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Steelheart The Reckoners Brandon Sanderson Books

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Steelheart The Reckoners Brandon Sanderson Books

A YA Superhero (or rather, Supervillain) Dystopian Fantasy that maintains a skillful blend of character and action.

BOOK DETAILS:
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, read by MacLeod Andrews, published by Audible Studios (2013) / Length: 12 hrs 14 min

SERIES INFO:
This is Book #1 in the "Reckoners Trilogy." All 3 books and a novella (#1.5) are available in audio.

SUMMARY:
This book is a bit more action oriented than my usual read. (Yes, I am one of those people who actually skip or fast-forward the fighting, car chases etc. To me, those are the boring parts; I'd rather read about the characters.) Thankfully a lot of the action is very character based, which is good.

CHARACTERS:
David: An adorkable "nerd" (just don't call him that to his face). Totally obsessed, he spends all his free time plotting to take down Steelheart. One of his biggest strengths is his ability to think on his feet and act quickly (although this "improvising" drives Megan crazy). His complete hopelessness with metaphors is cute, but does occasionally get a bit tiresome after 3 books.

Megan: The newest and youngest member of the Reckoner team that David runs into. Hypercompetent, smart, slightly older, very attractive, and blows hot & cold. She sort of reminds me of a typical YA hero.

David & Megan: This is a case of love at first sight (on his part) that doesn't annoy me. He is immediately attracted to her physically (not surprising, since she is dressed to seduce at the time), but it her competence at kicking-butt that seals the crush.

"I respected her for that. Sparks, I was liking her more and more. And though she hadn’t been particularly affectionate toward me lately, she wasn’t openly hostile and cold any longer. That left me room to work some seductive magic. I wished I knew some."

This is one romance that I was really pulling for.

The Prof = cranky founder of the Reckoners, the only one as as obsessed as David
Tia = the brains, and the one who holds them all together when everything is falling apart
Abraham = the wise man of faith, who always seems to have the best gun (and he's not French, you slontze, he's Canadian).
Cody = the comic relief whose sense of humor just didn't click with me (I'm not fond of people who can't be serious)

WORLDBUILDING:
The post-apocalyptic Chicago cityscape is introduced well as David races through it at the beginning. It is a city where the sun hasn't shone for nearly 10 years and where most people live in a steel catacomb dug out below the transformed city. It is a place where anyone can be killed at any time for no reason. And yet, it is an oasis of civilization in the "Fractured States," since it has power and some sort of order.

The Epics (Supers) each have 1 or more abilities of various strengths. And each has a single weakness that negates their ability, and may be quite bizarre.

PLOT:
I LOVE the first line.

“I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.”

We then get a great prologue that give us the history of how the world came to be the way it is (I always prefer to know, rather than be strung along and doled out bits & pieces), and of why David hates Steelheart. Followed by:

“I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.

And I will see him bleed again.”

This is a trilogy, so the world's problems aren't resolved by the end. Plus, there are some fairly sharp twists that leave plot points dangling. But I found the end to be satisfying.

Note: Sanderson is very skillful at foreshadowing without making the twists too easy to guess. I love going back and finding all the places that was done.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS:
--I like how, despite it's comic book origins & plot to take down the villain, the book doesn't ignore the implications and possible consequences of their actions. David recognizes that what they are doing is the equivalent of terrorism (and that all terrorists feel justified). He is also forced to consider what will happen in the resulting power vacuum if they succeed.

--I also like how, when meeting his heroes, he is forced to recognize that they are regular people with strengths & weaknesses.

CAUTIONS(?): This book contains some intense scenes of violence, including the death of at least one child.

NARRATION:
The narrator is skilled and gives each character their own voice. Accents are well done. David's personality shines. / I listened on 1.25 speed (my usual).


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Steelheart The Reckoners Brandon Sanderson Books Reviews

How do you kill someone who can't be killed?

The 'Epics' came to being. Though endowed with superpowers, they were anything but heroes.

David Charleston lost his father at the hands of the mightiest of them all, Steelheart, as a boy. Watching and studying the Epics for the last ten years, he's figured out each has a weakness. He just needs the help of the Reckoners to enact his revenge.

The day Calamity appeared in the sky the world changed. Or rather, it seemed to have caused some people to change and not for the better.

As the saying goes "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

​Could any of us resist using newfound superhuman abilities for personal gain?

What I liked
Steelheart is a wonderful spin on human nature. Could any of us honestly say we wouldn't be tempted to use newfound superhuman abilities for personal gain? Wealth? Status? Vengeance? We grow through struggle. But how would we improve if we were suddenly endowed with god-like power? Would we even want to? Or is power too seductive?

