
Steelheart: The Reckoners, Book 1
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From the number-one New York Times best-selling author of the Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson, comes the first book in a new, action-packed thrill ride of a series - Steelheart. 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 will.
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.
- Listening Length12 hours and 42 minutes
- Audible release dateSeptember 24, 2013
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB00ECDSQZ2
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 12 hours and 42 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Brandon Sanderson |
Narrator | MacLeod Andrews |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com Release Date | September 24, 2013 |
Publisher | Audible Studios |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B00ECDSQZ2 |
Best Sellers Rank | #1,570 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #1 in Action & Adventure Sci-Fi for Teens #2 in Teen & Young Adult Superhero Fiction #2 in Dystopian Sci-Fi for Children |
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Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022
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BOOK DETAILS:
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, read by MacLeod Andrews, published by Audible Studios (2013) / Length: 12 hrs 14 min
SERIES INFO:
This is Book #1 in the "Reckoners Trilogy." All 3 books and a novella (#1.5) are available in audio.
SUMMARY:
This book is a bit more action oriented than my usual read. (Yes, I am one of those people who actually skip or fast-forward the fighting, car chases etc. To me, those are the boring parts; I'd rather read about the characters.) Thankfully a lot of the action is very character based, which is good.
CHARACTERS:
David: An adorkable "nerd" (just don't call him that to his face). Totally obsessed, he spends all his free time plotting to take down Steelheart. One of his biggest strengths is his ability to think on his feet and act quickly (although this "improvising" drives Megan crazy). His complete hopelessness with metaphors is cute, but does occasionally get a bit tiresome after 3 books.
Megan: The newest and youngest member of the Reckoner team that David runs into. Hypercompetent, smart, slightly older, very attractive, and blows hot & cold. She sort of reminds me of a typical YA hero.
David & Megan: This is a case of love at first sight (on his part) that doesn't annoy me. He is immediately attracted to her physically (not surprising, since she is dressed to seduce at the time), but it her competence at kicking-butt that seals the crush.
"I respected her for that. Sparks, I was liking her more and more. And though she hadn’t been particularly affectionate toward me lately, she wasn’t openly hostile and cold any longer. That left me room to work some seductive magic. I wished I knew some."
This is one romance that I was really pulling for.
The Prof = cranky founder of the Reckoners, the only one as as obsessed as David
Tia = the brains, and the one who holds them all together when everything is falling apart
Abraham = the wise man of faith, who always seems to have the best gun (and he's not French, you slontze, he's Canadian).
Cody = the comic relief whose sense of humor just didn't click with me (I'm not fond of people who can't be serious)
WORLDBUILDING:
The post-apocalyptic Chicago cityscape is introduced well as David races through it at the beginning. It is a city where the sun hasn't shone for nearly 10 years and where most people live in a steel catacomb dug out below the transformed city. It is a place where anyone can be killed at any time for no reason. And yet, it is an oasis of civilization in the "Fractured States," since it has power and some sort of order.
The Epics (Supers) each have 1 or more abilities of various strengths. And each has a single weakness that negates their ability, and may be quite bizarre.
PLOT:
I LOVE the first line.
“I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.”
We then get a great prologue that give us the history of how the world came to be the way it is (I always prefer to know, rather than be strung along and doled out bits & pieces), and of why David hates Steelheart. Followed by:
“I’ve seen Steelheart bleed.
And I will see him bleed again.”
This is a trilogy, so the world's problems aren't resolved by the end. Plus, there are some fairly sharp twists that leave plot points dangling. But I found the end to be satisfying.
Note: Sanderson is very skillful at foreshadowing without making the twists too easy to guess. I love going back and finding all the places that was done.
HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS:
--I like how, despite it's comic book origins & plot to take down the villain, the book doesn't ignore the implications and possible consequences of their actions. David recognizes that what they are doing is the equivalent of terrorism (and that all terrorists feel justified). He is also forced to consider what will happen in the resulting power vacuum if they succeed.
--I also like how, when meeting his heroes, he is forced to recognize that they are regular people with strengths & weaknesses.
