Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Steelheart is the first (and currently only) novel of a series - there's also a ebook-only short story, but the next novel isn't supposed to come out 'til the fall. The book's setting is a post-apocalyptic Chicago - basically, think X-men without the X-men to oppose Magneto's Brotherhood. So, there are Epics with superpowers, but they're all monsters and consider themselves the highest order of human.

The book follows a normal who was there as a child when Steelheart - a tyrannical Epic - revealed himself and declared that the city was his. But though Steelheart is now known to be invulnerable (bullets bounce off him, etc), the main character remembers seeing him bleed that first day, and dedicates himself to finding a way to kill him.

You get that all from the first bit of the book, but I don't want to say much more to avoid spoiling anything. It's really quite a good read! It takes some solid suspension of disbelief, as you'd expect from people gaining superpowers as a concept, and has a weird hollow romantic sub plot that is mitigated marginally by the fact that the main character identifies that he's being an idiot ("I barely know her, what am I thinking?"). I remain uncomfortable with books from the point of view of a man obsessing over a woman who is showing no interest - even though this is entirely likely from a teenager like the main character, I don't like to be reminded of it. This one isn't that bad since it's not the focal point, but it stressed me every time it was brought up. If you can get past those things it's definitely enjoyable.

There's humour in there, too. The main character (oh hey, uneducated youth who isn't tragically stupid) doesn't quite get metaphors/similes, so he says some strange and amusing things. Also, in his Epic research he's got a lot of odd tidbits about people with weird powers who came to odd ends - he helpfully notes that becoming an Epic does not grant you higher intelligence.

I don't know that I'll seek out any of Sanderson's other writing based on this (I'm uncertain if my enjoyment here would translate to epic fantasy), but I'll definitely keep an eye out for the next in this series.