I know, better than anyone else, that there are no heroes coming to save us. There are no good Epics. None of them protect us. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
David learned that at a young age the first time he saw Steelheart, the day his father died. Since then he has lived his life with one goal and one goal only. To kill the Epic that killed his father.
This is my very first Brandon Sanderson novel and I loved it. Sometimes it is difficult for me to read UF from a male perspective it ends up being all about big boobs and girls in skin tight clothing and high heeled boots but that couldn’t be farther from the truth here. Brandon created a very intricate dystopian world in the wreckage of Chicago now referred to as Newcago. He has painstakingly thought out a class system for all of the Epics and the powers they use. He has also built a believable resistance of renegade humans that try to fight against them. I was definitely impressed with the sheer volume of thought that went into those two items of the story.
I was interested in this world from the beginning. David is a very likeable character he is a slight know it all but has the hardest time putting a metaphor together which kind of made him endearing to me. Once he meets up with the Renegades you can tell he really has been alone for most of his life and protector that I am I just wants him to win. Of course there is an older man to look up to has a substitute father figure that helps guide our young David out of his blind hate and need for revenge.
“It’s good for you to think of this, son. Ponder. Worry. Stay up nights, frightened for the casualties of your ideology. It will do you good to realize the price of fighting”
There are some really nice philosophical questions posed that can make this more than just a story of revenge. You have the choice to delve in and think of this world on a deeper level or just move on with the story. No agenda is forced on you which I appreciate as a reader.
There is a cute little crush romance that isn’t quite insta love but is heartwarming all the same and some very interesting developments that I really didn’t see coming. The story twisted just enough at the end that I really was surprised. I seriously had a moment of woe is that real.
Actionwise sometimes it is over the top for me (I’m a girl but my stepson disagrees with my assessment whole heartedly). It is an action book for sure and there are a lot of scenes with fighting and motorcycle chases and a final battle that goes on for multiple chapters.
All in all good storlyline, nice pacing, solid world building for a first book of a series and great start to the layering that I see will come out in future books in the series. All of the characters definitely have a backstory worth developing a little more.
I will definitely have to check out some of Mr. Sanderson’s other works if they compare to or are better than this one.
