Calamity

Calamity (The Reckoners Book 3)  by Brandon Sanderson

Sniff. Sniff. Calamity is the conclusion to the Sanderson's excellent Reckoners series. The ending was not at all what I anticipated, but was a not a downer. The book was fast paced an exciting, with enough twists to keep it unpredictably interesting. It is sad to see the series end.

Firefight

Firefight is Young Adult love story interspersed with loads of action. (Attack of the Clones comes to mind.) We also delve deeper into the Epics. They all seem to have powers and weaknesses that are somewhat related to their life prior to becoming an Epic. The use of their power corrupts them, leading them to use it more and become more evil. Even if they use their power for good, that use tends to corrupt them and make them use it more for destruction. Some Epics lose all self control and go on power-grabbing destructive binges. Others have a little more self control and can limit the use of power to their advantage (though they still tend to use it at the expense of humans.) It is a rare Epic that can not fight against humanity. (And to do that, they have to significantly limit their use of power.)

There seems to be one exception to this - gifting power. Some Epics have the ability to gift their power to others with no ill effects. If they perform the action themselves, they become corrupt, but they can seemingly give an endless amount to others without becoming evil.

We also learn the weaknesses are related to a past experience in a human life.

People have freedom to chose to accept or deny power. Most people will acept because, hey, who wouldn't wnat super powers? However, once they accept, the freedom of what to do with your life is significantly curtailed. (It is not easy being Clark Kent when everybody knows you are superman.)

We had picked this book up after seeing Brandon Sanderson at a local bookstore. It was a quick read that same week, and I intended to have this up on the blog right then. Only it has not happened. And now it is a couple months later.

I do remember that I really loved this book. It was one of the best books I've read - until the very end. (It seemed as if a few details were just slapped together there.) However, it was still a great book, and set itself up perfectly for the next book int he series.

Mitosis

Mitosis is a short novella set between Steelheart and Firefight. Firefight has many references to it, so I was expecting something big. However, it is more of a comic interlude that helps set up Firefight.

The Reckoners now have the unenviable task of controlling the city that they have taken. Of course, the Epics don't like the idea of humans ruling a city, so it was inevitable that one come in to try to take it for himself. Mitosis wanders into the city and "divides" himself into many clones to try to find David to ask him questions. His clones can all communicate with each other, however, the clones seem to lose some fidelity and intelligence as they reproduce many times. Individual clones can be easily killed. However, they can all reproduce.

Before becoming an Epic, Mitosis was a classically trained member of a rock band. He hated his band's music, and the music ended up being the weakness that allowed him to be destroyed.

Once the destruction of the Epic was taken care of, people could go back to eating the authentic Chicago-style hot dogs. Yum!

This is the "TV episode" between the two movies. This is a universe that Sanderson can really have a lot of fun with.

Steelheart

In the typical superhero tale, the hero puts on his tights and goes out to round up the bad guys. Eventually, he may run into the "super villain", but that is not until after the "good guy" has shown his worth to society.

What if the tables were turned? What if the super villains came out first? And what if there were not any super heroes out there?

Steelheart is set in a near future Chicago that has been taken over by the eponymous Steelheart. He is an "Epic" with various super powers, including the ability to turn things to Steel. "Newcago" as it is called is now a city of Steel ruled by a super dictator. Steelheart does engage in acts of random killing. However, he provides general infrastructure and some sense of daily life for humans, making his city more desirable than many of the others.

David witnessed Steelheart killing his father a decade ago. In the intervening decade, David has been consumed by the thought of revenge. He had been spending most of his time researching Epics and finding their weaknesses, with a goal of eventually taking down Steelheart. He manages to meet up with the anti-Epic group, "the Reckoners" and help take down many of the Epics. Being a YA novel, he falls in love with Megan, a Reckoner with a few secrets of her own. However, here they are busy with the action.

The book is fast paced and loaded with plenty of twists and surprises that all seem to make sense in the end.

Each Epic has their own power and weakness, providing all sorts of fun in the story. David also has a knack for really bad metaphors, with explanations that manage to be even more over the top. Though Sanderson is best known for his Epic fantasy, he seems to have the most fun when he writes for younger ages.