Steelheart

I LOVED this book!

First off: the concept is totally amazing. I loved the idea that there are no superheroes, only super villains and that the powers are so varied. The weakness thing goes along with that (there are so many different weaknesses and some are extremely difficult to figure out).

The writing itself is top notch, but I knocked off a star because David's constant use of terrible puns annoyed the hell out of me as did the over use of "Sparks!" (the equivalent of someone saying "damn!" during a tense situation).

The characters were fabulous and wonderfully varied as well. They all come from different places and different situations, but they all have some experiences and desires in common. Cody is my favorite. He is absolutely show more hilarious and I wish the book was written from his perspective at some points at least. He made me laugh nearly every time we saw him. The other characters were quite enjoyable as well, but Megan annoyed me a bit what with her tough-girl attitude and annoyance towards David.

The Epics were actually an interesting bunch themselves, though we didn't see much of them.

The ending few chapters really got my heart going. So many feels! I actually grew extremely attached to them and began to fear for their lives as things really began heating up with them. I actually teared up a bit at one point. The last couple of chapters specifically though threw me for a loop. THAT is the kind of twist that I like to see in books. They kind of teased it leading up to the big reveal, but it didn't feel contrived at all. show less

The main idea behind "Steelheart" is compelling and original. Steelheart is the most powerful Epic in what used to be the United States. Epics have super powers that corrupt them, robbing them of empathy and compassion, making them cruel, aggressive,and self-centred. Steelheart is who Superman might have been if he'd enjoyed killing people, wanted to dominate the world and could turn all of Chicago into steel. The Reckoners are a small group trying to discover the specific weakness that each Epic has and use it to kill him or her.

If there had been no more to the book than that, I'd have been pounding through it, enjoying the ride.

But there is more, much more."Steelheart" is a fast-paced, action-packed, young adult novel, crammed with show more cool weapons, wise-cracking heroes, motorbikes with gravitonics, and lots and lots of explosions. Those things would be enough to make it a great video game concept. What makes it a great story is the thoughtful approach Brandon Sanderson takes to the motivation of his characters, the world they live in, the conflicts they face, and the difficulty of deciding whether an action is right or wrong.

I've been a comic book fan since I first learnt to read (long before the term "Graphic Novel" had been coined.) I always preferred Stan Lee's characters because, powerful as they were, they were always haunted, vulnerable and fallible. I loved that he wrote lines in comic books that could have been Shakespeare. How do you beat "With great power comes great responsiblity."

Brandon Sanderson steps into Stan Lees shoes and makes them his own. He makes you care when people die. His characters are more likely to be driven by a hunger for revenge or a need for atonement or a refusal to bow their heads then they are by an ideological attachment to "truth, justice and the American way". In Sanderson's future world the invulnerable man with the super powers is not "The Man of Steel" saving the world, but a tyrant with a steel heart. His "heroes" are assassins, one step away from being terrorists, with no life other than the violent struggle to kill Epics.

Yet the best thing about Brandon Sanderson is that, as well as having great ideas, he can write. The Prologue to "Steelheart" is all you need to read to know that. At the end of the Prologues eighteen year old Dave Charleston, remembering the day his father was killed, ten years earlier, says:

"I've seen Steelheart bleed. And I will see him bleed again."

This sent a Stan Lee shiver of anticipation down my spine that the rest of the book lived up to.

Let me paraphrase that:

"I've seen Brandon Sanderson write. And I will see him write again." show less

Steelheart was a very engaging tour through a post-apocalyptic Chicago. The basic premise is that an object appeared in space, Calamity, and soon after, some humans (epics) started manifesting special powers. Unfortunately, they aren't nice, like Superman. The title character, Steelheart, rules like a god-emperor with a few other epics as allies. Society fractures and people do what they must to survive.

In addition to being an interesting and well utilized realm, this book had just the right balance between thoughtfulness (what do you do if Superman isn't coming to save humanity?) and action. While it grapples with serious things and there is a fair amount of death, I think it would be reasonable for YA readers who enjoyed The Hunger show more Games. show less

Despite this being a "superheroes" book, there are no superheroes. Because that implies the super-powered are heroic. In the Steelheart world, power corrupts, and super power corrupts absolutely.

