Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

[Samsaptakas]

He focus too much on magic system. In one of his writing classes that I watched on youtube, he advised his students that 'Awesomeness triumph everything'.

[Frank Fitzpatrick]

Finished it last night.

Really enjoyed it actually. I'm pretty on the fence about Sanderson in general, as I can see both sides of the arguments about him. But, honestly it didn't feel like a Sanderson story, except for two or three awesome's dropped into dialogue. His prose felt much better constructed and despite my earlier claim in one of the other Sanderson threads, it was actually quite funny too.

I'd recommend.

[Maithanet]

Necroing this thread since I finished this last night. Overall, I thought this was a solid book, better than I expected. I didn't have too high an opinion of Sanderson after the WoT books, but this overall felt more genuine and compelling. Occasionally the prose is a little cringeworthy, but not so often that I wanted to stop reading. This is a very light, fast read, with a lot of momentum. But if you're willing to liberally apply your suspension of disbelief, it's a lot of fun.

About the ending:

Throughout the book, I was pretty sure that either Prof or Megan was an epic, but thought it would be a little too "crazy" to have BOTH of them, and never really considered that. So I guess I was a little surprised there, although I was aware of the clues wrt both of them being epics.

Did anyone else think that the reveal of Steelheart's weakness was kinda lame? I mean, I'm not really sure how David figured that out. But also it seems like a lot depends on how you define "fear" that plenty of people are just crazy or overconfident and therefore wouldn't really fear Steelheart. A lot of the "weaknesses" of the epics sorta falls apart if you think about it too much.

[deleted01]

Read this a few weeks or so ago. I really enjoyed it. Having never read anything by Sanderson before, I thought it was a decent book. I should be receiving a review copy of the novella which is coming out soon.

I've got some of his other books on my wishlist. Hoping to get to them soon.

[Maithanet]

Read the second book in the series, Firefight. Wasn't as good as the first, and the prose remains cringeworthy at times. But this is still the kind of book that you can roll through in a couple of days and generally enjoy it. At one point I thought they were setting up a love triangle, which would have been a terrible choice. But apparently the series is a little too chaste for that, as the main character is utterly oblivious to other women.

On the details:

I felt like the fact that the main epic they were hunting wasn't actually trying to kill them, but instead recruit/turn Jon made it a lot less tense. A disinterested villain is rarely compelling.

Book 3 has some potential though. We'll see.

[Mars447]

Firefight would probably have been better if it had parts from Firefight's perspective, since she's an infinitely better and less annoying character.

Sanderson's voice for David is off. It makes him sound like he's fifteen, not older than that.

[Liffguard]

I'm a little late to the party here. I tried to read Steelheart a few months ago and couldn't get past 50 pages or so. I just found the prose too clunky and stilted. I physically winced at a couple of passages. I've tried to get into Sanderson before but this was the book that finally convinced me that he just wasn't for me.

[jurble]

Currently reading book two and

crossed. “I’m mostly convinced that every time I die, my ‘reincarnation’ is really just my powers summoning out of another dimension a version of myself that didn’t die.”

Sanderson, Brandon (2015-01-06). Firefight (Reckoners Book 2) (p. 286). Random House Children's Books. Kindle Edition.

And here I thought Joey Joestar had defeated President Valentine!

[Jussi]

Blurb for Calamity, book three:

From the bestselling author of the Mistborn series and Words of Radiance comes Calamity, the final book in the New York Times bestselling Reckoners series. What started in the instant #1 New York Times bestseller Steelheart and continued in the instant #1 New York Times bestseller Firefight now concludes in Calamity.

When Calamity lit up the sky, the Epics were born. David’s fate has been tied to their villainy ever since that historic night. Steelheart killed his father. Firefight stole his heart. And now Regalia has turned his closest ally into a dangerous enemy.

David knew Prof’s secret, and kept it even when Prof struggled to control the effects of his Epic powers. But facing Obliteration in Babilar was too much. Once the Reckoners’ leader, Prof has now embraced his Epic destiny. He’s disappeared into those murky shadows of menace Epics are infamous for the world over, and everyone knows there’s no turning back….

But everyone is wrong. Redemption is possible for Epics—Megan proved it. They’re not lost. Not completely. And David is just about crazy enough to face down the most powerful High Epic of all to get his friend back. Or die trying.

http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com/ProductDetailPage.aspx?sku=0385743602

[BigFatCoward]

I gave up halfway through book 2. Utter shit.