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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
I've read quite a lot of Sanderson's work recently. And when you do that, you start noticing patterns in authors' story structures. Sanderson does love his band of heroes.
This is in no way a bad thing. Steelheart is still an incredibly innovative book. The Reckoners series is why I fell in love with Sanderson's stories in the first place.
Just, as a general rule: try not to read too many books by a favourite author too close together.
I knocked a star off my rating because, unfortunately, Sanderson fell prey to the "if the heel is snapped off a stiletto, it means the shoe is a flat, right?" trope that is in no way true. I only know of one pair of heels that does that and I last saw it on Kickstarter.
This is in no way a bad thing. Steelheart is still an incredibly innovative book. The Reckoners series is why I fell in love with Sanderson's stories in the first place.
Just, as a general rule: try not to read too many books by a favourite author too close together.
I knocked a star off my rating because, unfortunately, Sanderson fell prey to the "if the heel is snapped off a stiletto, it means the shoe is a flat, right?" trope that is in no way true. I only know of one pair of heels that does that and I last saw it on Kickstarter.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It’s easy to liken this book to the Boys - a ragtag group of misfits trying to take down superpowered people against insurmountable odds. And in that way, it definitely has some similarities. However, one thing that Steelheart does well is taking that premise and injecting it with fun and a certain about of hopefulness.
This book is definitely a young adult novel - I’m very familiar with Brandon Sanderson’s work and I was surprised by how different this book felt. I definitely had a slightly more simple writing style which was helped by the fact that it was written in the first person viewpoint of a teenager. That said, I still enjoyed the book - a weaker plot may have made it worse, but thankfully the story was quite tight and well written. Brandon Sanderson loves his twists and secrets and this one was no different.
I enjoyed reading Steelheart and will be looking to follow up the story with its sequel. It may not be up there with my favourite of Brandon Sanderson’s works, but that’s still setting a very high bar for me
This book is definitely a young adult novel - I’m very familiar with Brandon Sanderson’s work and I was surprised by how different this book felt. I definitely had a slightly more simple writing style which was helped by the fact that it was written in the first person viewpoint of a teenager. That said, I still enjoyed the book - a weaker plot may have made it worse, but thankfully the story was quite tight and well written. Brandon Sanderson loves his twists and secrets and this one was no different.
I enjoyed reading Steelheart and will be looking to follow up the story with its sequel. It may not be up there with my favourite of Brandon Sanderson’s works, but that’s still setting a very high bar for me
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence
Minor: Child death, Suicide
YA book I read for school purposes. Interesting concept--people turn into Epics, people with super-powers, and become corrupted by their new-found power.
The book centers on a young man who lost his father to an Epic. This boy has focused his entire life on revenge--Inigo Montoya, of The Princess Bride-type revenge. It is hard to believe that the main character is a boy of 18. When reading, his thoughts and actions seem closer to a 14 year old.
This book focuses on David (the young man) joining a group that has the main purpose of destroying all Epics.
The story is fairly thin but provides enough action and movement to carry the reader to the end.
Since this is a series, I'm tempted to see what happens in the next book but I'm not sure I can stomach it. It is definitely a YA book (4th to 6th grade; middle school level) so I might need a little while to prepare myself for the next one.
The book centers on a young man who lost his father to an Epic. This boy has focused his entire life on revenge--Inigo Montoya, of The Princess Bride-type revenge. It is hard to believe that the main character is a boy of 18. When reading, his thoughts and actions seem closer to a 14 year old.
This book focuses on David (the young man) joining a group that has the main purpose of destroying all Epics.
The story is fairly thin but provides enough action and movement to carry the reader to the end.
Since this is a series, I'm tempted to see what happens in the next book but I'm not sure I can stomach it. It is definitely a YA book (4th to 6th grade; middle school level) so I might need a little while to prepare myself for the next one.
People love Brandon Sanderson. I don't know if I'm just not picking the right books of his, but this is the second Sanderson book that I've read and I just don't get the hype.
In this novel, a few ordinary people were given extraordinary powers and are now known as Epics. Unlike regular 'superhero' plots, these people are not using their powers to help the people - they're using them for their own gain. Enter The Reckoners: A group of regular humans, working underground to assassinate the Epics. The main character in this story, David, is motivated to kill the Epic who murdered his father.
I thought it was all just fine. The story went on a little too long for my liking. I didn't warm to any of the main characters, but I did really like Abraham. I thought the surprise at the end was a little silly and also felt rushed but whatever; I was mostly just trying to finish the book at that point so I was glad they raced through it. It wasn't a bad book though. It picked up a lot about half way through and I was quite into it whenever there was a fight scene. I'm just not interested enough to find out more about the characters in the sequel.
