Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Summary (from Goodreads):

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Review:

This is my first Brandon Sanderson novel. I’ve been told by a friend that I absolutely need to read his books. And I kind of happened upon Sanderson’s line at BEA by accident, and got an ARC of this signed. I also brought back an ARC for the same friend. I’m glad I listened because this was such a fun book!

I’m a bit of a sucker for superhero stories. And I’m even more of a sucker for story arcs about super villains (I’m still waiting for a Magneto movie). To have an entire YA book revolving around the villains was pretty amazing. In David’s world there are no superheroes (though some people keep believing that one day, they’ll show). Those who developed super powers the day calamity struck, are all evil. Cities have been taken over. Battles for ultimate power and control between the epics (aka: super villains), have left thousands or possibly more than thousands dead.

After loosing his father as a child, David has been on a mission of revenge. He’s spent every spare second of his time growing up, learning about epics and how to defeat them. There aren’t many people willing to go up against an epic (Plenty of them are bulletproff and rather indestructible). And David knows he needs to find the only group of humans willing to go up against them (The Reckoners) in order to truly get the revenge he seeks.

This book is jam-packed with explosions, car chases, gun fights, and battles. When the main characters aren’t in the middle of the action, they are planning more action underground. The book reads like a dystopia. Instead of the terrible state of the world being a direct result of catastrophic weather, economic depression, or political unrest, this dystopia is because of super villains. It’s a world of orphans and poverty. There’s no sunlight and there’s a lot of steel because of the powers of the epics in charge.

I found the whole world so interesting! I loved learning about the underground tunnels. And it was just so fascinating to see a world of Jokers, Green Goblins, and Lex Luthers with no good counterparts. Their powers and their weaknesses made this story what it is.

I did call a lot of the major plot twists, but who doesn’t in superhero (or villain) stories? There are some great side characters in here. And David makes for a pretty awesome main character. Yes, he’s on a revenge mission, but he’s also so willing to learn. He respects the people he’s working with, and just wants to feed on their knowledge like a sponge.

There’s a lot left wide open, but I know Sanderson will get to it later in the series. I’m interested in seeing how people react in this world, to the ending of book 1. I will certainly be reading the rest of this suspenseful series, and more of Sanderson’s work in the future. This gets a 9/10 from me.