Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

384 pages

"Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary people extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man, you must crush his will.

Now, in what was once Chicago, an astonishingly powerful Epic named Steelheart has installed himself as emperor. Steelheart possesses the strength of ten men and can control the elements. It is said that no bullet can harm him, no sword can split his skin, and no fire can burn him. He is invincible. Nobody fights back...nobody but the Reckoners.

A shadowy group of ordinary humans, the Reckoners spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in.

When Steelheart came to Chicago, he killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David has been studying, and planning, and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He has seen Steelheart bleed.
And he wants revenge." -Dust Jacket

I'd seen this book floating around on bestseller lists and read several reviews about how great of an author Brandon Sanderson is, so I decided to give it a go. The book's description sucked me in too.

This is a comic book in novel form where almost all of the superheroes are bad guys. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I have to admit, Sanderson pretty much had me hooked once I started reading some of their names: Steelheart, Nightwielder, Firefight, Conflux, etc. For ten years David has studied the Epics and their weaknesses, keeping notes on their strengths and weaknesses with the intent of one day getting his revenge on Steelheart. Sanderson gives the Epics pretty cool powers as well as different levels of power so more powerful Epics can rule over lesser ones and use them for their own purposes. Meanwhile the humans barely get by and live in fear.

David is obsessed with joining the Reckoners and so he studies them and starts to predict who they'll hit next so that he can find them. He sort of helps/hinders them when they go after an Epic named Fortuity. One thing that bugged me just a little throughout the book was the constant reference to how inaccurate/unreliable hand guns are and how rifles are better. I just didn't think it was necessary. David's knowledge of Epics and their powers comes in handy on several occasions and I liked that he knew so much about them. It made the story more interesting.

There were some great twists at the end which will of course play into what is inevitably going to be a series. Why can't authors write good stand-alone books of this sort anymore?! It's frustrating to have to wait a year or more but I'll definitely re-read this one before the next one comes out this fall. It was hard to put down so I'm sure I missed some smaller details as I read it fast. There are still a lot of unanswered questions, the biggest one being what caused Calamity and why were only some humans turned into Epics.