Infinity Blade: Awakening: Brandon Sanderson, Geremy Mustard, Donald Mustard, Peter Ahlstrom, Simon Hurley: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

Book Description

Trained from birth in swordplay and combat, a young knight named Siris has journeyed to the Dark Citadel with a single purpose: fight through the army of Titans to face the tyrannical God King in one-on-one combat. This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets – the one being in the world who can unravel the secrets of the Infinity Blade.

Based on the bestselling video game from ChAIR Entertainment and Epic Games, this all-new adventure from acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson digs deeper into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade, a world of mystery and intrigue where magic and technology are indistinguishable, and even life and death are not what they seem.

Brandon Sanderson has published six solo novels with Tor Books—Elantris, the Mistborn trilogy, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings—as well as four books in the middle-grade Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series from Scholastic. He was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s long-running Wheel of Time series, to which he added 2009's The Gathering Storm and 2010's Towers of Midnight, as well as the final book in the series, A Memory of Light, scheduled for release in 2012. His newest Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law, will be released in November 2011. Currently living in Utah with his wife and children, Brandon teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Trained from birth in swordplay and combat, a young knight named Siris has journeyed to the Dark Citadel with a single purpose: fight through the army of Titans to face the tyrannical God King in one-on-one combat. This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets – the one being in the world who can unravel the secrets of the Infinity Blade.

Based on the bestselling video game from ChAIR Entertainment and Epic Games, this all-new adventure from acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson digs deeper into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade, a world of mystery and intrigue where magic and technology are indistinguishable, and even life and death are not what they seem.

Brandon Sanderson has published six solo novels with Tor Books—Elantris, the Mistborn trilogy, Warbreaker, and The Way of Kings—as well as four books in the middle-grade Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series from Scholastic. He was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s long-running Wheel of Time series, to which he added 2009's The Gathering Storm and 2010's Towers of Midnight, as well as the final book in the series, A Memory of Light, scheduled for release in 2012. His newest Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law, will be released in November 2011. Currently living in Utah with his wife and children, Brandon teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University.

Product Details

File Size: 213 KB
Print Length: 122 pages
Publisher: ChAIR Entertainment Group, LLC; 1 edition (October 3, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B005SFRJ6K
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray: Enabled

Lending: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,590 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 73 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A new kind of entertainment October 6, 2011

By T. Chen

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have enjoyed all of Brandon Sanderson's novels- some more than others, but something that he excels in is writing in a medium with interesting restraints. A magic system where all the characters have to eat metal? That sounds weird, but he thrived on it and made the fascinating trilogy called Mistborn. Step into a beloved, but sadly deceased, author's shoes, both adapting and creating on the foundation of a dozen prior books? He excelled at that as well, and his additional books in the Wheel of Time have been widely lauded.

This novella is another story with interesting restraints. It needs to be based on a bestselling iPhone game, expanding the world, explaining the magic system; it needs to have an interesting story with good characters and plot twists; it needs to be understandable to people who have never played the video game, yet set up the sequel video game in a compelling fashion; it cannot be too long, taking up Brandon's valuable time that is spent working on the Wheel of Time and his own landmark series, the Stormlight Archive.

Well, I think he succeeded. I had never played the game before, but I enjoyed the story, and it made me curious enough to buy the game to play on my iPhone. Is it ground breaking, a revelation, award winning? No, probably not. However, it is entertaining and fun, and I think that's all that Brandon wanted to accomplish.

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49 of 52 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for what it is October 6, 2011

By Michael Eldredge

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Before I begin I must point out that I have never played the Infinity Blade game and I probably never will. As of this writing I do not own any device that can run the program. As such, some of my observations may be based on an incomplete understanding of the Infinity Blade universe.

The novella follows Siris (the protagonist from the game) and picks up after he had killed the God King. He returns home from what he and everyone else assumed was going to be a suicide mission. He starts out hoping to live a quiet life farming and eating pie when he is told that he has too many enemies and to protect those he loves he must go into exile. The remainder of the novella follows Siris as he tries to stay hidden from his enemies and find a way to fight back.

As an honest reviewer I must point out that this is not Sanderson's best work. Actually Sanderson himself pointed out that it was "not intended to be the end-all of [his] career". It is just too insubstantial, it has only a few characters that are a little too blank to be engaging (probably to keep the characters consistent with the game), a setting that a little too much like the generic fantasy setting, and a plot that feels like the middle section of a book. I realize that these are all problems that were inherited from the source material. The game's plot consists almost entirely (as far as I can tell from game reviews and the Wikipedia article) to "Kill the God King".

