s Saga was definitely more of a success: it leaned less heavily on the Assassin’s Creed specific elements of the story (a key McGuffin notwithstanding) and works well as simple Viking/Wessex historical fiction, with the fantastical element being a much more subtle flavouring.

If you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan, and particularly if you’ve been after more of Shao Jun’s story, then both are still worth a read, but if you’re a more casual reader and only want to give one of these new offerings a try, then I’d definitely recommend Geirmund’s Saga as the way to go.

This one left me with mixed feelings, but largely didn’t work for me. I did enjoy the historical aspect as well as how that was merged with the speculative elements, but unfortunately that ended up lost to a large extent beneath a vast cast of characters that I struggled to keep track of and in the technical details. Had there been a little more focus on the adventure/action aspect, which were interesting, and less of the names of moves, and technical aspects which while necessary in the game, lose a lot when translated into fiction then it would flowed a lot more easily and been a gripping read, rather than one I kept taking breaks from.

The Ming Storm by Yan Leisheng is a book in the Assassin's Creed universe. 

I'm a fan of the Assassin's Creed games, and so I was looking forward to this book, but as I haven't read any of the other books in the series, and I'm not up to date on games, so I felt lost when there were references to what had happened before this book.

There's lots of action as you would expect from a story in the Assassin's Creed world!  There's references to other assassin's that you will have come across in this world.

 The Ming Storm  was published on 1st June 2021 and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

I'm afraid I couldn't find where you could follow Yan Leisheng.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Aconyte Books .

A decent book, but takes great concentration to follow the meandering language and patience to follow the slowly moving plot.

I loved this book it the first assassin's creed book I have read and it won't be the last. Its so action packed you lose yourself in the book and find yourself telling the main character what to do and I loved learn more about China. This was the first book I have read that actually put the footnotes in the text and this made for better understanding and better flow. I can't wait to read more by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 Stars

Due to my crazy love for this video game, I was so eager to read this book in addition to the fact that it's set in the Ming dynasty China which is a dynasty that fascinates me so much and also because of a female assassin.

Well, it started so well with Zhang Yong as a great villain and the leader of the Eight Tigers, the fight were well discribed but then it got too much with all the blah, blah, blah about the different kung fu fighting styles with some nonsense about their origines that were SO irrelevant and I could careless. There were some good fights even if everyone can fly while fighting like "Tiger and Dragon" or Jet Lee's style but all those long descriptions killed my joy of reading this book.

Also, what made me rolling my eyes several times during this book was Shao Jun's great freaking luck, for me, she is not the hero of this book, her character is so lame dumb and lifeless. What make me angry more was the over use of insulting her with the "W" word, I started to count then I gave up because it looks like the author made it like her title!! Why?!

I feel like I've read a script for an historical movie and not a book. I'm so disappointed with this book but I knew that things made based on a video game rarely succeed either it is a movie or a book like here.

First of all, thank you very much to Aconyte Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for honest reviews. This review is written by me voluntarily.

This story is set in early 1500s China and this story is a part of the Assassin's Creed Universe. The main character, Shao Jun is the main character of the game Assassin’s Creed Chronicle: China. She is a last member of her clan and this is the story on how she gets revenge for her fallen mentors and brothers.

This story has a lot of actions and heavy, detailed descriptions in each chapter, making readers get to understand more about the story. However, this makes the chapters quite long and heavy, making it a little bit harder for me to focus because my preference is more to short chapters. However, in my opinion, these descriptions are needed in this story.

This story is written by Yan Leisheng, a famous Chinese author. Thus, for me, the writing style is not really the same as usual English novels that I have read before. However, if the reader has read Chinese web novels and novels before, the reader can get comfortable with the writing style much more easily. There are quite a number of characters in here, taking me sometimes to remember most of them. However, if you are a fan of Chinese historical dramas and web novels, you may already know this.

For me, I really like this novel because I was always interested in the Assassin's Creed universe even though I never played the game. Their details are always interesting. The story is also really exciting because I always do not know what to expect for each chapter. I am also excited to know more about Shao Jun’s backstory because for me, she is one of my favourite characters in AC’s universe. For me, if you are a fan of Assassin’s Creed games and universe, you should try reading this story.

