You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Check out my blog, One Man Book Club
The Value of a Star: Ratings Explained
Lux (Texas Reckoners, Book 1)
By: Brandon Sanderson and Steven Bohls
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: 14 and up
More Reckoners? Yes, please!
I've been apprehensive about embracing Sanderson, Inc. In 2021, Brandon Sanderson released five books--Four 4 of them written (co-written?) by former students of his writing class at BYU. I'm nervous for him to become THAT author, ala James Patterson or Dean Koontz, who hires ghost writers to spit out subpar stories that sell because they have Brandon Sanderson on the cover in huge font. Now that I've read all four of those co-written books, I feel slightly better about the arrangement, because all the books are excellent. But I'm still firmly on the fence regarding Sanderson, Inc. Is it good or bad? We'll see what the future holds before I commit to an opinion.
Lux is a return to the world of The Reckoners, that excellent YA trilogy Brandon wrote about superpowered bad guys. Instead of using their powers for good, the Epics are tyrants who destroy and reign over a regime of terror. It's up to the regular people to fight back--The Reckoners. They stand up to the super-powered bullies, searching for their weaknesses and do what can't be done: kill the unkillable and rid the world of Epics. There's not a ton of overlap between Lux and the original trilogy. You could technically read Lux without having read the other first, but I think you'd have a better experience with Lux if you did.
This story focuses on a group of Reckoners from Texas, and runs parallel to the original trilogy in chronology. These Reckoners battle an Epic who lifted the ENTIRE CITY of Sugarland, Texas into the air and turned it into an enormous floating paradise. Lux flies from city to city in Texas, kidnapping, looting, and killing at each stop. When you discover Lux's secrets, you'll be very appropriately shocked and terrified.
I liked Lux a whole lot. The thrill factor was high, the twists were meaningful, the characters were endearing and showed strong growth. It was much grittier than the original series--there's a good amount of death and violence. It gives the story a heavy feel, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The more at stake, the greater the reward for success.
It did drag a bit. Not like it was boring, though. More like after plan "b," "c," "d," and "e" failed, I started feeling like it might not have been so bad if plan "a" had worked out after all. I think the story could have been much shorter and still been effective. I also was pretty disappointed with the ending. Clearly, we are set up for more stories, so maybe book two will provide satisfactory resolution. But with no book 2 on the schedule, I was left feeling annoyed in the end. Not a deal breaker by any means, I'm just a sucker for fairy tale endings and I didn't get it this time.
Also, a couple words about Steven Bohls. I'm really interested in how Steven Bohls (and Janci Patterson, who wrote co-wrote this year's other Sandreson, Inc books) manage to do the work but still make it feel written by Brandon. Lux was really well written. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I looked to see what else Steven Bohls had written, and found he's the author of a super fun looking Middle Grade duology called Jed and the Junkyard War. It's about--get this--a floating city! Coincidence? Not a chance. But Brandon gave book 1 his rare public recommendation back in 2017, and his reco's have never once steered me wrong. That, combined with how much I enjoyed Lux, means now I have to read Jed and the Junkyard War!
And another quick note on the audio. MacLeod Andrews does a simply fantastic job. I'd be glad to have him read to me any day. Lux is currently only available as an audio book, but the ebook is on it's way in July 2022.
Lux has no concerning language. Zero sexual content. PG-13 violence. I say best for 14 and up.
Happy Reading!
The Value of a Star: Ratings Explained
Lux (Texas Reckoners, Book 1)
By: Brandon Sanderson and Steven Bohls
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: 14 and up
More Reckoners? Yes, please!
I've been apprehensive about embracing Sanderson, Inc. In 2021, Brandon Sanderson released five books--Four 4 of them written (co-written?) by former students of his writing class at BYU. I'm nervous for him to become THAT author, ala James Patterson or Dean Koontz, who hires ghost writers to spit out subpar stories that sell because they have Brandon Sanderson on the cover in huge font. Now that I've read all four of those co-written books, I feel slightly better about the arrangement, because all the books are excellent. But I'm still firmly on the fence regarding Sanderson, Inc. Is it good or bad? We'll see what the future holds before I commit to an opinion.
