Steelheart (Reckoners, #1)

by Brandon Sanderson

[inlibrisveritas]

Steelheart was a buddy read with my boyfriend and I couldn’t be happier with our choice. It takes a topic that we both love and turned it on it’s head. Imagine a world where super powers have become a reality but the only catch is that there are no superheros only villains. Steelheart offers a unique brand of dystopian where action is always around the corner and emotions run high.

This is my third Sanderson novel and I am convinced he’s one of the best writers out there right now. I’m use to his fantasy novels which are absolutely loaded with detail, so when I dove into this one I was surprised to see it wasn’t the same way. Even though the details are not as plentiful the world building is still fantastic. We find ourselves in Newcago, which was once Chicage but has fallen under the harsh rule of Steelheart, an epic who seems invisible. Those without money or powers have found themselves pushed to the understreets, where they must struggle to survive. I wasn’t really sure what the think of the broken world the story is set in at first. I’m one of those people who love superheroes, because there is something amazing about seeing someone with absolute power and they use it help mankind. The Epics in Steelheart are not like that at all, and I think my heart broke a bit…but Sanderson knows what he’s doing and even though the world has turned into a place with very little hope it makes for an absolutely addicting story.

Our main character is David. A young man who has seen the true ruthlessness of Epics first hand and he’s utterly determined to free everyone from their rule. I loved his outright determination, but this kid is beyond nerve-wracking. I believe the way I described him to my boyfriend was “he’s a genius in an ‘Oh my god, you’re going to die’ way”. He’s very intelligent when it comes to strategy, but when it comes to the more common sense portions well he’s on the low scoring side. Despite the amount of anxiety he caused I love him. He’s pretty fierce and he’s terrible at metaphors, which makes me love him even more. Then there are the Recokoners, a resistance group. I love most of the guys and girls in the Reckoners, though some took a while to warm up to. Cody was by far my favorite though, he’s a complete loon but I think the whole situation would have been too dire without Cody and David to lighten things up.

One of the best things about this book is the fact that you never know what to truly expect and it leaves you guessing. Sure, you might guess correctly but it’s so much fun getting to the point where you find out for sure that it’s completely worth reading. This is definitely going to be in my top reads for 2014