Skip to main content

STEELHEART by Brandon Sanderson



copyright date: September 2013
primarily marketed for: young adults (7th grade and up)

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson is not the kind of book you would typically find in my stack of books to be read.  However, something about it called to me.  And boy am I glad it did!  I am eagerly awaiting the sequel, promised to be released this fall.

The story begins with a gripping prologue that takes place years before the action of the rest of the book.  It is the story of a young boy named David witnessing his father’s death at the hands of Steelheart, a sort of superhuman called an Epic.  Although David is in awe of Steelheart’s power to turn anything that is not living to steel, he is even more amazed to witness Steelheart reveal a weakness.  David is the only human who knows the truth about what happened during that attack and survived.

Years later, when David is eighteen, he has finally caught up with a group of rebels, who fight against Epics.  With the knowledge of what he saw years ago, David hopes to join their team and get revenge on Steelheart. 

The story takes place in the future.  Chicago has been forever altered by Steelheart’s rule and is now referred to as “Newcago.”  I love a good story set in Chicago, but it was far more than the setting that drew me into this action-thriller.  Amidst the action sequences, cool technology, and plot twists, Sanderson plants the seeds for some big ideas.  Through David’s quest for revenge and desire to be part of something bigger than himself, Sanderson forces readers to think about good and evil, right and wrong, war and terrorism.  David’s answers don’t come easy, and nor do answers come easy for the reader. 

It would have been easy to turn this into a flat story of good guys versus bad, but Sanderson has dug much deeper than that to give readers a smart thriller that is as satisfying as it is unsettling.


Labels:

Comments

  1. PaigeMarch 6, 2015 at 10:41 AM

    This has been one of my favorite reads this past year. I loved it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga

copyright date: April 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (high school) I’m just going to put this out there:  I like books about death.  I didn’t know this about myself as a reader until my students this year pointed out how many of the books I booktalk (basically all of them) involve someone who died or someone who is dying. I am not sure if that is just a me thing, or if that is a common thread in books since it is such a major part of life and conflict.  I’d like to think it is the latter. At any rate, I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga , is obviously my kind of book—it is quality literature with sophisticated vocabulary, and it is about death.  Jasper Dent, known as Jazz, is a teenager who is struggling to overcome the odds, to say the least.  His father, Billy Cornelius Dent, is the most infamous serial killer, with victims totaling triple digits.  Since his father’s arrest, Jazz has had to care for his grandmother ...
2 comments
Read more

JAKE AND LILY by Jerry Spinelli

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (8 and up) This is another book for younger readers.   So, although the time you spend actually reading Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli won’t be long, the time this story spends traveling around in your heart will be immeasurable. Spinelli is a master at getting straight to the heart of what keeps people from accepting one another: differences.   Through the story of young twins Jake and Lily, he tells a story of tolerance, acceptance, and ultimately friendship.   Jake and Lily have a very special relationship.   They are able to connect with one another through dreams and across distances.   In fact, as they write their stories for us in alternating chapters, they don’t even need to read to know what they other has written.   Conflict settles into their lives when growing up threatens to come between them.   As Jake begins to spend more time with a g...
3 comments
Read more

NOTHING SPECIAL by Geoff Herbach

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) This is Geoff Herbach 's sequel to Stupid Fast and continues Felton Reinstein’s story in true Felton fashion.   This is definitely a smart guy book—a book for smart guys, who definitely love a good chuckle. The story opens at the end of summer with Felton typing a letter to his girlfriend Aleah while flying in an airplane on his way to retrieve his younger brother from Florida.   The entire book is written as one giant letter to Aleah explaining how his summer led him to this moment in time.   After Felton and his brother Andrew got some help with their mother’s issues, Felton went right back to throwing himself into football and track—because he is stupid fast.   However, Andrew did not cope quite as well as Felton did.   Felton ignores his brother’s cries for help and continuously lets him down.   His brother ends up cooking up an elaborate plan to run ...
1 comment
Read more