Assassin's Creed is heading to bookstores with young adult series

A series of young adult novels based on the Assassin's Creed franchise will arrive in bookstores later this year, Ubisoft and children's book publisher Scholastic announced. The first installment of Last Descendants will be in stores this September, with a second scheduled for January 2017, according to a press release.

Although the books won't be directly based on any of the games in Ubisoft's time-traveling stealth franchise, Last Descendants bears obvious similarities to its namesake series. Last Descendants, aimed at pre-teen readers, will star the school-aged Owen who quickly gets caught up in the age-old battle between the Assassins and the Templars. As is par for the course with Assassin's Creed stories, Owen is sent back in time — to 1860s New York City and the age of the Aztecs — to recover a lost relic before the dueling sides claim it.

Instead of launching a new Assassin's Creed game this year, Ubisoft is spreading out the franchise into other media. Assassin's Creed fans can see the series on the big screen this December when the live-action Assassin's Creed film debuts. That movie will premiere on Dec. 21 and stars Michael Fassbender as another modern man sent back in time as an assassin.