Review: Firefight by Brandon Sanderson (Reckoners #2)

Firefight (Reckoners #2)
Brandon Sanderson
Published: Jan. 6, 2015 (Delacorte Press)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: purchased

Reviewed by: Krista

Rating (out of 5): 4 Stars

Note: While review will be spoiler free, it does make reference to previous books in the series. If you haven’t started yet, check out VBC’s review of Steelheart.

At the end of Steelheart, David was able to kill the unkillable Steelheart and free the city of Newcago from his tyranny. At the same time he discovered that man he idolized and the girl he was falling for were Epics and one of them was a traitor. (Epics are individuals who have developed superpowers, unfortunately every person who has superpowers eventually go evil.)

Firefight opens with a bang, throwing the reader right back into the conflict. In the first few pages David and the reckoners are in the middle of a showdown with an Epic who has come to town to take down the only people who have successfully overthrown a high epic.

Firefight is very much trademark Brandon Sanderson writing: extremely fast paced, interesting characters and several unexpected twists. An intriguing facet of the book is trying to discover, along with David, an Epic’s weakness that nullifies their powers. More often than naught the reader doesn’t figure it out until David does, which is a testament to Sanderson.

In this second outing we get to travel outside Newcago and learn more about this post-apocalyptic world with evil superheroes. The environment in each city can be extremely different than each other, even the rules of physics are thrown out the window. This only adds to the world that Sanderson is creating and flushes out with each book. I also enjoyed the growth David made between book one and two. Yes, he is still hopelessly optimistic but a lot of the naivety has been rubbed off.

I found all the new elements added in Firefight extremely engaging. The new epics and conflicts David faced only drew me further into the book. This is the kind of book that plays like an amazing movie or TV series in your head. While there is a romantic element in the book it definitely is more of an action adventure.

Sexual content: kissing