I've heard Mistborn by Sanderson is amazing, so I'll likely give that one a try at some point, but I won't be continuing this series.
In this novel, a few ordinary people were given extraordinary powers and are now known as Epics. Unlike regular 'superhero' plots, these people are not using their powers to help the people - they're using them for their own gain. Enter The Reckoners: A group of regular humans, working underground to assassinate the Epics. The main character in this story, David, is motivated to kill the Epic who murdered his father.
I thought it was all just fine. The story went on a little too long for my liking. I didn't warm to any of the main characters, but I did really like Abraham. I thought the surprise at the end was a little silly and also felt rushed but whatever; I was mostly just trying to finish the book at that point so I was glad they raced through it. It wasn't a bad book though. It picked up a lot about half way through and I was quite into it whenever there was a fight scene. I'm just not interested enough to find out more about the characters in the sequel.
I've heard Mistborn by Sanderson is amazing, so I'll likely give that one a try at some point, but I won't be continuing this series.
Steelheart: 10/10
By: Brandon Sanderson
Steelheart is everything a young adult urban fantasy should be. The term ‘pageturner’ is used far and wide but Steelheart adheres to the label so closely that you could finish it in a single day and not realize the time passed.
Steelheart is awesome. This book feels as if it were Brandon Sanderson deciding that instead of having a singular unique magic system, to take absolutely every single magic system he’s ever thought of and cram it into one novel in an easily understood and believable way. Steelheart follows the protagonist David in a world where a strange star appeared in the sky and gave thousands of seemingly random humans superpowers that corrupted their character and gave them a lust for control over others. These super humans, called epics, murder innocents at random, control cities, and have fractured all known governments and sent the world spiraling into a dystopia. David’s father was killed in front of him by Steelheart on the same day Steelheart took over Chicago by converting the entirety of it into steel and blackening the sky by the use of another allied epic. David ruthlessly studies the epics and knows that each one has at least one weakness, he absorbs every miniscule iota of information he can find in the hopes of one day joining the reckoners, the only group of humans left still fighting epics after ten years of living under their control.
This book is wow. This book is awesome. It is easier to talk about what this book did wrong only because it did so many other things right, but I’ll try and hit the big ones. First, it is BEAUTIFUL world building, everything affects everything else, true to Sanderson’s third law. Newcago and all of its functions are portrayed in miniscule detail, how would living under a blanket of darkness change the life of the civilians? What would happen if everything in Chicago was turned into steel? How would the food supplies be affected? Not only does the world building answer every question one might have, it does so unobtrusively and through the course of the story without three paragraphs of exposition dropped onto the reader. And secondly, all of the characters are at the very least believable and understandable. No one makes stupid decisions except the main character (which is a failure more of the YA genre than the Steelheart novel). Thirdly, the superpowers are all SO COOL! They make sense and create odd and unique scenarios. It really is awesome and I have difficulty explaining why. The plot is a basic revenge story but told so so much more fulfilling than near any action movie.
What’s wrong about this book? Well, very few things. The protagonist is very bland and forgettable, which is arguably so that you can insert yourself into the main characters. He also falls in love as quickly as a teenage male would, which is annoying but at least makes sense. Some of the twists are easy to guess but they still make sense within the context of the novel.
Steelheart is an absolutely fantastic YA novel and an incredibly good read for anyone outside of that demographic as well.
By: Brandon Sanderson
Steelheart is everything a young adult urban fantasy should be. The term ‘pageturner’ is used far and wide but Steelheart adheres to the label so closely that you could finish it in a single day and not realize the time passed.
Steelheart is awesome. This book feels as if it were Brandon Sanderson deciding that instead of having a singular unique magic system, to take absolutely every single magic system he’s ever thought of and cram it into one novel in an easily understood and believable way. Steelheart follows the protagonist David in a world where a strange star appeared in the sky and gave thousands of seemingly random humans superpowers that corrupted their character and gave them a lust for control over others. These super humans, called epics, murder innocents at random, control cities, and have fractured all known governments and sent the world spiraling into a dystopia. David’s father was killed in front of him by Steelheart on the same day Steelheart took over Chicago by converting the entirety of it into steel and blackening the sky by the use of another allied epic. David ruthlessly studies the epics and knows that each one has at least one weakness, he absorbs every miniscule iota of information he can find in the hopes of one day joining the reckoners, the only group of humans left still fighting epics after ten years of living under their control.