On the other hand I have to point out that the book does have merit. Several of the gameplay mechanics have been worked into the story in such a way that they now make sense. For example it is established that the reason none of the enemies you face use the healing objects they carry around is because they are not physically able to use them. The dialogue is genuine and occasionally witty. The characters are far more complex then they really have any right to be, given the source. And the plot has a couple of real twists in it. It was clear that Sanderson had fun writing it and I enjoyed it enough that reading through it did not feel like a chore.

To use an analogy, this book is like the fine chief that opened a fast food restaurant. The food may be the best of any burger joint you have ever been to, and therefore it lords over all the other fast food restaurants, but at the end of the day you realize that the food is not as good as the four star restaurant that does not work under the restrictions of time and cost. The restaurant may be the best at what it does, but if you want truly quality food you would go to a different restaurant.

I have never been sold on the idea of a book based on a video game, and this book all but illustrates why. None of the problems I find with the book can really be laid at the feet of the author. But I still can not bring myself to call it a good book because of the problems that arise out of the source material.

The quote from Brandon Sanderson comes from his blog:
[...]

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant transition from IPad game to book. October 7, 2011

By R. Nicholson TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Infinity Blade: Awakening" is a short fantasy tale by author Brandon Sanderson. It is based of the IPad game 'Infinity Blade'. This is a 251 Kb download and is price at $2.99.

You could read this book without ever having experienced the game, however if you've played "Infinity Blade", then some discussions and happenings in the book will be more understandable to you.

The Game:
"Infinity Blade" is a simple 'beat-em-up', but there is a visceral, rewarding sensation with each victory. You begin outside a castle and proceed to fight all the dark servants until you reach the 'God-King'. If you die, you start over; if you beat the 'God-King' you start over, but fight tougher opponents (worth more rewards etc.) with each successive round. And so it continues, ad infinitum.

The Book:
I was very skeptical about the idea of creating a book around such an unvarying and linear game. However it only took a few paragraphs to realize that author Sanderson did a masterful job in writing this brief tale and at the same time retaining the essence of the game. It has an intriguing plot, some historical background that sheds some light on the game, some surprisingly good character development (even thought the book is quite short) and even some subtle touches of humor that gave me the odd chuckle.

In addition, the cover art while not flashy, was quite appealing.

I hope there's more to come in this storyline. 5 Stars

Ray Nicholson

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but not comparable to Sanderson's other works

It felt to me as if I was reading a book intended for pre-teens, the system that Sanderson explains around their magic is fairly entertaining and somewhat gripping but the writing... Read more

Published 1 day ago by Wouter Schreuders

5.0 out of 5 stars Thouroughly enjoyable. A must read

A great story, interesting characters and a wonderful twist.nthis book is a great read and promises to be the first of a thrilling series.

Published 3 days ago by Tristan McLean

4.0 out of 5 stars fun but short

A decent quick read. I didn't realize that it was a bridge story between video games when I read it. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Ryan Curtis

5.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying read, with a wonderfully twist.

A great beginning to a possible plus. The dichotomy of an immortal, thru with everlasting life. Trying to fix what slowly made his world and the lives going on around him into a... Read more

Published 10 days ago by lee salisbury

5.0 out of 5 stars Short but sweet

This is more of a novella, but still has great fantasy storyline and plot twists. Looking forward to reading more.

Published 17 days ago by Jay

2.0 out of 5 stars Sucks

Really bad writing. Really bad. I'm no snob but this was so bad I couldn't finish it. The game creates a world that deserved better i my opinion.

Published 18 days ago by Freiberg

4.0 out of 5 stars Sanderson is always a treat

Never played the game, knew nothing about the backstory of the Infinity Blade, still loved it.
My only complaint is that the story ended just when things were beginning to get... Read more

Published 21 days ago by Jacquelyn Bowser

3.0 out of 5 stars Infinity Blade: Awakening

I enjoyed the story. It was imaginative and interesting I had a hard time putting it down to do other things.

It needs a sequel. Maybe playing the game is the sequel. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Renae Allred

3.0 out of 5 stars alright

I really enjoyed the imagination that went into this book it was pretty good but really short it the story could use a little more meat to it

Published 1 month ago by David Russell

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, but too short

I really enjoyed this book, but I wish it had been longer. That aside, it'll be another great series from Sanderson.

Published 1 month ago by jeremy hornbeck

More About the Author

I'm Brandon Sanderson, and I write epic fantasy novels for Tor Books. The sixth novel I wrote, ELANTRIS, was my first published, and I followed this up with the Mistborn trilogy and WARBREAKER. I was also chosen to complete Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series based on his notes, resulting in THE GATHERING STORM, TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, and A MEMORY OF LIGHT. I'm now launching my own grand epic that I've wanted to tell for many years, starting with THE WAY OF KINGS.

Read an excerpt here: tor.com/wok

More sample chapters from all of my books are available at brandonsanderson.com/library -- and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.