Review: Not up to Sanderson's usual standard - major dissapointment
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 25, 2013
"Infinity Blade: Redemption" is the second installment in Brandon Sanderson's short story series.  These books are based on the video game of the same name.  I don't play video games, but enjoyed the first book despite that fact.  I was excited to read this second one as I felt the story of the first book deserved a longer, more thorough exploration.  I'm a big fan of Sanderson and before reading "Redemption" I had seen nothing from him that I considered less than excellent.  That changed after reading this one."Redemption" is clunky in its storytelling and lacks the near perfect flow that most of Sanderson's other works have.  This book opens with Siris and the godking trapped in some sort of prison for the soul, where for some period of time, they've been taking turns killing each other.  (Apparently I missed something here - because when the last book ended, Sirius was a free man, and there's nothing in this book that explains how he and the godking (Raidriar) became trapped together)  Isa comes back from the first book to rescue Siris (also called Ausar for much of this book) and he and the godking eventually team up to try and defeat "the worker" who has taken over control of all of the godking's lands and people while he's been imprisoned.  At the end of the book, there is a big "Matrix-like" reveal and the godking has to make a choice to serve the Worker or to sacrifice himself for his people.This second book is even more incomplete than the first one, and while I was able to put the pieces together the first time and enjoy the story, there's just too much missing here.  I have to assume that people who play the video game have picked up the missing pieces through game play, but for people like myself who just read the books, this novella is a big disappointment.  Too many holes, too many assumptions, too little character development, too much unrealized potential.  This book is a disaster for Sanderson.  There is no excuse for such an accomplished and gifted author to give his readers something like this.  At the very least, there should have been some kind of prologue that explained what had happened between the two books so those of us who don't play the games weren't completely lost.  Very disappointed.