I received this book for free from ARC in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson Series: Reckoners #1
Published by Delacorte on September 24th, 2013
Genres: Fantasy, YA
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.
Picture every single hero and heroine you’ve even read about, watched on TV, or dressed up as on Halloween.
Superman. Green Lantern. Batman. Wonderwoman. The X-Men. Captain America. Flash. The Thing. Beast. Elektra. Hawkwoman.
Picture them standing in the middle of your street. Now imagine them taking their various powers and destroying everything you’ve ever known or loved.
THIS is what Sanderson has done with Steelheart! He has taken our ideas and dreams of super heroes and he has made them the worst possible villain one can ever imagine! Every villain you’ve ever been introduced to pales in comparison to the Epics Sanderson has dreamed up. Never have I been so engrossed in a story that I felt pure, true and real hatred for the villains. Every time I read Steelheart’s name, my blood boiled, my blood-pressure rose and my trigger finger twitched. I felt the hatred and disgust that these people felt for these self-proclaimed epics and I wanted more than anything to jump in and join their fight. I wanted to stand with them during their last stand for humanity and more than anything I wanted to avenge the many people who had senselessly lost their lives, their mothers, their fathers, their lovers, their friends, and their children.
Steelheart starts not with the day that turned ordinary men into Epics but with the day, Steelheart, the most powerful Epic on Earth destroyed David’s (our MC) life and became supreme ruler of then Chicago. It all happened when inside a bank. David’s father who scraped to make ends-meat just wanted to secure a mortgage loan when the bank was invaded by Deathpoint. An Epic with the ability to completely disintegrate a person just by pointing at them, a power that he demonstrated on men, women and children in the bank that day. But it wasn’t Deathpoint that destroyed David’s life and brought on the end of Chicago as we know it. No, that was Steelheart. An epic impervious to bullets, fire, missiles, tanks and even other epics. That day Steelheart came and completely changed the game; and David, only 8 at the time, watched just a feet away as everyone in the bank was killed in front of him.
See those goosebumps you just got? Yeah, that was just the prologue! The rest of the book is just as gripping and twisted and the pace never slows down! I will never understand how a writer’s mind works and it’s a place I never want to go but I am actually extremely intrigued over the thought process Sanderson had to have in order to come up with such a phenomenal story. Here he has given us a totally original concept, with an equally original storyline, thrown in some fantastic characters and real plot twist and voilà! Best freaking book ever!
It’s not often that I come across a true plot twist, so imagine my utter shock when Sanderson managed to shock me twice! I don’t think a book has ever caught me so off guard, and I loved every single letter of it! As I was reading along it wasn’t with a sense of “oh I see where this is going!” but with a desire to see what could possibly happen next. Everything I thought would happen didn’t, and everything I didn’t know I wanted to happen did, and for that alone I urge everyone to go out at grab a copy when it’s released next week.
But it wasn’t just the amazing plot and various twist, the characters made me FEEL! And not just the immense hate I mentioned before, they made me feel desperate, hopeful, determined, love, and grateful. I can never imagine a situation in which I would be oppressed and knocked around so much, but still have the determination to get back up and fight. This team of varying personalities was as ragtag as they come but they were stronger than many families I’ve actually met. When shit hit the fan they worked together, and when death was all but an uncertainty ,they didn’t back down! The banded together and fought back, even in, what seemed to be, impossible situations.
I don’t know what else I can say to convince you that this book is worth your time, your money and your feels. Pre-order it, flock to the stores on release day, beg your library to snag a copy! Just make sure that when September 24th rolls around you have a copy in your hands.
