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A review by kittyg
Redemption by Brandon Sanderson
2.0
Hmmm now this is the second instalment in the Infinity Blade series which is an adaptation series by Brandon Sanderson based aroind the Infinity Blade Games. This series of books started out really well for me as I hadn't played the games before reading the books and the first one was still really interesting, however this one was a big disappointment for the majority with only the last 30% really capturing my interest and making me want to read on.
basically this starts a fair way after the first book and that means that a lot has happened (the storyline progresses in the games but if, like me, you haven't played the games there is no warning that you need to have the background knowledge and it's really very confusing!) and the world and characters are in a completely different situation from how we left off at the end of book 1. I really didn't like the jarring feeling of trying to pick up a story which felt like a chunk was missing and although I know these books are marketed as being part of the Game series, I think not allowing a pleasant continuous plotline really alienates this book from the first and sets a bad tone.
We once again have the two main character from book 1, the God King Radriar and the main character from book 1 (who takes a bit more of a backseat role in this book) Siris. The two of them find themselves trapped and they start off the book in a continuous killing cycle which is interesting once you realise it's way out of context and you study a little bit about what;s happened in between, but it's really not that engrossing or exciting.
I would say that Radriar's character is rather irritating up until the very end of the book where he grows a lot as a personality whilst Siris just seemed to lack substance and be very focused on fighting his 'Dark self' rather than actually progressing the storyline much. Overall this was a very disappointing follow on and I wouldn't recommend it even though the end does pick up. I think it could have been made much more approachable for all (players of the games or not) but instead it suffered from a lack of consideration and therefore a confused beginning, slow middle and decent end, which adds up to a jumble of 'meh' in my opinion. If any more books in this series are released I expect they too will require having played the game to understand them and so I doubt i'll be buying them. Ah well, every author has to make a few worse books I suppose, but that's just my opinion of course! :)
basically this starts a fair way after the first book and that means that a lot has happened (the storyline progresses in the games but if, like me, you haven't played the games there is no warning that you need to have the background knowledge and it's really very confusing!) and the world and characters are in a completely different situation from how we left off at the end of book 1. I really didn't like the jarring feeling of trying to pick up a story which felt like a chunk was missing and although I know these books are marketed as being part of the Game series, I think not allowing a pleasant continuous plotline really alienates this book from the first and sets a bad tone.
We once again have the two main character from book 1, the God King Radriar and the main character from book 1 (who takes a bit more of a backseat role in this book) Siris. The two of them find themselves trapped and they start off the book in a continuous killing cycle which is interesting once you realise it's way out of context and you study a little bit about what;s happened in between, but it's really not that engrossing or exciting.
I would say that Radriar's character is rather irritating up until the very end of the book where he grows a lot as a personality whilst Siris just seemed to lack substance and be very focused on fighting his 'Dark self' rather than actually progressing the storyline much. Overall this was a very disappointing follow on and I wouldn't recommend it even though the end does pick up. I think it could have been made much more approachable for all (players of the games or not) but instead it suffered from a lack of consideration and therefore a confused beginning, slow middle and decent end, which adds up to a jumble of 'meh' in my opinion. If any more books in this series are released I expect they too will require having played the game to understand them and so I doubt i'll be buying them. Ah well, every author has to make a few worse books I suppose, but that's just my opinion of course! :)