Lux is a return to the world of The Reckoners, that excellent YA trilogy Brandon wrote about superpowered bad guys. Instead of using their powers for good, the Epics are tyrants who destroy and reign over a regime of terror. It's up to the regular people to fight back--The Reckoners. They stand up to the super-powered bullies, searching for their weaknesses and do what can't be done: kill the unkillable and rid the world of Epics. There's not a ton of overlap between Lux and the original trilogy. You could technically read Lux without having read the other first, but I think you'd have a better experience with Lux if you did.
This story focuses on a group of Reckoners from Texas, and runs parallel to the original trilogy in chronology. These Reckoners battle an Epic who lifted the ENTIRE CITY of Sugarland, Texas into the air and turned it into an enormous floating paradise. Lux flies from city to city in Texas, kidnapping, looting, and killing at each stop. When you discover Lux's secrets, you'll be very appropriately shocked and terrified.
I liked Lux a whole lot. The thrill factor was high, the twists were meaningful, the characters were endearing and showed strong growth. It was much grittier than the original series--there's a good amount of death and violence. It gives the story a heavy feel, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The more at stake, the greater the reward for success.
It did drag a bit. Not like it was boring, though. More like after plan "b," "c," "d," and "e" failed, I started feeling like it might not have been so bad if plan "a" had worked out after all. I think the story could have been much shorter and still been effective. I also was pretty disappointed with the ending. Clearly, we are set up for more stories, so maybe book two will provide satisfactory resolution. But with no book 2 on the schedule, I was left feeling annoyed in the end. Not a deal breaker by any means, I'm just a sucker for fairy tale endings and I didn't get it this time.
Also, a couple words about Steven Bohls. I'm really interested in how Steven Bohls (and Janci Patterson, who wrote co-wrote this year's other Sandreson, Inc books) manage to do the work but still make it feel written by Brandon. Lux was really well written. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I looked to see what else Steven Bohls had written, and found he's the author of a super fun looking Middle Grade duology called Jed and the Junkyard War. It's about--get this--a floating city! Coincidence? Not a chance. But Brandon gave book 1 his rare public recommendation back in 2017, and his reco's have never once steered me wrong. That, combined with how much I enjoyed Lux, means now I have to read Jed and the Junkyard War!
And another quick note on the audio. MacLeod Andrews does a simply fantastic job. I'd be glad to have him read to me any day. Lux is currently only available as an audio book, but the ebook is on it's way in July 2022.
Lux has no concerning language. Zero sexual content. PG-13 violence. I say best for 14 and up.
Happy Reading!
This is terrible. I love the Reckoners, but I hate this. The mc Jax is unlikeable and selfish. He has a hero complex which usually turns into him making decisions based on what he thinks is best, and not taking others into consideration. The audio narrator, which is the ONLY way you can read this btw, does cringe female voices and has some kind of whistle in his speech that comes through sometimes and which I found extremely distracting. The writing is tedious, with thoughts, following thoughts, following thoughts, to finally reach a point where the plot and/or dialogue could continue. Jax' inner monologue was mostly non-sense about how he would make a motivator work, which was boring and unnecessary. Near the end, there is also inner monologue of the main baddie Epic, also not compelling as a character, let alone a super villain. He talks a lot about his inner demon or whatever, can we say Dexter ripoff? There was a lot of skipping forward, I listened at a 1.6 speed, and basically skipped over the last 5 chapters and listened to the epilogue, which gave me all the info I needed to know what happened. This could have been a novella, and I'm still not sure that could have saved it. Can't believe I wasted an audible credit for this trash. The fact that Sanderson put his name to this is appalling to me and anyone who gave this higher than 3 stars is just drinking the Brando Sando Kool-Aid. This was not a good book, and does not do justice to the Reckoners series.