What I didn't like
Nothing.
I'm a big fan of Sanderson's other work including Mistborn and the Stormlight Archive. After reading the subject matter of this book, and expecting big things, I dove in. What I found was an original, and entertaining, but somehow different experience. To this book's credit, I've never heard of a story quite like this one, and it was certainly entertaining. What surprised me though we're the author's choices of writing style and plot devices. This book is told in an autobiographical first person perspective, from a self effacing protagonist whose choice of words often left me cringing, but who was otherwise supernatural lucky. As strange as it may seem, the main character from Steelheart just didn't feel as real as Vin, or Kaladin, or other characters from Sanderson's writings who actually HAD powers of their own. When I purchased this book, I was so convinced I would love it, I also bought the second Reckoners book at the same time. I will read it and may return to revise my current review if the story progresses and continues to surprise me, but for now having read more current examples of Sanderson's excellent authorship and having unrealistically high expectations of this series worked against me enjoying it. For now, I unfortunately would not recommend this series to fans of Mistborn or Stormlight as it is so fundamentally different. I would however recommend it to any fan of super heroes, vengeance stories, or affable and quirky protagonists.
A YA Superhero (or rather, Supervillain) Dystopian Fantasy that maintains a skillful blend of character and action.

BOOK DETAILS
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, read by MacLeod Andrews, published by Audible Studios (2013) / Length 12 hrs 14 min

SERIES INFO
This is Book #1 in the "Reckoners Trilogy." All 3 books and a novella (#1.5) are available in audio.

SUMMARY
This book is a bit more action oriented than my usual read. (Yes, I am one of those people who actually skip or fast-forward the fighting, car chases etc. To me, those are the boring parts; I'd rather read about the characters.) Thankfully a lot of the action is very character based, which is good.

CHARACTERS
David An adorkable "nerd" (just don't call him that to his face). Totally obsessed, he spends all his free time plotting to take down Steelheart. One of his biggest strengths is his ability to think on his feet and act quickly (although this "improvising" drives Megan crazy). His complete hopelessness with metaphors is cute, but does occasionally get a bit tiresome after 3 books.

Megan The newest and youngest member of the Reckoner team that David runs into. Hypercompetent, smart, slightly older, very attractive, and blows hot & cold. She sort of reminds me of a typical YA hero.

David & Megan This is a case of love at first sight (on his part) that doesn't annoy me. He is immediately attracted to her physically (not surprising, since she is dressed to seduce at the time), but it her competence at kicking-butt that seals the crush.

"I respected her for that. Sparks, I was liking her more and more. And though she hadn’t been particularly affectionate toward me lately, she wasn’t openly hostile and cold any longer. That left me room to work some seductive magic. I wished I knew some."

This is one romance that I was really pulling for.

The Prof = cranky founder of the Reckoners, the only one as as obsessed as David
Tia = the brains, and the one who holds them all together when everything is falling apart
Abraham = the wise man of faith, who always seems to have the best gun (and he's not French, you slontze, he's Canadian).
Cody = the comic relief whose sense of humor just didn't click with me (I'm not fond of people who can't be serious)

WORLDBUILDING
The post-apocalyptic Chicago cityscape is introduced well as David races through it at the beginning. It is a city where the sun hasn't shone for nearly 10 years and where most people live in a steel catacomb dug out below the transformed city. It is a place where anyone can be killed at any time for no reason. And yet, it is an oasis of civilization in the "Fractured States," since it has power and some sort of order.

The Epics (Supers) each have 1 or more abilities of various strengths. And each has a single weakness that negates their ability, and may be quite bizarre.

PLOT
I LOVE the first line.

“I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.”

We then get a great prologue that give us the history of how the world came to be the way it is (I always prefer to know, rather than be strung along and doled out bits & pieces), and of why David hates Steelheart. Followed by

“I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.

And I will see him bleed again.”

This is a trilogy, so the world's problems aren't resolved by the end. Plus, there are some fairly sharp twists that leave plot points dangling. But I found the end to be satisfying.

Note Sanderson is very skillful at foreshadowing without making the twists too easy to guess. I love going back and finding all the places that was done.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS
--I like how, despite it's comic book origins & plot to take down the villain, the book doesn't ignore the implications and possible consequences of their actions. David recognizes that what they are doing is the equivalent of terrorism (and that all terrorists feel justified). He is also forced to consider what will happen in the resulting power vacuum if they succeed.

--I also like how, when meeting his heroes, he is forced to recognize that they are regular people with strengths & weaknesses.

CAUTIONS(?) This book contains some intense scenes of violence, including the death of at least one child.

NARRATION
The narrator is skilled and gives each character their own voice. Accents are well done. David's personality shines. / I listened on 1.25 speed (my usual).