CAUTIONS(?): This book contains some intense scenes of violence, including the death of at least one child.
NARRATION:
The narrator is skilled and gives each character their own voice. Accents are well done. David's personality shines. / I listened on 1.25 speed (my usual).
The 'Epics' came to being. Though endowed with superpowers, they were anything but heroes.
David Charleston lost his father at the hands of the mightiest of them all, Steelheart, as a boy. Watching and studying the Epics for the last ten years, he's figured out each has a weakness. He just needs the help of the Reckoners to enact his revenge.
The day Calamity appeared in the sky the world changed. Or rather, it seemed to have caused some people to change and not for the better.
As the saying goes: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Could any of us resist using newfound superhuman abilities for personal gain?
What I liked:
Steelheart is a wonderful spin on human nature. Could any of us honestly say we wouldn't be tempted to use newfound superhuman abilities for personal gain? Wealth? Status? Vengeance? We grow through struggle. But how would we improve if we were suddenly endowed with god-like power? Would we even want to? Or is power too seductive?
What I didn't like:
Nothing.
Steelheart takes place on Earth, in the future, where a mysterious anomaly named Calamity appears in the sky and seemingly creates meta-humans. The twist here is all the "superheroes" appear to be evil, and so in typical villain fashion they try to make themselves ruler over everything. The titular villain, Steelheart, is the self-appointed Emperor of Newcago (future Chicago), and the focus of this novel is a renegade group called The Reckoners trying to defeat him and bring peace back to their home.
That's pretty much the gist without spoiling anything.
There's a couple twists and turns that caught me by surprise that I really liked. A couple I thought I knew where Sanderson was leading the reader, but then he'd add an extra twist at the end to throw me off. I really liked that fact and it further added to this meta-human story being different than the rest.
There are some dark moments, some bloody moments, but they're all wrapped up in a lot of awesomeness and don't take over the senses -- I never really lose that hope of victory for The Reckoners, though I come close at times.
There's also a lot of humor throughout, mainly with the protagonist, David, and his extreme lack of skill creating metaphors (a lot of this happens through inner dialogue and it's just hilarious watching him trying to reason out metaphors in his head).
:::::
Cover: the edition I have has the original cover, with the darker tones. I liked that one more than the current covers as I feel it conveyed more of the dark atmosphere. I will say though that the current covers appeal more to a YA audience, but I would have definitely went with darker hues on this first book (there's a meta-human that essentially shrouds Newcago in darkness forever).
Other than that I dig everything else.
Top reviews from other countries

It’s been a while since a Fantasy novel has truly engrossed me, but Brandon Sanderson is a magician amongst mere mortals. It’s usually within pages that I will be able to determine whether a novel is going to submerge me within its world, whether I mould between its pages…I was a goner by page two. Brandon Sanderson had my heart beating at a staccato rhythm and my imagination on red alert. He is the master of foreshadowing, a breaker of wills and the puppet master of emotion. This book was all kinds of awesome. Why on earth has it taken me so long to read Brandon Sanderson’s work?
Calamity has visited the earth and brought with its cataclysmic effects. It has in its wake created Epics, an evolved human if you will. They have superpowers, there is no rhyme or reason to the who or the why, but these epics are not the heroes the world is expecting. They use their powers for bad…they use it to control and manipulate. Their rule is absolute, and it’s done with an iron fist. Life is drastically altered for the average human being. They no longer have the luxuries and things they took for granted is no long gone. Things will never be the same again. The rule and policing from the United States Government has collapsed like a deck of cards. In its wake we have super epics making the rules and controlling the fractured states, some doing a better job of it than others. One such fractured state is the destroyed city of Chicago, now known as Newcago, ruled by an extremely powerful Epic, called Steelheart. This Epic has a mysterious past with non-epic human, David who will spend years plotting his revenge…
I have seen Steelheart bleed.
