Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Summary

There are no heroes.

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.

My thoughts

I hadn’t thought it possible but Brandon Sanderson is still able to surprise me with fascinating ideas and awesome worldbuilding. Steelheart is yet another reason why he is worth being called a favorite author of mine, something he became real fast.
Steelheart is an action packed adventure that would fit perfectly in the Marvel universe and I can picture as a movie very well. It’s both exciting and funny and everyone who loves villains just as much as heroes should read this book.

Action packed right from the start until the very end

From the very first page you are thrown into this epic story about people with all kinds of weird and sometimes awesome super powers. There is no slow introduction into what the world has become since these powers emerged but an event that entails a lot of people being dead. From there on follow lots of fights between different groups of people and it never gets boring. You’ll get a constant stream of enthralling events followed by an epic show down at the end of the book just like it’s supposed to with these kinds of super hero stories.

A POV I liked right from the start

The story is told from an eighteen years old guy who sucks at metaphors. That might me a weird characteristic, but he always tries again and again and always fails big time. Thus this character made me laugh out loud all the time.
I loved to read about him because he is so determined. He knows exactly what he wants and does everything he can to accomplish that. And it is an awesome adventure to follow, to see him reach for his goal. Even though he could always make me laugh, even in horrible situations, he can also be serious and focused when needed.

A funny, adorable group of people

Even though this is a story about people with powers, it mostly concentrates on characters who don’t have any. It was such an interesting perspective. These people fight for a better life, they want to take back what those villains took from them and this makes for a story that’s just as interesting as reading about the people with powers themselves.
David joins a group of people that, after a short while, felt like family. I loved each one of them and they were fun to read about because each one of them is different, they have different skills and there are both teens and adults which made for an interesting group dynamic.

Lots of villains with all kinds of powers

What I loved about this book the most is that there are so many different powers. All kinds of things these people can do. Even more fun to read about were their weaknesses. It seemed like every single person who got powers turned evil which makes a huge bunch of villains for this story. To fight or even kill them you have to know their secret or you’ll fail. Some of these weaknesses made me laugh out loud when I read about them. They are always directly related to the specific person and some seemed to have weird fears to end up with such funny weaknesses.

Awesome SciFi inventions

This book is not even that SciFi-heavy but there is still some awesome technology involved. Some powers make interesting gadgets possible that made me want to climb into the book to use them too.

Once again Brandon Sanderson delivers an epic story that blew my mind with its awesomeness. Even though there was this one “big secret” I already figured out pretty early, it was always thrilling and I didn’t want to put the book down once. I can’t wait to read more about this villain invested world and about more epic fights.