I was surprised to see that it was completely centered on people who didn't have powers. Adopting a world where super-powered people (or Epics) were almost exclusively villains and took over cities, ruling as dictators. It was actually very intriguing, David describes a lot about Chicago's transformation to a Steel City, and this almost dystopian look at a world ruled by "Gods" was unique way to start a super hero story.
This became more interesting as we get Abraham's "religion" where he believes one day good Epics will come to save them. It gave me hope that eventually we would be reading from powered people that are good.
I grew really interested in their discussion of whats right and wrong. Megan's point of view was compelling, her thought process to why Steelheart wasn't that bad. Then a couple of chapters later you get Profs perspective of how they shouldn't settle for that to be the normal.
It really shows what kind of tough world they live in, with no right answers, and no perfect way.
I didnt realize at first, but this book has a very similar story to Mistborn. Rag tag group of revolutionist work to take down the big bad. I will say the defining difference is they are more like mercenaries killing ANY Epics and they just happened to be focused on this one because of Davids Vendetta.
I was so intrigued by the mystery of the book the whole way through! Ive gotten used to Sanderson crafting interesting plot reveals, and wanting to know what Steelhearts weakness is Plus the secrets brought up during Part 2's Power Plant scene added even more to the list of curiosities. I'm really interested to find out what would happen and had me on the edge of my seat because I feel like we are pages away from something terrible happening and blowing up in their face.
Unfortunately, there was alot of foreshadowing of Davids plans being risky, and Prof threatening him if David hurt the team. It had me chomping at the bits, but this wasn't really paid off. There was definitely some negatives here, not a perfect story.
I usually dont care for when they input romances in books like this. I grew tired of how often David thought and spoke of Megan. But that really started to turn around during the Part 2 where he talks more about how different she is, and not afraid. It became tolerable once we knew there was a better reason than just, "shes hot". So though the romance wasn't my favorite subplot, it was still handled relatively well with David having alot of self awareness of how ridiculous he was being.
Some other negatives is how sometimes juvenile it came off. There was hardly consequences for David, as I said above, it seemed to foreshadow that his improvisation would lead to some issues, which it never did. David's character also seemed to know a little bit too much about everything but Sanderson softened this by Davids backstory. I mean, he spent 10 years after his fathers death doing nothing but training for this, he had the motivation and the drive to do this. So even if its not a favorable way to write a character, the build up and back story supports this. My final gripe with David is he had this odd "shtick" of basically making bad metaphors. It was kind of cringey. But again, Sanderson cushioned this with David basically being naive as how to be social.
Furthermore, if you read alot of Sanderson, he usually gets creative with his curse words. Mistborn and Stormlight is reasonable. I dont remember if Elantris had it, it probably did. But this book, it just seems unnecessary. We're in our world, not a fantasy one. Using Sparks and Slontze was really weird. I did like Calamity though, it was fitting considering the world that it grew into.
Those were really most of my negatives, it wasn't anything major. Sanderson usually always has the background and build up to why things happen the way they do, so you can understand it, even if you dont like it. I would say, however, if you're a heavy character driven reader, you may not like this. Most of the characters aren't bad, but just seem like back up dressing to David. I think my least favorite is Cody, which again if you've read Sanderson, comes off as his early attempts at Wit (from Stormlight) or Wayne (from Mistborn 2nd Era) His character reasons behind why he acted made sense, but his quirks were still odd.
David, overall, was still really good. I tire of these "young" characters who still win but show not competence throughout the story. I enjoyed how David theorized and how competent he was at what he did. I'm very interested to see how he grows.
In typical Sanderson fashion (which has been a phrase I've been using a while now when reviewing his books) it usually comes down to final reveals, build up, and plot twists. So lets get into some final spoiler discussion about the ending.
Megan - I assumed she hadn't had died, she went out too unceremoniously for that. I really did assume she was an epic. The foreshadowing was alittle ham-fisted, especially in the elevator, and then definitely in the motorcycle chase. I actually thought she was going to be that Epic they killed earlier when getting Davids notes. And she killed the real Megan and took her over. I DIDN'T expect her to be Firefight, which just seems obvious to me now since I figured she was an illusionist, and they said Firefight was illusionist, I'm a little ashamed I didnt piece it together until the final fight when he started to see her.
I thought it was interesting, and a nice touch, that her powers faked the dowser test.
Over all I think it was interesting, I was hoping she more faked her death than actually reincarnated, that was super out of left field and didnt as much care for that reveal. I like that we didnt get any kind of reciprocation of the romance from her in this book.
She obviously raises big question about how them using their powers "changes them", so Im intrigued for the sequel.
Prof - I also didnt catch him being a Epic until the final fight where I began to assume that he just wore gloves to make it look like he wasn't an Epic. I REALLY didn't see him being able to gift them. I thought that was super interesting. I actually just thought that he was one of the Epic's experimented on, and he escaped, killing the scientists and taking the technology they made from him.
I, ofcourse, didnt bring this up in my non spoiler, but I like how this reveal DID give us that plot of "good" Epics stopping bad. It doesnt even diminish the "regular people " stopping Epics because thats why we have David.
