Review | Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (The Reckoners #1)

As a boy, David had a terrible experience with the most powerful Epic of all: Steelheart. But through this experience, he may be the only person with a clue as to what Steelheart’s weakness is. All Epics have some sort of weakness, but Epics go to great lengths to conceal them.

David hopes to join with a band of assassins who kill Epics, called the Reckoners. He believes that with a little help from the Reckoners, they can kill the powerful, yet elusive Steelheart.

I’ve long been a superhero/X-Men lover. Sanderson takes the superhero trope and flops it on its head in Steelheart. Though all super hero stories contain villains, many of whom have super powers themselves, in this story pretty much all of the supers/mutants are not heroes. These powerful people are called Epics and they reign over mankind with fear and horror.

Sanderson does a great job of creating characters with strong voices and individual personalities. It took me a little while to get into this book, but by the end, I was anxious to see what was going to happen and couldn’t stop listening. The twist at the end was somewhat predictable. I’m looking forward to seeing where Sanderson takes the Reckoner’s series in the future. The sequel, Firefight, is scheduled to be released in January 2015.

I didn’t love the audio version of this book, and I wonder if I would have overall liked the book more if I had read, versus listened, to it. I think I’ll probably read the print version of Firefight in because of this.

I think this would be a great book for teenaged boys.

You can find Daniel’s review of Steelheart here.

Overall Rating: and 1/2

Parent’s guide:

Sex: One kissing scene at the beginning of the book, but nothing inappropriate
Violence: Some of the Epics are ruthless. There is a disturbing scene at the beginning where humans are vaporized and terrorized by an Epic. There is a lot gun fighting, superhero fighting scenes and some chase scenes.
Language: mild

Review | Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson Book Cover

Title: Review | Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Series: The Reckoners #1
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Young Adult - Fantasy
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: September 24, 2013
Format: Audio
Pages: 400

How far would you go for revenge if someone killed your father?
If someone destroyed your city?
If everything you ever loved was taken from you?
David Charleston will go to any lengths to stop Steelheart. But to exact revenge in Steelheart’s world, David will need the Reckoners—a shadowy group of rebels bent on maintaining justice.
And it turns out that the Reckoners might just need David too.