G. Deyke reviewed Sins of the fathers by Jane Jensen
[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]
4 stars
In all honesty, I did not expect this book to be good, even though it's written by Jane Jensen herself. I don't tend to trust media tie-in books, and I trust novelizations even less; if I hadn't seen it used for ludicrously cheap, I'd never have picked it up.
It is good, though. Lucky me: I was pleasantly surprised.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (the book) closely follows the plot of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (the game), to the point where you could really just pick one or the other depending on whether you like reading books or playing point-and-click adventure games more. In every actual plot point and story element, they're pretty much interchangeable. In execution, though, each version plays to the strengths of its medium. The conversion from game to novel was skilfully done: things that work well for games but poorly for prose (several …
In all honesty, I did not expect this book to be good, even though it's written by Jane Jensen herself. I don't tend to trust media tie-in books, and I trust novelizations even less; if I hadn't seen it used for ludicrously cheap, I'd never have picked it up.
It is good, though. Lucky me: I was pleasantly surprised.
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (the book) closely follows the plot of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (the game), to the point where you could really just pick one or the other depending on whether you like reading books or playing point-and-click adventure games more. In every actual plot point and story element, they're pretty much interchangeable. In execution, though, each version plays to the strengths of its medium. The conversion from game to novel was skilfully done: things that work well for games but poorly for prose (several of the puzzles, for example) were streamlined out, while things that work poorly in games but well in prose (internal monologues, psychological character depth) were incorporated seamlessly. Whether writing games or novels, Jane Jensen knows her craft.
Sins of the Fathers is one of my favourite games, and I would strongly recommend it; but if you can't or don't want to play it for whatever reason, this novelization is absolutely a worthy substitute.
If you're already a Gabriel Knight fan, whether it's worth your time or not really depends on how extreme a fan you are. You're not getting much that's new, but you're getting a slightly different angle on the story you already love, with slightly more depth to it. You're getting a little bit of a different experience. And if, like me, you're just generally leery of the quality of novelizations in general, you can quell your fears: at the very least, it's well done.
Selling points: immersive horror; apparently well-researched voodoo; strong sense of setting and characters; acknowledgement of American slavery.
Warnings: immersive horror!; some gore, if I recall correctly; occasional German bits that are just incorrect enough to seriously stand out if you actually know German.
Disclaimers: it's been a while since I've read (or played) this; also, I'm not actually authorised to comment on the portrayal of voodoo/voudoun/&c. I realise there are some harmful tropes surrounding these subjects, and while I feel that it was about as respectful as a voodoo-themed horror book/game (by a white person and with a white protagonist) could be, I'm really not at all qualified to make that judgement.