Just like with Megan we have this whole mystery as to what happens to them when they use their powers.
Steelheart- I DID not guess the Fear weakness. That was pretty cool. I liked how it still wasn't obvious and kept me in suspense the whole book, its why I read it so fast, I NEEDED to know what it was!
It really shows what kind of tough world they live in, with no right answers, and no perfect way.
I didnt realize at first, but this book has a very similar story to Mistborn. Rag tag group of revolutionist work to take down the big bad. I will say the defining difference is they are more like mercenaries killing ANY Epics and they just happened to be focused on this one because of Davids Vendetta.
I was so intrigued by the mystery of the book the whole way through! Ive gotten used to Sanderson crafting interesting plot reveals, and wanting to know what Steelhearts weakness is Plus the secrets brought up during Part 2's Power Plant scene added even more to the list of curiosities. I'm really interested to find out what would happen and had me on the edge of my seat because I feel like we are pages away from something terrible happening and blowing up in their face.
Unfortunately, there was alot of foreshadowing of Davids plans being risky, and Prof threatening him if David hurt the team. It had me chomping at the bits, but this wasn't really paid off. There was definitely some negatives here, not a perfect story.
I usually dont care for when they input romances in books like this. I grew tired of how often David thought and spoke of Megan. But that really started to turn around during the Part 2 where he talks more about how different she is, and not afraid. It became tolerable once we knew there was a better reason than just, "shes hot". So though the romance wasn't my favorite subplot, it was still handled relatively well with David having alot of self awareness of how ridiculous he was being.
Some other negatives is how sometimes juvenile it came off. There was hardly consequences for David, as I said above, it seemed to foreshadow that his improvisation would lead to some issues, which it never did. David's character also seemed to know a little bit too much about everything but Sanderson softened this by Davids backstory. I mean, he spent 10 years after his fathers death doing nothing but training for this, he had the motivation and the drive to do this. So even if its not a favorable way to write a character, the build up and back story supports this. My final gripe with David is he had this odd "shtick" of basically making bad metaphors. It was kind of cringey. But again, Sanderson cushioned this with David basically being naive as how to be social.
Furthermore, if you read alot of Sanderson, he usually gets creative with his curse words. Mistborn and Stormlight is reasonable. I dont remember if Elantris had it, it probably did. But this book, it just seems unnecessary. We're in our world, not a fantasy one. Using Sparks and Slontze was really weird. I did like Calamity though, it was fitting considering the world that it grew into.
Those were really most of my negatives, it wasn't anything major. Sanderson usually always has the background and build up to why things happen the way they do, so you can understand it, even if you dont like it. I would say, however, if you're a heavy character driven reader, you may not like this. Most of the characters aren't bad, but just seem like back up dressing to David. I think my least favorite is Cody, which again if you've read Sanderson, comes off as his early attempts at Wit (from Stormlight) or Wayne (from Mistborn 2nd Era) His character reasons behind why he acted made sense, but his quirks were still odd.
David, overall, was still really good. I tire of these "young" characters who still win but show not competence throughout the story. I enjoyed how David theorized and how competent he was at what he did. I'm very interested to see how he grows.
In typical Sanderson fashion (which has been a phrase I've been using a while now when reviewing his books) it usually comes down to final reveals, build up, and plot twists. So lets get into some final spoiler discussion about the ending.
Megan - I assumed she hadn't had died, she went out too unceremoniously for that. I really did assume she was an epic. The foreshadowing was alittle ham-fisted, especially in the elevator, and then definitely in the motorcycle chase. I actually thought she was going to be that Epic they killed earlier when getting Davids notes. And she killed the real Megan and took her over. I DIDN'T expect her to be Firefight, which just seems obvious to me now since I figured she was an illusionist, and they said Firefight was illusionist, I'm a little ashamed I didnt piece it together until the final fight when he started to see her.
I thought it was interesting, and a nice touch, that her powers faked the dowser test.
Over all I think it was interesting, I was hoping she more faked her death than actually reincarnated, that was super out of left field and didnt as much care for that reveal. I like that we didnt get any kind of reciprocation of the romance from her in this book.
She obviously raises big question about how them using their powers "changes them", so Im intrigued for the sequel.
Prof - I also didnt catch him being a Epic until the final fight where I began to assume that he just wore gloves to make it look like he wasn't an Epic. I REALLY didn't see him being able to gift them. I thought that was super interesting. I actually just thought that he was one of the Epic's experimented on, and he escaped, killing the scientists and taking the technology they made from him.
I, ofcourse, didnt bring this up in my non spoiler, but I like how this reveal DID give us that plot of "good" Epics stopping bad. It doesnt even diminish the "regular people " stopping Epics because thats why we have David.
Just like with Megan we have this whole mystery as to what happens to them when they use their powers.
Steelheart- I DID not guess the Fear weakness. That was pretty cool. I liked how it still wasn't obvious and kept me in suspense the whole book, its why I read it so fast, I NEEDED to know what it was!
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