This book is wow. This book is awesome. It is easier to talk about what this book did wrong only because it did so many other things right, but I’ll try and hit the big ones. First, it is BEAUTIFUL world building, everything affects everything else, true to Sanderson’s third law. Newcago and all of its functions are portrayed in miniscule detail, how would living under a blanket of darkness change the life of the civilians? What would happen if everything in Chicago was turned into steel? How would the food supplies be affected? Not only does the world building answer every question one might have, it does so unobtrusively and through the course of the story without three paragraphs of exposition dropped onto the reader. And secondly, all of the characters are at the very least believable and understandable. No one makes stupid decisions except the main character (which is a failure more of the YA genre than the Steelheart novel). Thirdly, the superpowers are all SO COOL! They make sense and create odd and unique scenarios. It really is awesome and I have difficulty explaining why. The plot is a basic revenge story but told so so much more fulfilling than near any action movie.
What’s wrong about this book? Well, very few things. The protagonist is very bland and forgettable, which is arguably so that you can insert yourself into the main characters. He also falls in love as quickly as a teenage male would, which is annoying but at least makes sense. Some of the twists are easy to guess but they still make sense within the context of the novel.
Steelheart is an absolutely fantastic YA novel and an incredibly good read for anyone outside of that demographic as well.
3.5 stars out of 5
I feel like I can be too harsh on novels in the young adult genre because I have generally found that they lack the character depth, plot complexity, and world building you encounter in adult stories. With Sanderson's Mistborn and Skyward under my belt, I can say this opener to a series fell short compared to both.
This series came out between those two, with Mistborn being the first. I've felt in general that the newer the Sanderson novel, the more captivating his stories are. This book is changing that unwritten rule in my head as I think both The Final Empire and Skyward were better written.
My main gripes with this story lies in the characters, specifically David and Megan. David did have *a* backstory, with his father being killed by an Epic (superhero) named Steelheart in the prologue. However his personality really felt one-dimensional. His only motivations were getting revenge on Steelheart and sleeping with Megan, while throwing in the occasional bad metaphor.
When looking at young adult novels, I feel it's important to have the perspective that kids are reading these stories and they are going to learn from them, fiction or non-fiction. I'm not one to seek out stories that have feminist themes. That said, David treated Megan's character horribly whilst swooning over her. As basically the only woman in the entire book as well, it's unfortunate to see Sanderson depict her in this way. It's particularly upsetting knowing that children and teens will be influenced in regards to relationships from this novel.
I was feeling 3 stars around ~300 pages in, but Sanderson always has fantastic twist endings and that did really pull the book together despite it's flat characters and poor character relationships.
I feel like I can be too harsh on novels in the young adult genre because I have generally found that they lack the character depth, plot complexity, and world building you encounter in adult stories. With Sanderson's Mistborn and Skyward under my belt, I can say this opener to a series fell short compared to both.
This series came out between those two, with Mistborn being the first. I've felt in general that the newer the Sanderson novel, the more captivating his stories are. This book is changing that unwritten rule in my head as I think both The Final Empire and Skyward were better written.
My main gripes with this story lies in the characters, specifically David and Megan. David did have *a* backstory, with his father being killed by an Epic (superhero) named Steelheart in the prologue. However his personality really felt one-dimensional. His only motivations were getting revenge on Steelheart and sleeping with Megan, while throwing in the occasional bad metaphor.
When looking at young adult novels, I feel it's important to have the perspective that kids are reading these stories and they are going to learn from them, fiction or non-fiction. I'm not one to seek out stories that have feminist themes. That said, David treated Megan's character horribly whilst swooning over her. As basically the only woman in the entire book as well, it's unfortunate to see Sanderson depict her in this way. It's particularly upsetting knowing that children and teens will be influenced in regards to relationships from this novel.
I was feeling 3 stars around ~300 pages in, but Sanderson always has fantastic twist endings and that did really pull the book together despite it's flat characters and poor character relationships.
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked the twist that superpowers were only given to ne'er-do-wells. The weaknesses, too, are fun. Not to mention the crux of the main conflict. Sorta. I had two uneasy observations. First, the similarity between Steelheart and The Lord Ruler of the Mistborn saga was a bit disappointing. I love Mr. Sanderson for his the magical worlds he builds and being seeing another story reflected her was surprising. The second observation was that the narrator was unsure and critiqued his own tale, just like Alcatraz. Both are technically Young Adult sagas, so perhaps that observation should be placed on the genre and not the author.
All that said, the plot of this story is interesting but the characters and the world building are where Mr. Sanderson shines, even though I saw a few similarities to worlds he'd previously built. It's a fast-paced sci-fi adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
All that said, the plot of this story is interesting but the characters and the world building are where Mr. Sanderson shines, even though I saw a few similarities to worlds he'd previously built. It's a fast-paced sci-fi adventure and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No