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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
This book was just fine. If you loved the original Reckoners series, then this is exactly what you'd want. To me it felt like more of the same, I felt like I had already read this story with Steelheart.
You could tell that this was supposed to be three novellas - first part was the best by far - started to lag in parts two and three. Potentially interesting characters that I felt don’t get explored enough, which leaves the ending feeling flat.
A very mixed bag, with some nice decent character work, intriguing plotting, fun use of Epic motivators, and unneeded tie-ins to the original trilogy.
This was at times both fun and engaging, but too long for its content, and slightly unnecessary for the Reckoners series, even seemingly retconning some details.
This was at times both fun and engaging, but too long for its content, and slightly unnecessary for the Reckoners series, even seemingly retconning some details.
So… it was an interesting listen. The way it fit in (or didn’t) with the main series was fine. The MC read like a slightly different version of David from the main books. But with better tech and assassin skills?
Some of the details about Epic… stuff… seemed taken for granted in this story. Like Epic weaknesses, etc.
Overall, it was an interesting listen but isn’t my fave of the series at all. Well, it might be as good as Calamity or close to it. But if they do another one I’d listen.
Some of the details about Epic… stuff… seemed taken for granted in this story. Like Epic weaknesses, etc.
Overall, it was an interesting listen but isn’t my fave of the series at all. Well, it might be as good as Calamity or close to it. But if they do another one I’d listen.
4.5..
I feel like I would have enjoyed it more reading it, but even audio only, you can't keep Brandon down!
I feel like I would have enjoyed it more reading it, but even audio only, you can't keep Brandon down!
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I guess I can't quite believe I'm giving a Sanderson book a 1 star... I guess it's because this didn't quite feel like a Sanderson book. Which made sense when I realised afterwards that it wasn't just written by him, but Steven Bohls also.
So where to begin?
Let's start with the Narrator. MacLeod Andrews. You're awesome.
The Reckoners world, is one I like - It's got 'The Boys' vibe going on, but with Sanderson filling out all the surrounding details. There was some really interesting dynamics between Epics and how they worked. There were hints of that in this book as well, but only hints. I read later than you didn't need to read the other books to understand this one - I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, and if anything, knowing everything about the world and THEN reading this, made some things muddled and disappointing.
The main character Jax? Well, I just didn't like him. Which is a problem, because everything revolves around him. He is -the guy-. He started off too similar to the Reckoner's original main character, and then he never became a character I could get behind. I didn't like how Jax could McGuyver random things together constantly - there was no logic to some of it, and some of it was done so fast, it seemed improbable within the action.
Initially, the gizmos were cool, but they quickly took over everything - they undermined the efforts of the original Reckoners, while also not tapping into that interesting notion of how Weaknesses work. The story revolved around constantly failing, again and again, until Jax managed to bodge together enough 'stuff' in the middle of another mess!
It also has an issue of introducing a side character later on, a technowizard who hacks it all when the team runs into a problem the authors can't work around.
Unfortunately, a poor book is made bad, by the ending. It almost gave you like two endings, as if the authors couldn't commit to one or the other, and the second one was just... Christ. It was bad.
The audio book was so interesting for the first third as well... probably even the first half... and then it just came crashing down around.
Stick to the first three, don't spoil the world with this drivel.
So where to begin?
Let's start with the Narrator. MacLeod Andrews. You're awesome.
The Reckoners world, is one I like - It's got 'The Boys' vibe going on, but with Sanderson filling out all the surrounding details. There was some really interesting dynamics between Epics and how they worked. There were hints of that in this book as well, but only hints. I read later than you didn't need to read the other books to understand this one - I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, and if anything, knowing everything about the world and THEN reading this, made some things muddled and disappointing.
The main character Jax? Well, I just didn't like him. Which is a problem, because everything revolves around him. He is -the guy-. He started off too similar to the Reckoner's original main character, and then he never became a character I could get behind. I didn't like how Jax could McGuyver random things together constantly - there was no logic to some of it, and some of it was done so fast, it seemed improbable within the action.
Initially, the gizmos were cool, but they quickly took over everything - they undermined the efforts of the original Reckoners, while also not tapping into that interesting notion of how Weaknesses work. The story revolved around constantly failing, again and again, until Jax managed to bodge together enough 'stuff' in the middle of another mess!
It also has an issue of introducing a side character later on, a technowizard who hacks it all when the team runs into a problem the authors can't work around.
Unfortunately, a poor book is made bad, by the ending. It almost gave you like two endings, as if the authors couldn't commit to one or the other, and the second one was just... Christ. It was bad.
The audio book was so interesting for the first third as well... probably even the first half... and then it just came crashing down around.
Stick to the first three, don't spoil the world with this drivel.