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![Steelheart (The Reckoners Book 1) by [Brandon Sanderson]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51C8j5NdmcL._SY346_.jpg)
Steelheart (The Reckoners Book 1) Kindle Edition
Brandon Sanderson (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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The #1 New York Times bestseller from Brandon Sanderson, the author of Oathbringer, coauthor of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn trilogy. And don’t miss the rest of the Reckoners series: Firefight and Calamity.
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.
Look for book two in the Reckoners series, Firefight, available now.
#1 New York Times Bestselling Series
“Another win for Sanderson . . . he’s simply a brilliant writer. Period.” —Patrick Rothfuss, author of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller The Name of the Wind
“Action-packed.” —EW.com
“Compelling. . . . Sanderson uses plot twists that he teases enough for readers to pick up on to distract from the more dramatic reveals he has in store.” —The A.V. Club
- Reading age12 - 15 years
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level7 - 9
- Lexile measure680L
- PublisherDelacorte Press
- Publication dateSeptember 24, 2013
- ISBN-109780449818398
- ISBN-13978-0385743563
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Amazon.com Review
Q&A with Brandon Sanderson (Interviewed by James Dashner)
Q. Brandon, you’re perhaps best known for your adult books—Mistborn, The Way of Kings, and particularly for finishing Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. However, recently you’ve undertaken several projects for younger readers. Why is that? How does it feel to be entering into the world of YA fiction? How does it differ from writing for an adult audience? How do you possibly think you can compete with your friend, James Dashner?
A. I've known this guy James Dashner for so long, and he was such an inspiration to me, and I thought, if this joker can do it, then I can too! The sci-fi/fantasy genre is what made a reader out of me, and it has a long history of crossing the line between YA and adult fiction. For example, you mentioned The Wheel of Time. In the early books, the main protagonists are all teenagers. Are these books YA? The publishers don't classify them that way. They’re shelved with the adult fantasy books. Books like that have influenced me in that some of the stories I tell fit into the mold that society says will package well as YA books. Other stories I tell—that are a thousand pages long—don’t seem to fit that mold. But I don’t sit down and say, “I’m writing for a teen audience now. I need to change my entire style.” Instead, I say, “This project and the way I’m writing it feels like it would work well for a teen audience.”
Q. In previous interviews, you’ve mentioned that you come up with characters, worlds, and magic systems independently and then fit them together to create a book. How is that different when writing a YA book like Steelheart? Are certain worlds or magic systems more suitable for YA readers? And how in the world did you get so smart?
A. Ha! I do a lot of talking about the process of writing. That makes it sound like I’m doing it more consciously than I am, but at this point I do most of it by instinct. I do take things like characters, settings, and magic systems—all these little fragments and pieces—and put them together into stories. Whether I’m writing YA or adult, this process doesn’t vary. Some of these elements feel better suited for a teen audience, so when everything starts coming together as it does when a book is forming for me, some stories naturally gravitate toward YA. To me Steelheart is distinctive because it was one of those stories where all the elements came together at the same time. Once I got the idea—people gaining super powers but only evil people getting them—the story basically started to write itself in my head. It happened during a four-hour drive along the East Coast, where by the end of it, I basically had this entire story. I knew where it was going, and I was really excited to write it. That's rare for me, but sometimes it does happen where everything clicks right at the beginning.
Q. Can you give us a sense of the world in which Steelheart takes place? Why do you think this world worked well for these particular characters?
A. Technically, Steelheart is set in a post-apocalyptic world where super villains gained powers and took over. I wanted it to feel alien and familiar at the same time and to be very visual. So I wrote it to be kind of like an action movie in book form. One of my catchphrases that I use when talking about writing is ”Err on the side of awesomeness.” So I wanted the setting and feel of the book to be visually distinctive and awesome.
