4 stars

Brandon Sanderson hits another home-run with his newest young adult fantasy-dystopia. Steelheart plunges us into a world of darkness and superheroes, where there are no good guys coming to the rescue and there is no happily ever after.

David barely remembers the time before Calamity came–a red star in the sky–and the Epics, humans turned super with science-defying powers and a thirst for destruction and power. His clearest memory is of the day his father was murdered by an Epic: Steelheart, ruler of NewCago (the remains of Chicago). Steelheart is ruthless and terrible, killing randomly and without mercy, ruling the city in a tight grip of fear and despair. And no one thinks to stand up to him, because Steelheart is the highest of Epics: an invincible. But David knows differently, because on the day the Epic murdered his father, David saw Steelheart bleed. Having spent his life researching Epics and planning how to destroy Steelheart, David finally sees his dreams come true: he meets up with the Reckoners, the sole group of revolutionaries daring to attack Epics, and convinces them to let him join their ranks. But even with a plan and the resources of the Reckoners to call from, killing Steelheart is near suicice, unless they can figure out his weakness, the one thing that can make him bleed, the one thing that can kill him.

Sanderson has a gift for creating new and interesting worlds. In his fantasy novels he introduces us to societies that were once grand but have now fallen into near chaos, and here in Steelheart he does the same, but the grand society is our own. Running through the ruins of Chicago, David is an average teenager struggling to survive in a world that has fallen apart. While the Epics and the new technology invented in their wake give David’s world an exotic edge, the underlying structure is still what you can look out your window and see today. Like any good dystopia, Steelheart gives us a glimpse into a possible future, grounding the extraordinary with the ordinary.

David was a refreshingly different kind of character for Sanderson. He’s not gifted with amazing magical powers–he’s not an Epic–and while he’s smart, he isn’t a genius. His knack for survival, his dedication to vengeance on Steelheart, and his quirk of always trying to find the right metaphor make him a perfect narrator. Most importantly, despite his father’s death and his life under a cruel dictator, David still has hope. His belief that Steelheart can be defeated and his dreams that maybe, someday, the world could find its way back towards what it was make David the only character who could tell this story. Without David’s sliver of hope, this story would just be dark.

A thrilling start to a new series, Sanderson is well on his way to establishing a presence as both an adult and young adult author.