Book Review - Steelheart

Steelheart
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Reckoners #1
Genres: Fantasy | Young Adult
Release Date: 26th September 2013
Source: Borrowed
Rating:

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.

By now I think that everyone has heard about or read something by Brandon Sanderson, but I as always came very late to the party. Growing up I've always loved the fantastical worlds more than reality, so I was pretty shocked that I hadn’t heard of him before a few months ago. I first talked about him in Who Wore it Better post, not really knowing who he was or much about his stories but it seemed like after that I noticed him everywhere. I'm not even exaggerating with you, I started watching Booktube finally (late again) and it was like everyone and their next door neighbour was talking about him. So what did I do? I like any other normal person searched high and low for any of his book until I finally I hunted down Steelheart, I prepared myself for what was sure to be an excellent book while still trying to keep my expectations low and I was blown away. He isn't for everyone though, I'm not sure if Amanda would fangirl with me but for me, it was everything I wanted and more.

Right from the start with the prologue I was hooked, we not only get a taste of what the people with super human abilities were like but we also first meet Steelheart. The book starts of with David and his dad at the bank when an Epic named Deathpoint turns up and decides to start killing people for the fun of it and if I remember rightly, to have word spread around so that he can be the Epic of the city. Anyway Steelheart arrives, a High Epic, and David's father thinks everything will be ok because he like so many others are convinced that there are good Epics out there, and he must be one of them. As it turns out he's not, and he's only goal there is to take over the city himself, in the process killing David's father and everyone else in the bank or so he thought. David escapes and makes it his life mission to be the one to end Steelheart, after all he is the only one to see the invincible man bleed.

Yep, that's just the prologue people, I mean I know that I don't do it justice but if that doesn't suck you in I don't know what will. After the prologue we see David older, wiser and more bitter. He's on the search for the Reckoners, a secret group of people working to restore peace to the world and the downfall of as many Epics as possible, he has spent the last 10 years building up a database on every Epic known, their abilities and known weakness (some he guessed) and he's kept tabs on the group too. David is well prepared but he still needs the resources and man power the Reckoners have in order to follow through with his plan. Finding them is the easy part for him, convincing them to let him join them isn't.

So enough about the plot, lets talk about characters. Firstly you have David, who is as you guessed the main character in the story and as for as they go, he wasn't really a bad one. He was funny, determined and not so set in his ways that he wouldn't listen to reason, he was written as a naïve gentle 18 year old and there wasn't one time when I was invested in what he was saying. However my favourite of the characters would have to be the merry little gang of crime fighters who put me in the mind of reincarnated Scoobies, which was one of the most EPIC things bout the book (did you get what I did there, did you? haha) . Out of the group the ones that stood out the most would have to be Prof and Abraham. Prof wasn't just the leader or the glue that kept them all together but he was a friend and he never treated any of the others like they were below him, just because he was in charge, he really respected and cared for all of the people on his team. Abraham was the one in charge of the weapons, the one who was always keeping people's spirits up with his witty banter and tales of life before and I was always happy when he was on the page.

Even though I'm a massive, massive fan of superhero's I still wasn't sure if this book would be for me (I'm more suited to staring at the god like people on the screen such as Thor, Loki or Wolverine. Yummy) but honestly this book was so good. It had enough character development to leave you feeling satisfied but like they could still grow, it had many twists and turns but not so much that you felt like you were going around in circles and it was overall just a well rounded, well written book that I'm sure many would find hard not to enjoy is some way. If you are undecided about it or any of his work, just take the plunge blind because you might be very surprised.