DNF 19%—just mismatched expectations. I suspect there's a story here, but I requested the book primarily for a deeper dive into wider Assassin's Creed lore from a different POV. This was more action-oriented than plot heavy, and I'm afraid nothing grabbed me enough to keep me wanting to come back. The shifting POVs also contributed; I wasn't able to identify an emotional throughline quickly enough to keep me interested.

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Assassins Creed book The Ming Storm by Yan Lei Sheng, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So let’s crack on with a review then!

What is Assassin Creed
Assassins Creed is an adventure game franchise published by Ubisoft (One of my Edge of Empire Co-hosts works there as well I should probably mention), and depicts a millennia-old conflict between the Assassins, who fight to preserve free will, and the Templars who desire to bring around peace by controlling people.

The games take place throughout various historical periods, the original 2007 game being set in the era of the 3rd Crusades, and the latest game Assassins Creed Valhalla, set in the Viking Invasion of Britain.

This book is based on Assassins Creed Chronicles China.

The Story
This takes part after the short film, Assassins Creed: Embers in 1526 China and features the female assassin, Shao Jun, who has returned from Europe where she trained with the protagonmist of the second game, Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

She returns to China to fight the Eight Tigers, a group of eunuchs aligned with the Templars in the court of the Jianjing Emperor.

Prior to the novel, the Eight Tigers had all but wiped out the Assassins of China, leaving just Shao Jun and her mentor alive, so this is very much a story about revenge.

Conclusion
Look I wanted to love this book I really did, I am a big fan of the games, but this book just didn’t work, it was not an enjoyable read at all.

There is no real flow to the book as so much technical detail is thrown in, and it just gets so mired in trying to describe every single kung-fu move being used and its meaning.

The narrative changes point of view in a way that makes you have to go back and go right when did this characters point of view come in, I had to reread so much simply because there was little warning when the perspective changed.

It should have been a great action novel and don’t get me wrong, the story itself is really good, excellent in fact, but I struggled to read it, its just doesn’t work.

I hate giving a bad review it hurts me, but I see potential in this book, a round of editing to deal with the persepective changes and some heavy cuts to make the fight scenes flow better and I think that underneath is a good novella.

But it feels like its been padded out to make a novel.

2 out of 5 stars.

In sixteenth-century China, the Assassins are gone. Zhang Yong, the leader of the Eight Tigers, eliminated all rivals, allowing the Templars to hold all the power. Shao Jun, the only survivor, vows revenge and travels to Europe to train with the legendary Ezio Auditore. When she returns, she must find allies to defeat the Eight Tigers.

The Ming Storm is an original Assassin’s Creed novel, not just a novelization of one of the many games. Shao Jun's journey in this novel is the start of a trilogy. As with all Assassin’s Creed games, there is intense action in the midst of far-flung locales. This one takes place in China, and every once in a while footnotes explain some aspects about the time period that the average reader wouldn't know. Ezio is mentioned often, as he trained Shao Jun, but he doesn't make an appearance. The Eight Tigers group would be Templars, preferring conformity as a means to stability, and the Brotherhood Shao Jun wants to rebuild are the Assassins we know. The remaining Eight Tigers members hope to take out Shao Jun and find the scroll that the late emperor had given Shao Jun. They believe it holds clues to a mystic item; fans of the franchise will realize that they're all searching for Pieces of Eden, even if it's not mentioned by name.

Much of the fighting described in this novel involves philosophy, acupuncture points, and mystic techniques that manipulate internal energy and organs. In other words, if you enjoy C dramas and the like, you'll adore this. Prior knowledge of the Assassin's Creed games or novels isn't even necessary. This is a story of revenge amidst the political backdrop of Ming Empire China, so it follows those plot points. Shao Jun has to defend the honor of the Brotherhood and avenge the deaths of all known members; she and her mentor are the only survivors. Zhang Yong is highly placed in the current government and isn't opposed to sacrificing his followers to achieve his aim. Being the start of a trilogy, we find out what his true aims were near the end, and the climactic battle isn't the end of the story. The next two novels are bound to be just as good as this one.

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You know by now my love for the Assassin's Creed books. This one was good but not as good as I expected it to be. I liked the story and the writing style but sometimes I found it a little slow and the number of names was a little confusing.
I liked that it is inspired by the Chinese culture, which isn't used very often. Towards the end it was action packed and fast paced and I really enjoyed at.

I will continue reading the series as I want to know more about this aspect of the story.