Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
Firefight by Brandon Sanderson
Action packed and brimming with teen angst, Firefight delivers a solid follow up to SteelHeart and suggests we’ll have a finale that will be jaw droppingly amazing.
In the second book of the Reckoners David has killed a number of Epics and has gained the nickname SteelSlayer. He is an integral member of the team and takes point where his speed, quick thinking and proactive nature can be used most efficiently. David is still stuck in love and is constantly defending Megan/Firefight, despite word of her killing another Reckoner from another team, and the relationship works as the two of them try to bridge the gap between the two sides of humanity.
This book almost seemed to be more about the bad guys than the good guys. A lot of the focus is on the weaknesses of the epics; discovering them, finding a pattern, and figuring out how to beat them. We have a big clue from ‘Mitosis’ that they are somehow personal but this is intentionally a very cloudy area and hard to pin down. We spend more time with the Epics than ever before and get a chance to see the beginnings of the final pay off as we learn a bit more about Calamity, the Epic that started it all and who can seemingly grant powers to anyone at anytime.
Plot wise David is chosen to help the Prof check in on his colleagues in Babylon Restored, a neighbouring city and a clever move by Sanderson as it allows us to see David in another, less sterile, setting. Epics have been actively attacking the Profs team, most likely in retaliation for killing Steelheart in Book 1, so they decide to take the front foot and check it out. The ruling Epic of Babylon restored is known as Regalia and she has control over water as her main power. She can appear in it at will, see from the surface of it, create tendrils of water that have huge amount of strength and can be controlled by her at distance. She has flooded the city to increase her control but also reached a grey area in terms of her ruling style. Through her, Megan and the Prof we start to look at the internal struggle of each Epic, to either resist or embrace their powers, and David’s hunt for a solution that will stop Epics turning bad.
Most Sanderson is incredibly easy to read and this one does not disappoint. The pace is hot and never lets up and it’s an easy one to finish over a day or two, partly because of the excitement but also, a tad disappointingly, because of the lack of any real developmental moments until the end of the book. Don’t get me wrong there are great action scenes and some nice ‘training’ moments that allowed relationships to build but most of them did not seem to have a huge impact on the plot or the characters, they were simply enjoyable scenes. Fans of Sanderson and Steelheart will love this book and I cannot wait for Calamity to see how things get wrapped up.
4 Stars
