Science Fiction
What Goodreads says:
"Ten
years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and
women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.
But
Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And
to rule man you must crush his wills.
Nobody
fights the Epics... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary
humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and
then assassinating them.
And
David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The
Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been
studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an
experience.
He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he
wants revenge."
Let me start by saying that I love
Steelheart. I received an ARC from
Amazon Vine so got to read it before it came out. That is the good news – the bad news is that I have to wait
until the Fall of 2014 for Firefight, book two to come out. So on to why I loved the book.
World Building: It was spot on. Steelheart is told in the first person
and by page 13 the world had been explained in action and dialog, all from the
view of an 8 year old. As new elements were needed they arrived in the same way, through action and dialog.
Characters: You meet David first in the prolog as
an eight year old. The next time
you see him he is 18 and you get to watch him grow and change. Next you meet the Reckoners (Tia, Prof, Cody, Megan, and Abraham) and get to
know them as individuals. You see
much of their character as you watch them planning and then acting on their
plans. Then there are the
Epics. They are the focus of the
story and each has an individual talent and a weakness. You learn a lot about the Epics from
the dialog between the Reckoners.
By the end of Steelheart you know and like David and the rest of the
Reckoners team. There are some
surprises as some of the characters are not what they seem. I saw some foreshadowing that gave a
hint of things to come.
Plot: This story focuses on taking out one of the more powerful
Epics, Steelheart. That drives the
story and the actions of the characters.
It sounds like a very simple plot but as the story develops so do the
characters and while the focus stays the same the reason for the action and the
reactions of the characters keeps the plot from being one-dimensional.
Tension: There is internal tension within the team. The fact that David is young and a new
member sets up some of that. There
is the external tension as the team takes on Epics with super powers. And then there is the tension when the
plan and action do not work as planned.
All in all this is a tension filled book.
Writing: I think all I need to say here is that Steelheart is written
by Brandon Sanderson. He is a
master of the craft and Steelheart is a very good example of the mastery.
Pick up Steelheart for a book that
is exciting, suspenseful and surprising.
There is a satisfying conclusion to the story in Steelheart but as I mentioned at the
beginning this is the start of a series.
There are loose ends and the end of Steelheart is just the beginning of
new problems. Book Two, Firefight,
comes out in the Fall of 2014.
Delacorte Press published
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson in 2013.
• Describe one of your reading habits. • 
