Sins of the Fathers: A Gabriel Knight Novel by Jane Jensen
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Book Reviews of Sins of the Fathers: A Gabriel Knight Novel
Book Review: The Best Thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
Believe Me it's even better than the game! and it even contains other stories and other incidents than the game! it is really the best thing i have read all my life! buy it now or lose the thrillBook Review: "Three Women Have Loved You Purely..."
Summary: 4 Stars
"Sins of the Fathers" is the novelisation of not a movie or a television series, but in fact a computer game! Gabriel Knight was designed by Jane Jenson, and is a wonderful trilogy of games that deals with the horror novelist and bookstore owner Gabriel, researching for his new book by investigating the gruesome murders that have been occurring in New Orleans lately. Bodies have been found surrounded by voodoo paraphernalia with their hearts removed, and thanks to the fact that his best friend is Detective Mosely, Gabriel can get up close and personal to his research material. The "Voodoo Murders" as they've been dubbed by the press are causing quite a stir - though the voodoo is believed to be a scare tactic, Gabriel can sense a wave of fear among the practitioners of voodoo within the city. As he continues his investigation he comes into contact with a range of colourful characters - in particular the stunningly beautiful Malia Gedde, to whom Gabriel feels an almost supernatural connection with.
But as well as this ever deepening mystery that points to nothing less than a city-wide conspiracy, Gabriel is dealing with his own personal problems. Since a very young age he's been plagued with nightmares, and now they have gotten worse. Scarily enough, the grotesque images in his mind seem to collaborate with certain elements of the case - a woman changing into a leopard, a strange curved-blade knife, three crawling snakes, a double circle wheel. The scary part is however, that he's been having these dreams since he was fifteen years old. With the help of Grace Nakimura, his sharp tongued research assistant, Gabriel unravels the mystery of his own family history, and how and why it is entwined with the modern day murders.
"Gabriel Knight: The Sins of the Fathers" is classified as an "old" game now - it came out way back in the early 90's, but the quality of the intricate storyline and the strength of the characters still make it a very enjoyable game...provided that you can track it down. This novelisation however will sort you out if you can't, as it contains the complete story, as well as the inevitable advantage of being able to explore ideas and characters more deeply on the page than one could on the computer screen. Jane Jenson knows her creation well, and is able to fully flesh out her characters and the situations that they're put in. The descriptions she invokes are just as spooky and mysterious as they were on the screen, in a story that stretches over several centuries, from Africa to Germany to New Orleans. Jenson has a nice, clear narrative style (often the wrong people think they're qualified to write novelisations - thankfully Jenson knows what she's doing) and takes the opportunity to add in a few other little scenes that weren't present in the game. Predominantly among this is a fleshed-out version of the journal that Wolfgang sends to Gabriel - it gives a much clearer idea of what went on in Charleston in 1693, and makes Gunther and Tetelo's story a lot more meaningful.
However, sometimes there are odd changes in the transition from the screen to the book - Gabriel's grandmother for example has gone from "Rebecca" to "Ester". Likewise, the details surrounding Gabriel's father's (Philip) death have been altered - in the game he is killed in a car crash when Gabriel was seven years old, in the book he is only one. This may not seem a big deal, but the game also reveals that Gabriel's grandfather died when Philip was also seven, leading the player to wonder if perhaps a family curse is a possibility. It doesn't come to much in this particular story, but I had wondered if perhaps the young death rate of the male family members (dying when their sons turn seven) would pop up again in future games - as I have not yet played "Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned" it remains to be seen.
Furthermore, some things that happen on the game to do quite mesh well into book format - namely many of the puzzles that Gabriel has to solve. The prime example is near the beginning, when Gabriel needs to get closer to a police motorcycle in order to listen to his radio. In order to lure the cop away from the bike the player must walk past a performing mime, who will follow him and then begin impersonating the cop when they get closer. The cop gets mad, chases the mime and Gabriel is free to get the radio. But a mistake is made in transposing this from screen to page - it just doesn't gel properly, and my guess would be that people who don't know that this book is based on a game would possibly deduce that fact by themselves.
Despite all this however, "Sins of the Fathers" was the beginning of a successful role-playing franchise that resulted in two sequels "The Beast Within" and "Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned", both of which were top-selling games. The novelisations do them justice (you can also buy "The Beast Within" in book form, though I'm not sure about the third one yet), and although there were only three of them, they stood as a testimony to a great gaming tradition. One could easily read this book without ever having played the games - Jenson explains everything for the newcomer, though personally I think it would be best to track down the games before tackling the book.
Book Review: Gabriel Knight Sins Of The Fathers --Could have been more
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this book a lot, considering it was pretty much a written walk-through of the game. It was nice to see the extra dialoge added to the characters, the extra information about the people. By that same token though, I felt the book fell slightly short of the mark. One thing that drew me to the game was that the characters seemed so interesting. I wanted to know everything about them I could. In that the book fell a bit short. While it told more about them than the game did, I feel it could have done a lot more. While we might have understood a bit about the characters, some of it seemed almost forced.
And I had a bit of trouble believing that Gabriel had never done any of this sort of thing in his life. In the game, I always felt that he had a past that included doing whatever he thought was necessary to get information he needed. Little things like knowing to get the Mime to immitate the police officer so he could use the radio, those are things is something that people just would not think of doing naturally, those are the signs of someone who has spent a lot of time trying to get information that people are rather reluctant to let you have.
Despite these few things, the book is well worth reading.
Book Review: Really enjoyable occult detective story
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoy supernatural detective stories, but I don't think there are that many good ones in the market today. That's why it was a real pleasure to read Jane Jensen's 'Sins of the Fathers'.Jensen, creator of the simply awesome 'Gabriel Knight' series of PC games, puts her video game characters to paper and does a fine job of it. Gabriel Knight, the roguish hero of this first book in the series, is written well and is a decently worked-out character. The supporting cast is also very likable, especially Knight's spunky assisten Grace Nakamura.
I don't, however, get the feeling that Jensen had a good grasp of writing a novel. Her storytelling gifts are evident in her games, but in the medium of novels the writing seemed a little juvinile, as if aimed at a much younger audience. If it didn't contain so much profanity (almost seemed to have been thrown in to 'adult' up the book) I'd probably suggest it for kids.
This criticism does not get in the way of the story, though. As said earlier, Jane does have a gift for storyteling and I am looking forward to reading her other books. This is a good read for those who enjoy the supernatural mixed in with a little treasure hunting.
Book Review: A good story,but a plot better suited to game than a novel
Summary: 4 Stars
I played the CD-ROM version of 'Sins of the Fathers',which was a lot more than just a game;a compelling mixture of mystery,fantasy and deep character development.Unfortunately,while the system of solving puzzles made a great story for a game,reading about them was something else completely.The book remained unswervingly within the confining structure of a game walk-through,and thus any opportunity Jane Jensen had to give the story an added depth through a book medium was entirely wasted.Dialogue lost the subtlety that gave it so much zest in the game,as in the book the author is compelled to write a thorough explanation of the characters` thoughts and feelings after each line.The amount of profanity also hampers the overall flow of the dialogue,especially coming from a person like Grace. I have the utmost respect for Jane Jensen as a storyteller and as a writer,and I can only hope that in The Beast Within she will reach the potential we know she has