Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Mar. 23rd, 2015 05:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
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 will.
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.
Ten years ago, a bright light appeared in the sky. People called it the Calamity and although no one knows what caused it, it did coincide with humans suddenly developing superhuman powers. But these humans – nicknamed Epics - did not use their power for good. Instead they used them to abuse and rule and conquer.
Ten years ago, David saw one of the most powerful of the Epics – Steelheart – murder his father. Since then his only concern has been to get revenge. He’s been studying all of the Epics, learning their strengths and their weaknesses and he knows that Steelheart is not as indestructible as he seems because he’s seen him bleed …
Brandon Sanderson’s superhero fantasy - the first in a series – is an action-packed affair premised on the idea of great power becoming a great corrupter. Although aimed at a ‘grown up’ audience, the fact that David is 18, coupled with the coming-of-age themes and simple plot means that it would equally play well with YA readers. There’s a lot of world building in the book, which I really enjoyed – especially as Sanderson spends time establishing how the Fractured States came into being and the different powers and vulnerabilities that each Epic has. However the plot itself is slim – little more than an account of taking on – and taking out – various Epics and the Epics themselves are two-dimensional generic evildoers (although there is an opening for them to become more nuanced in later books). I also found David’s quirk of constructing tortured metaphors a little annoying after a while, while the obligatory romance with fellow Reckoner Megan for the most part played out fairly predictably. Saying that, the supporting characters have a lot of potential, specifically the Prof who formed the Reckoners and has secrets of his own and Cody a Scots/Tennessee guy with a penchant for big guns and tall stories and I also liked Abraham, a Canadian who believes that one day there will be Epics motivated to do good. Ultimately, there’s a lot of set-up to the book but Sanderson does it at a good enough pace for this to be an enjoyable enough read and with the set-up out of the way, there’s scope for the remaining books to go deeper and be more interesting. On that basis, I’ll be interested in checking them out.
The Verdict:
Brandon Sanderson’s superhero fantasy - the first in a series – is an action-packed affair premised on the idea of great power becoming a great corrupter. Although aimed at a ‘grown up’ audience, the fact that David is 18, coupled with the coming-of-age themes and simple plot means that it would equally play well with YA readers. There’s a lot of world building in the book, which I really enjoyed – especially as Sanderson spends time establishing how the Fractured States came into being and the different powers and vulnerabilities that each Epic has. However the plot itself is slim – little more than an account of taking on – and taking out – various Epics and the Epics themselves are two-dimensional generic evildoers (although there is an opening for them to become more nuanced in later books). I also found David’s quirk of constructing tortured metaphors a little annoying after a while, while the obligatory romance with fellow Reckoner Megan for the most part played out fairly predictably. Saying that, the supporting characters have a lot of potential, specifically the Prof who formed the Reckoners and has secrets of his own and Cody a Scots/Tennessee guy with a penchant for big guns and tall stories and I also liked Abraham, a Canadian who believes that one day there will be Epics motivated to do good. Ultimately, there’s a lot of set-up to the book but Sanderson does it at a good enough pace for this to be an enjoyable enough read and with the set-up out of the way, there’s scope for the remaining books to go deeper and be more interesting. On that basis, I’ll be interested in checking them out.
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 will.
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.
Ten years ago, a bright light appeared in the sky. People called it the Calamity and although no one knows what caused it, it did coincide with humans suddenly developing superhuman powers. But these humans – nicknamed Epics - did not use their power for good. Instead they used them to abuse and rule and conquer.
Ten years ago, David saw one of the most powerful of the Epics – Steelheart – murder his father. Since then his only concern has been to get revenge. He’s been studying all of the Epics, learning their strengths and their weaknesses and he knows that Steelheart is not as indestructible as he seems because he’s seen him bleed …
Brandon Sanderson’s superhero fantasy - the first in a series – is an action-packed affair premised on the idea of great power becoming a great corrupter. Although aimed at a ‘grown up’ audience, the fact that David is 18, coupled with the coming-of-age themes and simple plot means that it would equally play well with YA readers. There’s a lot of world building in the book, which I really enjoyed – especially as Sanderson spends time establishing how the Fractured States came into being and the different powers and vulnerabilities that each Epic has. However the plot itself is slim – little more than an account of taking on – and taking out – various Epics and the Epics themselves are two-dimensional generic evildoers (although there is an opening for them to become more nuanced in later books). I also found David’s quirk of constructing tortured metaphors a little annoying after a while, while the obligatory romance with fellow Reckoner Megan for the most part played out fairly predictably. Saying that, the supporting characters have a lot of potential, specifically the Prof who formed the Reckoners and has secrets of his own and Cody a Scots/Tennessee guy with a penchant for big guns and tall stories and I also liked Abraham, a Canadian who believes that one day there will be Epics motivated to do good. Ultimately, there’s a lot of set-up to the book but Sanderson does it at a good enough pace for this to be an enjoyable enough read and with the set-up out of the way, there’s scope for the remaining books to go deeper and be more interesting. On that basis, I’ll be interested in checking them out.
The Verdict:
Brandon Sanderson’s superhero fantasy - the first in a series – is an action-packed affair premised on the idea of great power becoming a great corrupter. Although aimed at a ‘grown up’ audience, the fact that David is 18, coupled with the coming-of-age themes and simple plot means that it would equally play well with YA readers. There’s a lot of world building in the book, which I really enjoyed – especially as Sanderson spends time establishing how the Fractured States came into being and the different powers and vulnerabilities that each Epic has. However the plot itself is slim – little more than an account of taking on – and taking out – various Epics and the Epics themselves are two-dimensional generic evildoers (although there is an opening for them to become more nuanced in later books). I also found David’s quirk of constructing tortured metaphors a little annoying after a while, while the obligatory romance with fellow Reckoner Megan for the most part played out fairly predictably. Saying that, the supporting characters have a lot of potential, specifically the Prof who formed the Reckoners and has secrets of his own and Cody a Scots/Tennessee guy with a penchant for big guns and tall stories and I also liked Abraham, a Canadian who believes that one day there will be Epics motivated to do good. Ultimately, there’s a lot of set-up to the book but Sanderson does it at a good enough pace for this to be an enjoyable enough read and with the set-up out of the way, there’s scope for the remaining books to go deeper and be more interesting. On that basis, I’ll be interested in checking them out.
