June 3, 2019sarahylockwood

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

 

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Rate: 4.5/5

Medium: Kindle

Overview (No Spoilers):

Since starting my job at Kelloggs approximately a year and a half ago, which required a hour and ten minute commute one way I’ve read maybe five physical books. My reading was still voracious in nature but had almost completely switched to the medium of audiobooks. Recently, it occurred to me, since starting my new job at the State of Michigan six months ago, thereby reducing my commute to 20 minutes, I had yet to pick back up my old reading habits. Having loved everything I’ve read by Sanderson to date, e.g., The Mistborn Trilogy, The Stormlight Archive, Warbreaker, Steelheart was a great read to break me back into actual reading again as my library only had an eBook version available. While Steelheart was vastly different than any other book I’d yet read by Sanderson, I couldn’t help but get drawn quickly into this fascinatingly novel literary world. What happens when random humans obtain super human powers seemingly inspired by comic books? Will good or evil prevail? The opening scene of this inaugural book in The Reckoners series set the tone for the remainder Steelheart as we experience the events leading up to the breaking of the world, which David found himself at the heart and center of devastating action. The rest of the book maintains a breakneck pace that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat as situations rapidly evolve, revealing slivers of new information on every page that deliberately lays the foundation to this intriguing literary world in typical Sanderson fashion. As this novel only takes place in one city of this dystopian world, I’m excited to see how this series continues to develop, with the hope that new cities and Epics with intriguing powers are in our future. I’m usually fairly adept at predicting upcoming plot twists, however Sanderson fooled me so hard with the major reveal at the end of Steelheart. I won’t spoil it for you here in this section, but the clues were all laid out for the reader, but I was locked into a different theory, blinding myself to the obvious. Overall, Steelheart was a fast paced, highly entertaining read that is an intriguing take on the random assignment of superpowers and the subsequent dystopian realignment society.

Additional Insight (Spoilers Abound):
  • What make/caused Calamity?
  • Are people still developing powers?
  • I thought for sure David would turn out to be an Epic!
  • Is there a method to who gets powers and what the powers/weaknesses are?
  • Why does using your powers make you crazy?
  • Is Edmund a good guy?
  • What is Prof’s history after finding out he was an Epic? Why did he hate Steelheart so much? Was he the Epic that destroyed the school? How does Prof have the tools that are derived from supposedly dead Epics? What horrible things did Prof do before being able to ‘control’ his power?
  • What is the Prof’s weakness?
  • How did Tia meet Prof? It seems like they go way back.
  • Will Megan choose to control her powers? Can she be ‘saved’?
  • What is happening throughout the rest of the world?

Vocabulary Builder:

Sonorous: imposing or impressive in effect or style
Cabers: a young tree trunk used for tossing as a trial of strength in a Scottish sport
Latent:present and capable of emerging or developing but not now visible, obvious, active, or symptomatic

 

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