Review: Firefight by Brandon Sanderson

January 16, 2015 4 stars, Book Review 36 ★★★★

Review: Firefight by Brandon SandersonFirefight by Brandon Sanderson
Series: Reckoners #2
Published by Audible Audio, Delacorte on January 6, 2015
Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 432
Length: 11 hours, 36 minutes
Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
Format: Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon
My Reviews in this series: Steelheart

*This book was provided by the Publisher for review. No compensation was provided and all opinions are strictly my own.

From the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of Words of Radiance coauthor of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson presents the second book in the Reckoners series: Firefight, the sequel to the #1 bestseller Steelheart.

They told David it was impossible--that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet, Steelheart--invincible, immortal, unconquerable--is dead. And he died by David's hand.

Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life more simple. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And there's no one in Newcago who can give him the answers he needs.

Babylon Restored, the old borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic, Regalia, David is sure Babylon Restored will lead him to what he needs to find. And while entering another city oppressed by a High Epic despot is a gamble, David's willing to risk it. Because killing Steelheart left a hole in David's heart. A hole where his thirst for vengeance once lived. Somehow, he filled that hole with another Epic--Firefight. And he's willing to go on a quest darker, and more dangerous even, than the fight against Steelheart to find her, and to get his answers.

four-stars

A flooded city, glowing fruit, and yes even more oddities?

Believe me when I say that Firefight is going to give you a city and setting that you haven’t experienced before. Not that we haven’t seen a flooded city before because I’m very sure that we’ve seen that plenty. But coupled with the way the city glows, and how all of the flooded skyscrapers are practically filled to bursting with a jungle of fruit and vegetables in each one! Crazy right? But the city also glows. Curious-er and curious-er. That isn’t all either.

There is always another bad guy to kill

As taking out epics is the mission for the Reckoners you can bet that is what this second book is about as well. Except there is more then that going on. The team is taking on more and more epics because they seem to be coming out of the wood works now that they’ve taken out Steelheart and it turns out these epics have all been sent by Regalia, the epic that rules over the nearby city of Manhattan, now Babylon Restored aka Babilar. So of course David, Prof and Tia hightail it there to investigate why and of course hatch plans to take Regalia out. But wait – the book is titled FIREFIGHT, and Firefight just happens to be the name of Megan – so we pick up with the plot of Megan and David. There is oh so much going on there that I can’t even begin to tell you anything cause yeah it would be spoilers to the extreme. Suffice to say there is lots of action, ass-kickery, and misdirection.

Enough metaphors to make your head spin!

Admittedly there was much about the first book Steelheart that I had forgotten when I started reading Firefight. One of those things is the main character David’s obsession with bad metaphors. After awhile this stops being cute and gets annoying. I understand the need to give characters quirks to their behavior to make them stand out but it grated on my nerves after oh I don’t know the 6th one? David is still a great character, he’s now nicknamed Steelslayer due to the events that took place in Steelheart and he’s getting to be a seasoned member of the Reckoners team. He’s quick thinking and brash though and this behavior has a tendency of getting him into trouble both with epics and his superior. I’d like to say he’s a team player but he really isn’t because he always has his own ideas and just shoots from the hip however he wants, going off doing what he thinks best. I’m a bit torn by his behavior regarding his team members mostly because if you’re part of any cooperative team such as he is that deals in people’s lives having this kind of attitude is very dangerous and downright well inconsiderate when you consider it could/will jeopardize the safety of your team mates. While I like David I find some of his behavior deplorable where his team is concerned and it has me so torn because even if you’re “right” that doesn’t make you right – do you know what I mean? Because I’m so conflicted about his personality that shows just how well written of a character he is.

But I have questions!

I don’t know if other people have some of the questions that I have…but I have them. Dealing with Dawnslight, the phenomena that occurs in the city due to him and consistency of traits across epics we’ve encountered in the books thus far. I’ve no doubt that Sanderson will address my questions in due time – hopefully sooner rather then later because these things oh how they boggle my mind. He’s good at doing that though and its likely part of the fun.

So much going on that all comes together in the end

There was so much going on here that I didn’t even realize until everything came together at the end and I went – oh so THAT was where he was going. There were a few things that I expected / suspected as the book progressed that I was right on the money about but plenty happened that just floored me. I wish we didn’t have to wait so long for the next one!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also listened to the audio version which was excellent – have a listen to the sample below if you don’t believe me.

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Tabitha (Pabkins)

When I'm in the zone I can flip book pages faster than the eye can see - screaming "More Input!" I'm a book, yarn, & art supply hoarding goblin who loves to draw, make toys and craft all sorts of creepy cute things. My current habit is to listen to audio books while I'm arting it up!
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36 Responses to “Review: Firefight by Brandon Sanderson”

    • Adam

      i got my Sanderson start with the Elantris series, which leads into his Mistborn series – if i were to go back and do it all again (tempting!) that’s the way i would go!

    • Tabitha (Pabkins)

      Oooo goodness you haven’t even read one yet !??

      Ok to wet your whistle start with
      THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, IT’S A NOVELLA AND AMAZING!

      Or if you want to dive right in…

      If you like fantasy go for either Mistborn (1st in a trilogy) or Elantris (stand alone)

      If you like epic fantasy and don’t mind reading a 1k page books go for THE WAY OF KINGS

      If you prefer YA and are cook with super heroes/villains in an urban fantasy setting then read STEELHEART

      can you tell I’ve read practically all of his books?
      Tabitha (Pabkins) recently posted…Review: Words of Radiance by Brandon SandersonMy Profile

  5. Adam

    i definitely agree with everything in this review! well, except for the puns . . . but probably because i am a connoisseur of puns myself (good ones though!).

    i was hoping for more with Dawnslight myself – like fruits that confer Epic powers for a time, more use of the tree roots – but that being said, i DEVOURED this book. like a starving termite in the lumber section at Home Depot 🙂

  6. Dragana

    I just skimmed trough your review, because I hope to read Firefight soon and I don’t want to spoil anything, but I am glad you liked it. I’m so excited since I am the biggest Sanderson fangirl (and I am not ashamed to admit it lol).
    I hope that there are not too many unanswered questions left, since we will have to wait a year for the sequel…
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  11. Carmel @ Rabid Reads

    Speak for yourself! I personally haven’t read very many books that featured flooded city, so I’m attracted by that aspect, and the glowing element has me downright curious. It’s great that all of the various threads made perfect sense in the final chapters. I love it when a book’s well executed!
    Carmel @ Rabid Reads recently posted…Audiobook Review: Ensnared by A.G. HowardMy Profile

  15. Anya

    I was so entertained by David’s metaphors in book one but they ended up annoying me in Firefight too unfortunately :(. I so agree with you about questions, but I’m pumped to find out the answers and confident since book three is called Calamity :D. I don’t know how they’ll do it, but I’m so excited to see why he went with that title!
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  16. Miriam @ Inky Realms

    I didn’t mind the metaphors in the first one… hopefully they don’t grate on me so much when I get around to reading this one! The setting sounds AMAZING though. Flooded cities & jungle skyscrapers? Epics might be evil but I like the way they construct cities 😀
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