David has witnessed Steelheart at his most destructive and soul-less. The death of his father was at his monstrous hands. Killing him was nothing, no guilt, no remorse. It was necessary. After all, his father was the only one to make Steelheart bleed. David has dedicated ten years of his life researching the Epics powers and what can kill them. His research is the only thing that he cares about. He dreams that one day he will be the one responsible for ending Steelhearts vicious rule. He acquaints himself with a vigilante group, known simply as the reckoners – they have one job – to kill every Epic they can get their hands on, to provide hope, and faith to humankind that this rule can end. The group is made up of five members – Prof, Tia, Cody, Abraham and Megan. An intriguing group made up of the very existence of the human condition. They are fuelled by emotion, strength, an iron will and a badass attitude.
Just how do you kill an all-powerful being seem to defy physics and time. Epics than can create illusions to confuse their enemies. Epics that can power entire cities with the raw power they can harness. Epics that can harness the darkness to kill its prey. One thing that David continues to prove time and time again though, is that they all have a weakness. That one thing that can be used to kill them. But, how do they discover what that is?
David’s dogged determination is what gets him taken into The Reckoners fold. He has lived for nothing else but to take down Steelheart. The fact that he has seen him bleed has their immediate attention, no one has known why Steelheart got that scar, not even his right-hand men. Not everyone is enamoured with the new member but what is the reasoning behind it?
“Sometimes, son,” my father said, prying my fingers free, “you have to help the heroes along.”
A True David vs. Goliath story. The story encapsulates pedal to the metal. This is exactly how Young Adult should be written. The ending ensured I was in this for the long haul.
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I liked this book, it was written well, in the sand that it was written in a very engaging and easy to read style. It's written in first person, which I'm always a bit way of, but it was OK. A few things David said grated on me a bit, the metaphors and such. But generally it was OK. The story was good, it moved on at quite a good pace and we got to know all the characters quite well. The world building was also great, I felt as though I knew a lot about the world while reading, but didn't feel overwhelmed by all the information we were getting.
There were however a few things I didn't like about this book. The plot, while interesting was quite predictable. The pace also grated me, there so much build up! But the big fight that the characters were talking for most of the novel, only took place in the last 10% of the book! Which made it a little underwhelming I feel.
But I did enjoy this book, I'm not 100% sure that I will carry on with this series, I have heard so many wonderful things about Sanderson, that I feel a little cheated that I didn't love it! But perhaps this book is solely a YA read and if you are a bit older as I am, it doesn't enthrall you as much as it should do. So I think I may read another of Sanderson's books from another series, before I return to this trilogy.

The whole book turns the superhero genre on its head. Everyone with superpowers is a villain and the world is crying out for heroes to fight them.
Without giving anything away, Sanderson even provides plot twists for his own premise and this turns the whole book into a rollercoaster ride.
The main character is believable given his circumstances and I look forward to meeting him again T the next book.
I hope the rest of the series is as good.

Sanderson has a good imagination and constructs workable mythologies - everything makes sense and fits together, which is actually uncommon I find in sci-fi novels. (Spoilers) This is, however, basically the Matrix in structure and characters. The Matrix itself was compiled from other sources I know so can't complain, but the lack of originality - amongst the great originality - is quite noticeable. You have a small team of revolutionaries in a sci-fi setting trying to take down some super powerful bad guys. There is a muscley black dude who carries machine guns, a wise mysterious leader in a long black coat, a nerdy one who orchestrates the operation, a hot girl, and our hero the outsider who becomes crucial to the team and learns superpowered skills. They all run around underground tunnels, speed around on motorcycles, etc etc.
There is too much dialogue throughout, and seeing as each team member has one main character trait we keep hearing about, it begins to get a little tiring, but you do root for them and it's a page turning read. I downloaded the next novel straight away and am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next installment.

Its well written, doesn't drift off the way some of Brandon's work does but stays focused on the main plot. The storyline itself offers enough surprises to be entertaining without the requirement for 6th sense type twists and turns that are all too common and therefore less effective now.
Its not his best work but is undeniably enjoyable and the premise of the tale hasn't been overdone by thousands of other authors before.
Recommended