When I designed Steelheart, the emperor of Chicago, I wanted him to have the power of transmutation—he turns things into steel. The idea that, in a burst of power, he turned the entire city—and even part of the lake—into steel was fascinating to me. This renders a lot of things useless. When your streetlights and all their wiring have been turned into steel, everything short circuits and doesn’t work anymore. You can’t get into buildings because their doors and windows have been melded together. The whole city has become a shell—like the husk of a dead beetle—and people have built on top of it. It’s always perpetual twilight there, so we’ve got this cool feel of everything being steel at night.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.About the Author
From School Library Journal
Review
An ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Book
An ALA-YALSA Teens' Top Ten Book
An IRA Young Adults' Choice
An Amazon Best Book of the Year
[STAR] "Snappy dialogue, bizarre plot twists, high intensity action, and a touch of mystery and romance; it's a formula that sucks readers into the prologue, slings them through one tension-filled encounter after the other, and then...leaves them panting for the sequel."--"Booklist", Starred
"The near-constant action, Sanderson's whiz-bang imaginings, and a fully realized sense of danger... make this an absolute page-turner."--"Publisher's Weekly"
"Perfect for genre fans who love exciting adventure stories with surprising plot twists."--"School Library Journal"
" "
"A straight-up Marvel Comics-style action drama featuring a small band of human assassins taking on costumed, superpowered supervillains with melodramatic monikers."--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Fantastic! The suspense is relentless and the climax explosive, with a resolution that I'll be thinking about for a long time." --James Dashner, "New York Times" bestselling author of the Maze Runner series and The Eye of Minds
"Unfortunately for my ego, Steelheart is another win for Sanderson, proving that he's not a brilliant writer of epic fantasy, he's simply a brilliant writer. Period." --Patrick Rothfuss, author of the "New York Times" and "USA Today" bestseller The Name of the Wind
"From the Hardcover edition."
[STAR] "Snappy dialogue, bizarre plot twists, high intensity action, and a touch of mystery and romance; it's a formula that sucks readers into the prologue, slings them through one tension-filled encounter after the other, and then...leaves them panting for the sequel."--"Booklist", Starred
"The near-constant action, Sanderson's whiz-bang imaginings, and a fully realized sense of danger... make this an absolute page-turner."--"Publisher's Weekly"
"Perfect for genre fans who love exciting adventure stories with surprising plot twists."--"School Library Journal"
" "
"A straight-up Marvel Comics-style action drama featuring a small band of human assassins taking on costumed, superpowered supervillains with melodramatic monikers."--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Fantastic! The suspense is relentless and the climax explosive, with a resolution that I'll be thinking about for a long time." --James Dashner, "New York Times" bestselling author of the Maze Runner series and The Eye of Minds
"Unfortunately for my ego, Steelheart is another win for Sanderson, proving that he's not a brilliant writer of epic fantasy, he's simply a brilliant writer. Period." --Patrick Rothfuss, author of the "New York Times" and "USA Today" bestseller The Name of the Wind
"From the Hardcover edition."
[Star] "Snappy dialogue, bizarre plot twists, high intensity action, and a touch of mystery and romance; it's a formula that sucks readers into the prologue, slings them through one tension-filled encounter after the other, and then...leaves them panting for the sequel."--"Booklist"
"The near-constant action, Sanderson's whiz-bang imaginings, and a fully realized sense of danger... make this an absolute page-turner."--"Publisher's Weekly"
"Perfect for genre fans who love exciting adventure stories with surprising plot twists."--"School Library Journal"
" "
"A straight-up Marvel Comics-style action drama featuring a small band of human assassins taking on costumed, superpowered supervillains with melodramatic monikers."--"Kirkus Reviews"
"Fantastic! The suspense is relentless and the climax explosive, with a resolution that I'll be thinking about for a long time." --James Dashner, "New York Times" bestselling author of the Maze Runner series and The Eye of Minds
"Unfortunately for my ego, Steelheart is another win for Sanderson, proving that he's not a brilliant writer of epic fantasy, he's simply a brilliant writer. Period." --Patrick Rothfuss, author of the "New York Times" and "USA Today" bestseller The Name of the Wind
"From the Hardcover edition."
Starred Review, Booklist, September 1, 2013:
"Snappy dialogue, bizarre plot twists, high intensity action, and a touch of mystery and romance; it's a formula that sucks readers into the prologue, slings them through one tension-filled encounter after the other, and then, at the strange and marginally hopeful conclusion, leaves them panting for the sequel, "Firefight", due in 2014." --This text refers to the library edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B00ARHAAZ6
- Publisher : Delacorte Press (September 24, 2013)
- Publication date : September 24, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 7282 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 388 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0606360271
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #48,411 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

I'm Brandon Sanderson, and I write stories of the fantastic: fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers.
In November 2020 we saw the release of Rhythm of War—the fourth massive book in the New York Times #1 bestselling Stormlight Archive series that began with The Way of Kings—and Dawnshard (book 3.5), a novella set in the same world that bridges the gaps between the main releases. This series is my love letter to the epic fantasy genre, and it's the type of story I always dreamed epic fantasy could be.
