There are no heroes, only villains. My father believed that a hero was going to step in, and he died for that belief. Steelheart killed him for seeing that he had a weakness, and no one knows I saw. Now I've spent years getting their weaknesses, and plotting my revenge.
So this is my second Sanderson series (Mistborn was first). He weaves and dances around and really make the reader engaged. This one is, not watered down, but less. Its also YA so it should be! It is an easy read, not complicated twists, but they are still there. Yet again another novel take on a genre as well! My review of 5 stars is for what it is, a great YA book and not a comparison to his other "adult" works. Great YA book and a great way to "test the waters" of Sanderson.
Sometimes doing things we used to reminds us of who we used to be, and not always in good ways.
Sanderson is a prolific writer and as I waited until the next Mistborn and Stormlight Archive book I thought I would give some of his other works a try, which lead me to The Reckoners. The Reckoners is a Hero vs. Villain affair, but with classic Sanderson touches and twists. I am always pleased with how Sanderson handles his characters and there were a few surprises in this one.
Steelheart is more Young Adult than I am used to. Passing over the heavy elements of loss, moodiness, abandonment and looking for a Father Figure replacement I found myself really enjoying the story. Sanderson can write amazing fantasy and it's refreshing to read him outside of that genre. However, it was nice to note some Cosmere elements leaking through, and probably …
Sometimes doing things we used to reminds us of who we used to be, and not always in good ways.
Sanderson is a prolific writer and as I waited until the next Mistborn and Stormlight Archive book I thought I would give some of his other works a try, which lead me to The Reckoners. The Reckoners is a Hero vs. Villain affair, but with classic Sanderson touches and twists. I am always pleased with how Sanderson handles his characters and there were a few surprises in this one.
Steelheart is more Young Adult than I am used to. Passing over the heavy elements of loss, moodiness, abandonment and looking for a Father Figure replacement I found myself really enjoying the story. Sanderson can write amazing fantasy and it's refreshing to read him outside of that genre. However, it was nice to note some Cosmere elements leaking through, and probably missed several others. The Soulcasting property from Stormlight Archive's shared similarities to Tensors or the jackets that give the Reckoners shield strength reminded me a lot of Shardplates.
This was an easy read but I didn't find it entirely predictable. I'll give Reckoners #2 a try, and thankfully the third book is releasing in February so I won't have long to wait to catch up.
While it's never actually stated, it's easy to assume that the world Sanderson's created here deviates from ours only at the point of Calamity's arrival. It's also reasonable to think that Calamity showed up either very late in the 20th century, or early in the 21st. The reason I care about this? Because I can't wrap my mind around the words "Calamity!", "Sparks!", and "slontze" having replaced ALL OTHER exclamatory expletives in just 10-15 years.
The story was interesting in the way that frayed jeans are interesting: comfortable, and the frayed edges don't impede either the function or the enjoyment... unless you keep messing with the frayed bits, worrying at them and drawing attention to them. Then they become much harder to tolerate. Sanderson's huge problem here wasn't that there was no logic or consistency in his "powers break physics" and "every Epic has one odd weakness" rules, it was …
While it's never actually stated, it's easy to assume that the world Sanderson's created here deviates from ours only at the point of Calamity's arrival. It's also reasonable to think that Calamity showed up either very late in the 20th century, or early in the 21st. The reason I care about this? Because I can't wrap my mind around the words "Calamity!", "Sparks!", and "slontze" having replaced ALL OTHER exclamatory expletives in just 10-15 years.
The story was interesting in the way that frayed jeans are interesting: comfortable, and the frayed edges don't impede either the function or the enjoyment... unless you keep messing with the frayed bits, worrying at them and drawing attention to them. Then they become much harder to tolerate. Sanderson's huge problem here wasn't that there was no logic or consistency in his "powers break physics" and "every Epic has one odd weakness" rules, it was that his characters kept pointing it out, practically rubbing the issues in the readers' eyes.
Brandon Sanderson is just awesome. Amazed by the quality of the book he is releasing at this pace. This is awesome, just as awesome as his other books are. Became a big fan of Sanderson. Firefight... Here I am coming...
I am having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this book. Objectively I think I would have to give it 5 stars. But subjectively I feel it's more of a 4. So ....
On the one hand this is a very well crafted story with all the necessary elements for a great book. The setting is captivating: people in the near future get super-powers and they all turn evil and enslave mankind, they are called Epics. The dramatic tension rises continuously. We have a group of human heroes trying to turn the tide. There is sacrifice and heroism, ingenuity and bravery. There is also some comic relief in the form of Cody, and a mysteriously behaving love-interest in the form of Megan. There's Prof the father figure and some mysterious artifacts her created to help the heroes. Our hero David is a nerd whose only interests are the Epics …
I am having a hard time formulating my thoughts on this book. Objectively I think I would have to give it 5 stars. But subjectively I feel it's more of a 4. So ....
On the one hand this is a very well crafted story with all the necessary elements for a great book. The setting is captivating: people in the near future get super-powers and they all turn evil and enslave mankind, they are called Epics. The dramatic tension rises continuously. We have a group of human heroes trying to turn the tide. There is sacrifice and heroism, ingenuity and bravery. There is also some comic relief in the form of Cody, and a mysteriously behaving love-interest in the form of Megan. There's Prof the father figure and some mysterious artifacts her created to help the heroes. Our hero David is a nerd whose only interests are the Epics and their abilities and weaknesses and weapons.
But why is this story only good and not great? I am not quite sure. It seems to be missing a certain something. Maybe it's that the author is trying too hard to craft the perfect story (strong start, rising action, great reveals leading up to and during the finale). Don't get me wrong I love Sanderson's other books (Mistborn, Way of Kings). This one feels like he took all the examples he's been giving in Writing Excuses and tried to cram them into the book. Worst of these though incredibly funny is the protagonist's penchant for terrible metaphors. They are great but they are just a tad too much. Because people don't think about metaphors they use, except if they are writers.
I enjoyed the ending. There are a number of surprising twists and turns. Some of which I expected, some of which really surprised me. But all of them were properly prepared with hints in earlier chapters. Although I feel there could have been more concrete hints ...
I think my trouble with this book is that I didn't really warm to David, the protagonist. And for some reason I found myself skipping across pages, maybe the plot was just a tad to tense.
It's a solid 4 stars, if you love dystopian super-hero young-adult go read it :)
The concept sounded great. All the super heroes are evil and regular people have to fight them. A desperate fight against the odds. Out gunned rebels fighting on despite the heavy losses.
Instead we get rebels that are allowed to walk the streets with machine guns that require gravity assist to carry. Have completely impregnable comms and some gadgets that effectively give them some super powers of their own.
I'm not a comics reader, super heroes always seemed shallow to me. I expected something different and got the same old cardboard figures on both the Epic and Human sides.
I am a big fan of Sanderson's work and I can say I am very pleased with this new book. While some of his books are sprawling epics that takes weeks to read, this is a small well-contained book that reads in a flash. It almost feels too short! As I understand, there will be a few more books in the series to flesh it out, but the story is perfectly fine on its own. The characters are interesting and unique, you feel like you would have a great time hanging out with them. The setting, like all of Sanderson's books, is clever and imaginative. I look forward to reading more books set in this universe.
