A review by jharkey4
Lux by Brandon Sanderson, Steven Michael Bohls

3.0

This was a really fun return to the Reckoners world.

So we've seen Brandon collaborate before, but this is the first time for a novel that's part of an existing series, if that makes sense? Reckoners was *Brandon's thing* and now here we have another author pulled in to help write one. So that's some interesting context. I was really curious to see what that would *mean*... I'm not sure if they've said precisely what the collaboration looked like, but Brandon has been plenty busy this year with his own projects. That gives me the impression that this was primarily written by Bohls (after some initial outlining and plotting together).

Whatever the case may be, I honestly would have assumed this book was written by Sanderson if I didn't know otherwise going in. It felt like Sanderson. It felt like Reckoners. There was maybe a VERY subtle feel here and there that someone else was involved. Especially the chapters from an antagonist's perspective. A tone that occasionally felt just a BIT different than I anticipated? But this could all be in my head.

Overall, the tone was just a BIT more serious than the previous Reckoners books, which I appreciated. I think this is mainly just a case of the main character being a bit more serious and competent?

Of course, part of what added to the seamlessness was the return of the original trilogy's audiobook narrator. Lux is audio-only for now, which suits me just fine. I read the original trilogy on audiobook, and I thought it was good there. The narrator (MacLoed) was even better than I remembered, or maybe he's just become more skilled over the years. He knocked this one out of the park, giving all of the characters a distinctive and fitting voice. Fantastic narration on this one. 5/5 stars.

Some of the characters were a bit bland for me. The plot was... fine? The structure felt a little odd to me. There were a few moments where the whole plot kind of turned about in a new direction in a way that felt kind of blunt?

I think I'd give this a 3.5/5 stars, so 3 is a little unfair. It just doesn't quite hook me strongly enough to be a 4 star book. It's as good as the original Reckoners books--maybe a little better. Very fun, but nothing *particularly* special.