4.01 AVERAGE

adventurous medium-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: Yes

Where there are villains, there will be heroes. My father's voice. Just wait. They will come.
Sometimes, son, you have to help the heroes along....


This is actually fluffier than what I expected. Some of the things I adore:
- Megan is badass and Im in love with her.
- I also adore David.
- The characters are overall engaging.
- I like the politics of their powers.

I don’t know who recommended this book to me - an anonymous local library staff person - but they now claim
the #1 position on my list of nemeses. This book doesn’t even deserve the time and thought I’ve put into writing this review. The dialogue is atrocious. The characters are boring at best and the main character is a misogynist. The worst part is the story had such potential when it comes to world building, but the singular focus on blowing shit up completely obliterated the only interesting thing about the book.
adventurous medium-paced
adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Not normally my kind of book, but I read the Prologue and was intrigued. Hmmm humans given superhero abilities but due to their flawed nature only do evil instead of good? AND they take over Chicago? Throw in a dash of revenge and a Tennessee native with a Scottish accent and you have my attention. Sold.

The writing was nothing spectacular, very young adult, simple and to the point. Nothing flowery, no large grandiose metaphors. This was written almost as if it were the dialogue for a comic book or a screenplay for a film. Which actually really helped propel you through to the end.

All in all an exciting book with traditional good vs evil and a young teen's discovery of the grey area in between. Of course you have to throw in a crush and some betrayals to make it officially YA, and it is handled with skill. This would be a great choice for reluctant readers with its fast pace and short chapters.

A really good fast paced story with lots of action. Looking forward to the next book.

¿Qué pasaría si en el mundo hubiera súper héroes? ¿Y si fueran más bien súper villanos? En la historia que nos presenta el autor, Estados Unidos se ve acosado por una serie de personas que adquirieron poderes debido a una explosión en el cielo llamada" Calamity". Estas personas se convierten en seres casi invencibles, porque todos tienen un punto débil que mantienen en secreto, pero, la mayoría de ellos usan esos poderes para hacer el mal. Como es el caso de Steelheart, el cuál se proclama emperador de Chicago tras convertir la ciudad en un bloque de acero.

En este contexto conocemos a David, un chico que lo perdió todo por culpa de este villano y que quiere encontrar a los Reckoners, un grupo de humanos que lucha contra los "Épicos".

Nos encontramos ante una historia de súper poderes distinta a lo que estamos acostumbrados. Aquí los que tienen poderes no son héroes, sino que disfrutan masacrando y luchando entre ellos, por lo que queda en manos de los humanos protegerse como pueden.

Lo cierto es que me ha encantado. En algunos aspectos me ha recordado bastante a "The Boys", una serie que me encanta. He llegado a pensar que es posible que Sanderson se inspirara en estos cómics.

Me ha gustado mucho ver este otro registro en el autor fuera del Cosmere y cómo ambienta una ciudad opresiva, donde todos temen que dos Épicos se enfrenten y destruyan aún más la ciudad o que acaben muertos solo por capricho de uno de ellos.

También me ha gustado cómo el autor enfoca el punto de vista de los humanos, como cada uno afronta la amenaza a su manera; algunos desde el odio, otros desde la esperanza... Y también me ha encantado ver cómo planificaban sus movimientos en un contexto en el que luchan los poderes sobrehumanos con la inteligencia y la estrategia.

Además, el final ha tenido un par de momentos que me han dejado con la boca abierta y ganas de leer el segundo.

En general, una historia de súper poderes que se sale de lo habitual, con una vuelta de tuerca que renueva el género. Aquí los héroes son las personas normales, que luchan por sobrevivir en un mundo hostil y que solo cuentan con su inteligencia y unos pocos recursos para hacer frente a una amenaza tan grande como son los súper-villanos.

Ughghgh. An interesting story with well constructed and satisfying plot twists but I found myself truly hating the whiny fuck-boy of a narrator. I pulled a muscle eye-rolling his never ending descriptions of how attractive/beautiful/gorgeous one (of only two) of the female characters is. Literally she is lying in front of him dying and all he can think about is how attractive he finds her (at least the part of her body not covered in blood) 🙄

Ok ok, changing what I had here. I really enjoyed this one. David and his awkwardness and his metaphors grew on me over the course of the book. I mostly listened to this one on audio but I bought the Kindle version too so I ended up reading most of the last part cause I got impatient. The audio version was great. Every time the narrator would start on one of the metaphors I would do this kind of cross between shaking my head and laughing. There were unexpected twists (definitely was not expecting the thing that happened at about 80% or the thing after that related to it) and I still have questions that are unanswered, so I am looking forward to more adventures in this world.