Infinity Blade: Awakening

By: Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by: Samuel Roukin

Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 best-selling 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, in 2012. Currently living in Utah with his wife and children, Brandon teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University.

©2011 Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC (P)2018 Recorded Books

Better if this book is read first

I bought both infinity blade books from audible at the same time. The audible book titles are deceiving. Awakening is book 1 and Redemption is book 2. The audible title for Redemption is only called Infinity Blade not Infinity Blade Redemption like the book jacket shows. Because of the audible title, I thought Redemption was book 1 and Awakening was book 2 and read Redemption first. That was a mistake. I had no idea what was going on and thought it was quite a dark book. After 3/4 of the way through I eventually figured out what was going on. Then I started listening to Awakening and realized that this was book one. Definitely read Awakening first. Even though there’s a lot of sword fighting and killing, there isn’t sex, which I appreciate.

good

good excellent. now I have to write more for the 15 word minimum... This book is really good.

Forgettable

Nothing special here. The big picture concept is interesting but the characters are boring, the story is boring, the performance is boring. Give the characters some charm and likeability. Give us a journey instead of chores.

Another over the top book from Brandon Sanderson

I have said it many times over,,, Brandon Sanderson is not just an author, he is a master story teller. A true artist at being able to bring a story to life.

Good for fans, but too short for full price.

Where does Infinity Blade: Awakening rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

As a fan of the game, I found the story interesting and enjoyable, but I was disappointed in how short the story is, which I didn't realize when I bought the first book. You basically have to buy the two books just to get one normal length audio book.

Well told story for children

Brandon seems to either write for young new readers or for adult fantasy readers. This work to me was a little too simplistic and foreshadowing more prevalent than needed. There was less surprising discovery than his adult works.

I enjoyed it, but felt I was led more than I needed to be.

good book but unfinished

the story is really part of a game series with the short stories acting as extra content. these books are in the middle of the story. to get the rest you need to play the games. perhaps there is a let's play on YouTube.

Fantastic book with a sad truth

I used to play the infinity blade games for days at a time. I just now found these fantastic books and I hope one day InfinityBlade makes a comeback. But for now this is all that remains in the deep lore and fantastic story that I hope one day future people can enjoy just as well as I am.

short, fun.

the narrator lacks the inflection to portray a female voice but does an otherwise good job. the subject matter of the story was somewhat limited to match the app that coincides with it, but Sanderson does a decent job of expounding on that universe even though he's limited by it as well.

I want more.

I would love a continuation of this book. It felt too short and left me wanting more.

It's going to be another good series...

I took a little while to get into this. Perhaps if you're a fan of the game "Infinity Blade" it may come more quickly to you, but I'm not a gamer and therefore probably missed some of the subtleties early on.

I wasn't sure how much of this world was straight from the game and how much was Brandon Sanderson's own world building, so I made my usual visit to Sanderson's website, and I quote: "My challenge was to take things placed into the game because of mechanics, and actually build magic systems, a world, characters, and a story to match them. The game developers had some ideas, but they told me I could do anything at all that I wanted."

Typically, Sanderson's magic system seems properly hinged, and the world and characters he's created are rich. This has the potential to be another epic, although Sanderson suggests it's not going to be his defining series - he's just having some fun with it, (and taking us along for the ride while he does it). It has the usual ingredients of hero with a twist, a couple of swords, some interesting interlopers, and a nice great big twist. At one point, it even felt a little Jo Abercrombie-ish.

Unfortunately, this is only 4 hours long so just as it was getting interesting, it all came to an abrupt end! (=minus one star). I have book 2 on pre-order, and I may actually have to download the game in the interim (not something I thought I would ever hear myself saying).

Narration was fine.

Sanderson Having a bit of Fun

This is another side to one of my favourite authors. Having recently completed the mammoth Oathbringer and read a couple of his short stories this near-novella format surprised me. Of course Robyn has the full SP in her review and I think while this is decent writing and has lots of nice ideas in it the brevity stops it from being fully developed. Of course it is just the first in a series and so it could get fleshed out but this very much felt like a diet version of Sanderson to me.

On the other hand the clever mix of technological awareness is well done creating both a sci-fi and fantasy feel within the book and Samuel Roukin does a good job with the narration so it is worth a listen. It's just not really up there with the best in the two genres.

I certainly wouldn't recommend it as one to judge Sanderson's overall awesomeness by even though especially in the combat scenes there is some very inventive trickery going on which gives a flavour of this author.

As Robyn says, even Brandon likes to just have a little fun sometimes.

Enjoyable

Fantastic narration of an enjoyable piece of work! Looking forward to more of the same.

good but

it too short. ending bit weak. but I love the idea. Just want more meat to get into it

Good but to short

This was a good read bot you can tell it’s been coped down to this length. It would have made an exiting full
Length book