In a world where the superpowered do and take what they want, rule through fear, and crush all opposition, the non-powered are second class citizens. David remembers the world before, and he wants to join the resistance. Steelheart, the seemingly invincible Epic that rules the city, killed David's father on the day he first took power, and David wants revenge.

I could not put this down. The story grabbed me and would not let me go. I became personally invested in this world Sanderson created and the characters that inhabit it. As always, his show more worldbuilding is top notch. The idea of Epics is fascinating and I really want to see more in this universe. show less

It's rare for a book to do such a good job of establishing a mythology of a world, self-consistent in the way it works and feeling real and concrete, while at the same time giving us real, relatable characters to play in that world. Rare, that is, for an author other than Brandon Sanderson. He does it with seeming ease.

Lots of fun, satisfying in many different ways, and full of mysteries... some of which get solved, and some which must wait for the sequel. A sequel that I'll be picking up just as soon as it's available.

My only disappointment was that, in true superhero fashion, the most emotionally wrenching scene was, in a sense, rolled back and undone. Not that it returned to the status quo, but the impact was definitely lessened. show more There was not enough book left after that particular revelation to fully understand if that event will have a cost or not.

Highly recommended, both for the tropes it subverts and the masterful way the story was told. show less

Ten years ago an event known as Calamity hit the earth. In its wake some humans changed, developing superhero-like powers. These people are called Epics. Along with their powers is the need for Epics to rule humanity, destroying cities, killing wantonly. David Charleston will do anything to have a chance to take down Steelheart, the Epic who killed his father. There is only one group of people fighting back against the Epics - the Reckoners. David must find this group and persuade them to go after Steelheart if he is to exact his revenge.

Steelheart is the first book in The Reckoners trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Set in a near future dystopia of the United states, Sanderson takes the old saying "if all power corrupts, then absolute power show more corrupts absolutely" to create a twist on a typical super hero tale. Instead of the heroes using their powers to benefit humanity, they use them to power grab for themselves with little thought to those they crush under their heel basically making anyone with powers into villains. However, each Epic also has his or her fatal flaw, their own personal kryptonite, a weakness specific to that Epic only that could be exploited to take down the Epic in question. All of the weaknesses are fairly random, almost as random as the powers themselves are.

The story is told entirely from the first person point of view by David Charleston. David is an 18-year-old who is bent on exacting revenge on the Epic who killed his father and ruined his life. To that end he has become a specialist on all things Epics, obsessively tracking down any and all information on any Epic he can find out about. He's a likeable kid who is terrible at making up analogies, though they are often comical. He is joined by a supporting cast with the Reckoners, each filling in a vital role in the group from mastermind to tactical support to muscle.

Sanderson's attention to detail and creativity with both the super powers and weaknesses are astonishing as always. The action scenes are great and feel like something out of a Marvel movie. By the end I was definitely hooked and can't wait to see what happens next. show less

A really fun read. Some of the action sequences were a little protracted, which I'm guessing will be a lot better in the movie version. Really solid world-building, which was worked in throughout. There were a few times where the blend of science and magic (for lack of a better word) really went right up to the edge of believability. It's damn tricky to mix scientific basis with "just accept it because I say so." But it worked fairly well. It's a superhero novel, after all, you gotta know in advance that some belief suspension will be required.

One character repeatedly used y'all as a singular pronoun. I know this is a picky detail, but it came off as an attempt to sound southern without correct use of the vernacular. Y'all is always show more plural. Always. That's the point.

David's awkward metaphors were a little clunky, too. I don't think most people imagine out metaphors in their internal dialog, so this felt like the author added it in just to have some fun with language. Which is cool, I guess, but it took me out of the book a few times when it made me notice the writing.

The great thing is, for those to be the worst things I can complain about is a good sign. I'm already looking forward to the next book, and I'm really hoping hard that it'll be from Megan's perspective. show less