What can you say about a new reckoners novel being dropped! If you have not read any of these then start with Steelheart if you have read Steelheart then you will already have grabbed this because its one of the best book series out there. Brandon Sanderson is a top 5 author. This was spectacular and I hope its just the start of a whole new series. The narrator is the same narrator as the one for the other reckoners books and he did a great job. You really care about these characters as the book goes on, Brandon Sanderson does a fantastic job of making you care about his characters in every book he writes. #lux #brandonsanderson #reckoners
Another great book in the Reckoners series which is a new story and new characters with some nods to the original trilogy for those who’ve read them. Highly recommend reading the first trilogy starting with Steelheart before reading this one.
Brandon Sanderson knocks it out of the park again! I can’t wait to see what happens next.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Video https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMR8C3uhh/
First off, i’m super excited to be back in the world of The Reckoners!
Given that I found Sanderson via Wheel of Time, I think him being open to working with other authors on certain projects is awesome. It gives readers the chance to enjoy more of those worlds, gives another author some big exposure, and let him focus more attention of some of his larger projects.
Lux could be considered stand-alone from the Steelheart series but i’d consider it more of a companion book to be read after finishing the first series. A reader who had not read Steelheart may feel more thrown into a world, as while it does go over what Epics are and brief history you are not given the level of lore and understanding from the main series. Plus towards the end there are some minor / pretty oblivious spoilers for the original trilogy.
That being said it does a great job of standing on it’s own and connecting you with a different crew, while still feeling like it’s part of the same world. There are cameos from characters we know from the OG Reckoners series and events play out throughout the same timeline. So it cool to pick up on the parallels between them.
While the timeline crunches the timespan of the original trilogy into a single book, it doesn’t really feel rushed at all. There were several times were I thought I was hitting the climatic actions only to realize I still had quite a bit of story left; I really enjoy this (i’m always glad when there is more story left).
We do get some expansion on the original worldbuilding, but not much. Mostly just more of how motivators can / do work and some of the training traditional Reckoners went through (since we didn’t get a normal process with David).
Speaking of David, I found Jax to be very similar to David’s character which I would normally see as a negative but given their similar past and motivations I thought it actually made sense in this situation.
There were times where some of the writing was clunky or seemed slightly disjointed but i’m giving that up as both authors learning to co-write in and already established world, along with it originally being planned as a trio of novellas that was later combined into a single novel.
And can we talk about that epilogue…. Major implications for the future, i’m hoping this did well enough to continue the series and see where it goes.
First off, i’m super excited to be back in the world of The Reckoners!
Given that I found Sanderson via Wheel of Time, I think him being open to working with other authors on certain projects is awesome. It gives readers the chance to enjoy more of those worlds, gives another author some big exposure, and let him focus more attention of some of his larger projects.
Lux could be considered stand-alone from the Steelheart series but i’d consider it more of a companion book to be read after finishing the first series. A reader who had not read Steelheart may feel more thrown into a world, as while it does go over what Epics are and brief history you are not given the level of lore and understanding from the main series. Plus towards the end there are some minor / pretty oblivious spoilers for the original trilogy.
That being said it does a great job of standing on it’s own and connecting you with a different crew, while still feeling like it’s part of the same world. There are cameos from characters we know from the OG Reckoners series and events play out throughout the same timeline. So it cool to pick up on the parallels between them.
While the timeline crunches the timespan of the original trilogy into a single book, it doesn’t really feel rushed at all. There were several times were I thought I was hitting the climatic actions only to realize I still had quite a bit of story left; I really enjoy this (i’m always glad when there is more story left).
We do get some expansion on the original worldbuilding, but not much. Mostly just more of how motivators can / do work and some of the training traditional Reckoners went through (since we didn’t get a normal process with David).
Speaking of David, I found Jax to be very similar to David’s character which I would normally see as a negative but given their similar past and motivations I thought it actually made sense in this situation.
There were times where some of the writing was clunky or seemed slightly disjointed but i’m giving that up as both authors learning to co-write in and already established world, along with it originally being planned as a trio of novellas that was later combined into a single novel.
And can we talk about that epilogue…. Major implications for the future, i’m hoping this did well enough to continue the series and see where it goes.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes