Last Descendants

Gr 7 Up—Usually marketed toward adults, Ubisoft's popular Assassin's Creed video game franchise takes a stab at attracting young adult audiences with the first title in a planned series. Fans of the franchise will wonder what this title is doing in the youth section, while the target audience will rejoice that there is finally something for them in this thought-provoking historical fiction series. Just like the game, this volume follows the main characters into the Animus (think plugging into the Matrix), where they can relive parts of their ancestors' lives through their DNA. This new story begins by following high school friends Owen and Javier as they sneak out one night to explore an Animus in a shady bus with their school's IT guy, Monroe. He has manipulated the Animus in a way that will surprise seasoned fans and keep them hooked until the somewhat predictable cliff-hanger ending. True to the franchise, many characters are diverse in terms of culture, belief, and sexual orientation; however, their development is a bit flat and will hopefully be fleshed out in future installments. Newcomers to the series may be left puzzled at times, but fans of science fiction may be able to pick up on some of the technical lingo.