Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

While this book was making the rounds around our house while I was reading it last week, this song was constantly in my head. You're welcome for the earworm.

I don't really have a strong opinion about this novel. Apparently it is beloved in young adult circles and I myself have talked about how much I love Sanderson's epic adult novels, but this book was meh for me.

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson is the first in a trilogy.  It tells the story of David, who was a young boy when an "Epic," a superhuman with bad intentions, kills his father.  David lives his life to kill this Epic who goes by the moniker Steelheart.  David hooks up with a group of like-minded individuals who also want to destroy Epics.  Adventures, fights, and battles ensure.

It's pretty clever and does a good job of throwing shade at all the superhero constructs of good versus evil. It's really just evil here.  Why would we assume that superhumans would do good if they had unlimited power?  The writing is good because Brandon Sanderson is a good writer.  David's motivations are incredibly well laid out and his tortuous analogies and metaphors were brilliant. The opening scene is exciting and the world building is interesting.

But.

There aren't any women in the book. Two of the members of the team David hooks up with are women. One is essentially a textbook who does research off page. One is just this really hot girl that David just can't stop thinking about.  The book would not pass the Bechdel test and I was really disappointed in Sanderson for this. 

Also, there's so much fighting and so many action scenes. I just didn't care and it started to become so repetitive that by the time we got to the end and the big climactic fight, I was basically just skimming the pages to be able to finish the book.  I think it probably would have been exciting and surprising if Sanderson hadn't already exhausted my limited ability to care about shooting, blowing up, and running away. 

So, in the end, I say meh. I don't know what to say here. I'd probably recommend this wholeheartedly to a teenage boy (who I've already given Ender's Game and Ready Player One recs to). I would not recommend this to anyone in my book club.  Know your audience. I wasn't the right person for this book.