Widening the Assassin's Creed World with Matthew Kirby

#LastDescendants | October 18th, 2016

Matthew Kirby treated the Hicklebee's Teen Advisory Board to an evening of not one but two recent releases!

"I quit!" Matthew Kirby knew from age 12 that writing was the career for him. Of course, his dramatic exit from pianist to writer likely gave his parents a heart attack, coming to the conclusion mid-recital and walking off stage. 

Both A Taste for Monsters and Last Descendants share a common theme: history repeats itself and we should learn from our past. The idea for A Taste for Monsters came from watching a Jack the Ripper documentary whereas Last Descendants was an approach from game developer Ubisoft. Was Matt excited? Uh, yeah. He's a big (PC) gamer and it's a  dream come true to have created canonical material in the Assassin's Creed universe.

Matt is more of a panster versus a plotter and only creates outlines as part of the publishing process. His one piece of advice for up and coming writers?

Writers have to read a lot, and read widely, to be successful. "That's what makes a good storyteller." -@writerMattKirby

— HickleBOO's Books 👻 (@Hicklebees) October 19, 2016

The TAB recently reviewed Last Descendants, which you can find right over here.

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Assassin's Creed Makes Its Novel Debut

Matthew Kirby @ Hicklebee's

Tuesday, September 18 @ 7 pm

Join TAB & Matthew Kirby for Last Descendants and A Taste for Monsters

Matthew Kirby will be joining TAB to share the excitement of his newly released Assassin's Creed novel, Last Descendants, for YA readers everywhere. After years of writing for younger, middle grade readers, Kirby finally decided to write a novel (which will be part of a series) for YA readers, so, first of all, thank you, Matthew Kirby for the inclusion.

Last Descendants is based on, wait for it, Assassin's Creed, a video game franchise that led to a part historical fiction and part science fiction story. The novel, which was released in August 2016, centers around a boy named Owen. Owen is forced to go through the exasperating situation of having his father go to prison for a crime Owen is positive he did not commit. Owen's dad eventually dies in prison seemingly ending the chance to reverse the accusation. And the story gets even more enticing as readers learn that Monroe, a technology expert at school, may be able to aid Owen in creating a different legacy for his father and clear his name from a horrific crime. By using a device that would allow Owen to explore genetic memories buried deep in their own DNA, Owen may just find a different ending for his father's tale. Seems perfect, right?

No, I did not just spoil the book. This is a novel; these things are never that simple. Owen ultimately must deal with the price of clearing his father's name: the discovery of the existence of an ancient and powerful relic many dismiss as a myth. Did I mention that two secret organizations will stop at nothing to take hold of that relic? Now Owen must find the relic first in order to save himself along with his father's name.

Clearly Matthew Kirby should have been writing for YA readers all this time because this series sounds absolutely page-turning. He even got into the opportunity to write this book because he seems to be "incredibly lucky" as he wrote on his website. Lucky for us readers he wrote the book and soon follow-up books for the Last Descendants series. Matthew Kirby truly shows that a love of gaming can lead to many things, maybe even a novel series.

by Rachael M, TAB Member

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