Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson: A Book Review

"Where there are villains, there will be heroes." My father's voice. "Just wait, they will come." Steelheart raised a glowing hand. "Sometimes, son, you have to help the heroes along..." And suddenly, I knew.

People with superpowers are appearing and no one knows how or why, not even themselves. What people do know is that Epics - the new super powered humans - are evil. How can powerless, terrified humans stop their reign of terror?

Enter the Reckoners - they may be powerless but they are definitely not helpless. They are a force to be... well, reckoned with. That is why David, someone who lost too much to the Epics, wants to join the last group of people fighting against the evil monsters. He wants his revenge against Steelheart, the terrifying Epic that runs Newcago (new Chicago). He soon learns that the Reckoners are not what they seem, and neither are all the Epics he despises.

The first book of this series is a lot fun and I definitely appreciated the fact that the story was pretty much complete which is rare in serial fiction nowadays.

The world building is interesting and simple. A comet appears out of nowhere and suddenly people with superpowers appear but they're obviously evil and not at all heroic. Like I said, simple but rich.

The characters are intriguing as well, even though I didn't really enjoy the romance that was blooming between two of the characters. It felt a little forced and I personally would have enjoyed the story a bit more if there was no romance.

The writing was fast paced, had a lot of action, but was a little cheesy. The metaphors were funny at first, but it got a little too much at times. It may just be that I don't enjoy metaphors? Maybe a pun-filled David would have been a lot more effective.

Rating: 4/5