Infinity Blade: Awakening

Opened Strong, But Fell Into Trite Clichés

I have been a little leary of this author after my introduction to him through The Original, which reads like the work of someone on the precipice of falling into QAnon, but I gave this a go as it's in the Audible Included library. I was genuinely excited to hear Samuel Roukin who has quickly become one of my favourite narrators, particularly for fantasy, and the book starts with an interesting premise and jumping in at an interesting point in the protagonist's life -- they just defeated the big bad and got the eponymous magic sword, something no-one expected him to do, so things are about to get weird and complicated because there's other big bads and people don't like change. That's a show more brilliant opening for series and refreshing in a genre I love, but can be rather stale.

Unfortunately, there is another lead character who doesn't share the same first language as the protagonist, so their are multiple moments and full scenes that are dedicated to trite language 'humour' that is so clangy and musty, but read as if the author really thought they were doing something. Seriously? We're still doing the 'funny foreigner' archetype in 2018 from a hugely experienced and lauded author? Really? This was too much, not in the sense of it being wildly offensive, which it clearly isn't the worst perpetrator of, but it isn't good or funny or something we need to he dealing with.

So, yeah. I DNF'd halfway through. If I didn't have a million things I want to read and not enough time to read them all, I probably would have stuck with it and just not continued the series.

If you like this author and/ or decent enough fantasy I would still recommend checking this out, particularly if you have Audible as it's free on there. But it just wasn't enough to keep my attention and put up with lazy writing and attempts at humour. show less

My main problem with the book was that it was too small. I really would have liked for it to be a more fleshed out, epic fantasy novel. That said, I really enjoyed it. I like Brandon's writing and this story kept my attention for the entire (though short) duration.

The most amazing thing to me after reading this is the fact that this is the first Brandon Sanderson book I've ever read. I clearly have been missing out.

It is novella-length; it's rather as if it's been serialized into novellas instead of being one large book. Personally, I think that's great. If I wasn't enjoying it at this point, I would have spent half as much as buying a full-length novel. So I really don't know why anyone is complaining. Okay, it does suck if you were caught off-guard by it, but I'll bet you can think of a book you wish you'd only wasted half the time and money on.

I really love the unconventional start, just after what should have been a climactic scene. The inclusion of technology as deadminds was intriguing; show more it's always entertaining when tech effectively becomes magical items.

All in all, loved it. On the down side, apparently the second book picks up some distance off and expects that you're familiar with the story from the video game. That's really giving me pause about reading it. show less

Spring 2020 (March);
~ My Sisyphean Sanderson Challenge

I funny thing about reading these two books is that I did not know that they took place in the spaces between three concurrent games. The first one is a perfect standalone, without having looked at or played the games, and the second took a tiny scooch of research to understand. Both of them were intricately and exquisitely well written.

I have a lot of feelings about the Gods in question, and the constant rebirth cycle, but mostly I remain in utter awe of the fact every single one of Sanderson's books has a completely different, and fully worked out, magical system of its own.

More of a curiosity than a story, this novella is what happens when someone tries to take the rules of video game logic and make them into a coherent magic system.

Sanderson is great a magic systems, so it works way better than it has any right to. The effort tends to blot out the lackluster characters and unsatisfying ending, which does little more than push the reader by the shoulders towards the video game it ties in with.

I'd be interested in seeing a novelization that includes the events of the game itself, in order to render this into a complete story.

I've never played the game this book is about but the story is amazing. It starts like fantasy and it ends like sci-fi but the transition is smooth and very well done.

I probably would have enjoyed this more if I was familiar with the iOS mobile game, or the Infinity Blade franchise in general. As it were, I've never played it, I don't even know the first thing about it, so I was not surprised at all at how often I felt lost while reading this and at the many questions I had after I finished.

I admit I picked this up because it was penned by Brandon Sanderson. But despite being written by one of my favorite fantasy authors, I didn't find anything too impressive about this novella. The franchise isn't Sanderson's own creation so he obviously had certain limitations to work within and guidelines to follow. I could tell he wasn't "stretching out" as much as he could with his writing talents, possibly due show more to the fact that he didn't have his usual freedoms.

I'm proof that this book is readable even if you don't play or if you are not a fan of the game, but a lot of it will end up being confusing. As this short story is meant to be the bridge between the first Infinity Blade and its sequel, it is really meant for those who want more background into the story of the game it's based upon. show less