November 2018 marked the release of Skyward, the first book in a new YA quartet about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world under alien attack. The follow-up, Starsight, was released December 2019. Also out that year was the final volume of the Stephen Leeds saga, Legion: Lies of the Beholder, which was also published in an omnibus edition, Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds, that includes all three volumes.
Most readers have noticed that my adult fantasy novels are in a connected universe, called the Cosmere. This includes The Stormlight Archive, both Mistborn series, Elantris, Warbreaker, and various novellas available on Amazon, including The Emperor's Soul, which won a Hugo Award in 2013. In November 2016 all of the existing Cosmere short fiction including those novellas was released in one volume called Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection. If you've read all of my adult fantasy novels and want to see some behind-the-scenes information, that collection is a must-read.
I also have three YA series: The Rithmatist (currently at one book), The Reckoners (a trilogy beginning with Steelheart), and Skyward. For young readers I also have my humorous series Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. Many of my adult readers enjoy all of those books as well, and many of my YA readers enjoy my adult books, usually starting with Mistborn.
Additionally, I have a few other novellas that are more on the thriller/sci-fi side. These include the Legion series, as well as Perfect State and Snapshot. There's a lot of material to go around!
Good starting places are Mistborn (a.k.a. The Final Empire), Skyward, Steelheart, The Emperor's Soul, and Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians. If you're already a fan of big fat fantasies, you can jump right into The Way of Kings.
I was also honored to be able to complete the final three volumes of The Wheel of Time, beginning with The Gathering Storm, using Robert Jordan's notes.
Sample chapters from all of my books are available at https://www.brandonsanderson.com/books-and-art/—and check out the rest of my site for chapter-by-chapter annotations, deleted scenes, and more.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022
Top reviews from the United States
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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.
The narration, because I did immersion reading, was one of the best narrators I have listened to!! He did embody the main character, and it was so real, so human, you could have told the narrator was having fun! I sure did! Putting this on track top reads of the year!!
This book does not disappoint. It is definitely more simplistic in word choice and a bit more predictable than his other novels, but this is appropriate for a Young Adult audience. As a former English teacher, I can say with relative certainty that unless your teenager is already reading on a highly advanced level, they will be excited and surprised by the twists and turns in plot.
Although it was written for a YA audience, Sanderson's skills in humor, suspense, action, and character development made this an entertaining book for me to read, as well.
I've bought the rest of the books in the series and will definitely be reading them before I gift them to my niece, who I'm sure will also love them.
Something about Steelheart and the rest of the Reckoners series leaves me wanting more. I desperately want David to become a powered individual and overcome the odds, or at least become some sort of epic with simile-inspired powers, because my similes are like pennies. You know, they're not worth very much, but they could derail something pretty big, useful and expensive.
Where was I? Oh, right. I bought two years of Kindle Unlimited because of this book and the rest of the series. Not the first of the Brandon Sanderson books I've ever read, and definitely not the last. I'm figuratively sitting on pins and needles waiting on Rhythm of War (or whatever Stormlight Archive Book 4 will be named). Admittedly, it's a good problem to have an author that can't write fast enough to keep you satisfied. I've found that in Brandon Sanderson, and I'll definitely be revisiting his books for a long time. Steelheart was inspiration for me to hungrily search for superhero fiction outside the Marvel/DC universes, and I've found some interesting books along the way.
Oh, and I bought the Reckoners series even though they're not on Kindle Unlimited. I've read the series four times now, and I enjoy it every time. Highly recommended, even though the similes are lighter in Steelheart than in the other books. They're like...nevermind. I'll spare you further torture in my woefully inadequate simile repertoire.
It is important to point out that, while I give this 5 stars, it is a different kind of 5 stars. The world is not as fleshed out as Sanderson’s epic fantasy works and there are only a handful of characters in this book.
The book is basically an action movie in book form, with splashes of sci fi fantasy. It is a rollercoaster ride for sure.
I’ve been having trouble getting a book to keep my attention the last few months, but this book . . . I just read in less than a week or so. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Except I guess maybe I hadn't read it so stinking fast. Now my life is on hold for a couple of days as I finish the rest of the series...
But it is so. Worth. It.
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.

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.

- The beautiful girl who initially hates the hero but is initially won round to become his doting lapdog - looked like it would happen but didn't!
- The legendary mentor who for no reason has to take a back seat to the young inexperienced protagonist (Gandalf anyone?) - looked like it would happen but didn't!
