Steelheart (Reckoners, #1)

by Brandon Sanderson

[Rinn]

Also reviewed on my blog, Rinn Reads.

You know those sorts of books that you go into, expecting to really enjoy – you know you love the author’s work, the premise sounds amazing – but then they pretty much blow everything out of the water and are somehow even better than expected, defying expectations?

Yep, that was Steelheart.

I haven’t been a Sanderson fan for as long as some – my first read of his was [b:Elantris|68427|Elantris (Elantris, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388194739s/68427.jpg|2908871], at the end of 2013, followed by [b:The Final Empire|68428|The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)|Brandon Sanderson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421302300s/68428.jpg|66322] at the beginning of 2014. From then on I knew this was an author whom I had to read as much of as possible. I love superheroes and superhero stories, so when I heard about Steelheart I knew it was the book for me.

You can’t go into this book expecting Sanderson’s usual style of writing. This is a Young Adult book, and the tone is so different. I really hope that doesn’t put many of his readers off, with the stigma that YA fiction sometimes has, because they will really be missing out. As with the Mistborn series, the action scenes are fantastic, and I had such a vivid image of every part of the book in my head.

I loved the variety of characters. David, with his awful metaphors, was hilarious. But he was also determined and dedicated, having spent the past ten years researching Epics so he could get revenge for the murder of his father. The Prof was a bit of an enigma, and I look forward to finding out more about him. Cody was an odd one, with his Tennessee-accented Scottish slang, occasionally mixed with Irish, and I really felt myself warming to this silly man very quickly. Tia was this awesome, super-smart one-woman force who I totally wanted to be. I’m interested in seeing more of Abraham, because he may seem gentle and quiet albeit armed with a rocket launcher, but I reckon with the right situation he could turn into a total badass and go completely crazy. And Megan… well, she is one dark horse.

I had my suspicions about how events might unfold, what secrets were being kept, and despite the fact that I managed to guess a small part of the end, I was still surprised in so many ways. The last 10-15% of the book was just phenomenal, with a huge face-to-face showdown and so many different twists and turns. I was pretty much sat there with this look on my face the entire time:



The other day, I received a copy of [b:Firefight|15704459|Firefight (Reckoners, #2)|Brandon Sanderson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413220816s/15704459.jpg|21979689] in the post from Gollancz, and I am SO HAPPY BECAUSE I COULD NOT WAIT MUCH LONGER TO READ IT AFTER THAT CONCLUSION. Fangirl mode very much activated.