Only real criticisms would be that the dialogue is a little clunky and the Reckoners are a little too quick to start listening to their new rookie's suggestions and theories.
I am eager to continue by reading Firefight, and it's not often the first book of a trilogy/series inspires me to keep going with it.

Imagine a world full of super-humans. But instead of great power bringing great responsibility, it only brings corruption . . . and evil. Only a dedicated band of humans, calling themselves the Reckoners, work to find a way of defeating them; the Epics.
David is the only person alive who has seen Steelheart, the Epic who rules over Newcago, bleed. He hopes that secret will be his passport to joining the Reckoners. He has spent the last ten years studying the Epics for a chance at vengeance, a chance to make Steelheart bleed again and avenge his father's murder. However, David didn't fully understand what that would entail until he is caught in the middle of a hit on an Epic. David must survive long enough to prove his worth to the Reckoners and somehow convince them that he can defeat the most powerful Epic in the world; Steelheart.
This is essentially a revenge story set in a post-apocalyptic world caused and now ruled by superheroes. Whilst there seems to be a good effort to classify and explain the various superpowers on display, it lacks the hard edge theoretical science to be true SF. The characters themselves comment on this by stating that no one really understands why these people have become supers, though it is alluded to that a huge red comet stuck in the Earth's orbit has something to do with it, and that the powers and weaknesses are somewhat illogical. The story is entirely contained within Newcago, formerly Chicago until Steelheart, in a rare display of his powers, caused most of the city to turn into metal. Steelheart rules his domain with an iron-fist, destroying anyone who defies his rules, with the highest crime being acts of attrition against any Epic. However, in comparison to other parts of the world, Newcago is a veritable haven, with people generally protected from attack from anyone other than Steelheart's inner circle, plus running water and electricity and a police force to ensure law and order. The ground level and the high-rises are reserved for Epics and those humans that serve them, e.g. accountants, scientists, engineers, etc. Most of the rest of humanity live underground in subterranean levels burrowed out by people "gifted" with the ability to burrow through metal. "Gifting" is one of the cooler innovations Sanderson has attributed to a rare few Epics. Its kind of the reverse of David Farland's Runelords, or if you like, the opposite to Rogue's (X-Men) powers, i.e. an Epic can gift one of his abilities for a limited time to a normal human being.
The story is told in the first person, with David as the viewpoint protagonist, filling in the reader with his encyclopedic knowledge of Epics. David has been shaped by the traumatic experience of watching his father murdered before his eyes by Steelheart and then spent the next ten years of his life gathering as much intel on Epics, whilst trying to keep his head low and working in a weapon's factory becoming an expert in guns. The supporting cast is made up of the Reckoners, with Megan, a red headed femme fatale that favors pistols over rifles, Cody, a Scotsman from Tennesee with a penchant for wild stories, Abraham, a French-Canadian who provides the voice of reason and superior marksman skills, Tia, a tech wizard with a sweet-tooth for Cola and Prof, the enigmatic leader of the Reckoners.
The writing and dialogue is solid and functional, telling the story well enough with little artistic flair. But perhaps that isn't so important in the bigger picture of presenting an interesting take on the superhuman mythos. The plot really does come into its own after David has become a fixture within the Reckoners. I found some of the twist perdictabe, nevertheless the execution of these twists and the pacing is faultless, with the big reveal at the end still worthy of the time invested in the book by the reader.
Sanderson supposedly developed the original idea in 2007, but it is difficult not to draw parralells with the plot of Injustice: Gods Amongst Us, in which Superman is tricked into killing Lois Lane by the Joker (just like Herucles was tricked by Hera), who then kills the Joker in cold blood, then goes on to establishing his dominion over the world and all the other superheroes and villains. The Reckoners sound a lot like a dispersed and under-funded version of Batman Inc, with the Prof even doing a good impression of the Bat in his black lab coat and apparell. There are even a few nods in the story to Superman, with David's dad wearing a Superman tshirt when he is killed by Steelheart, who incedently could be a dead-ringer for the last son of Krypton, and Abraham wears an "S" shaped locket around his neck. Despite these similarities and homages, Steelheart still comes across as an original take on the superhero mythos and will definitely appeal to fans of Tom Reynold's Meta and the Double Helix series by Jade Kerrion. There is a good chance that Steelheart will be picked up by Hollywood and will grace the silverscreen in the not to distant future. What I would like to see is a video-game adaptation of this book. Would I read the inevitable sequel? Most definitely, yes.