Brandon Sanderson is a storyteller. And I’d argue that a great storyteller could tell any kind of story. If Sanderson wanted to write a romance novel, it would be better than half the published romance novels out there. Just like a talented actor can play any role, a talented author can tell any type of story.
Not that Steelheart is all that different from his other books. Sanderson’s gift is the way his storyworld building, characters, and plot intertwine. He creates real worlds and puts real people in them. It’s truly delightful.
Steelheart tells the story of Epics, supervillians that have taken over the world. Their powers are varied. But one of the strongest, Steelheart, not only took over Chicago, renaming it Newcago, he killed young David’s father in the process. And ever since, David has sought revenge.
Over the past ten years, David has turned himself into a genius on the topic of Epics and, at eighteen, he sets out to join the Reckoners, the only rebellion that has ever tried to fight back. He finds them and signs on with their team. Here Sanderson has a cast of fun characters that are just aching for their 90-minutes on the silver screen. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the movie in the next few years. It’s that entertaining of a story with a screenplay-ready plot. So much fun.
It’s one of those books that, as an author, makes me wonder why I even bother. But it also makes me strive to improve my writing.
Teens will love this book, boys especially. Most adults will enjoy it too. It’s action packed, humorous, and a serious page turner. It’s totally clean of language and sex, but there’s lots of comic book violence. I highly recommend this book to all readers. And my son is first in line for my copy.
*I received this book from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.
Age Range: 12 and up
Genre: fantasy
Part of a Series: yes
Pages: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Released: 2013
Not that Mr. Sanderson needs my support, really. But I liked this book SO MUCH, I had to do a giveaway. I’m going to buy someone a hardcover copy of Steelheart!! International entries are welcome. Giveaway ends September 20th, 2013. To enter to win you can: tell me who is your favorite super villain, follow Brandon on Twitter, tweet about this giveaway, or “Like” Brandon’s Facebook page. Good luck!
Wow, this book sounds amazing! Thanks for the giveaway, Jill 🙂 I don’t have a fave super villain but the ones I thought of are:
Parallax from The Green Lantern, totally frightened me in the movie (not the person, but the cloud that possessed the guy)
The White Witch from Narnia is also a GREAT villain
The eye thingy from Lord of the Rings
Those were the most evil ones that came to mind and when the villains are THAT bad, you know the heroes in the film are that much COOLER 🙂
True, Kara. Nice villains. Love the White Witch. *shivers*
My favorite super villain is Loki.
Loki is the BEST super villain! 😀
What’s Loki from? I feel lame for not knowing…
The “Like this page” option isn’t working. There is no link.
Bradon is too famous for likes, I think, Brian. We just click to “follow” him.
I’m not sure if you can count him as a super villan, but Loki has to be my favorite. But as far as EVIL bad guys go, it’d be Sauron from JRR. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Come on! It’s SAURON, ’nuff said.
Thanks for the giveaway!!
– Kayleigh
Nice! I don’t know Loki. What do I need to read/watch here?
Ooh, this looks fantastic. I enjoyed the first book of the Mistborn series and I agree that he’s a fantastic storyteller, blending worldbuilding and characters very well.
This is shorter than Mistborn, written for teens, but still cool.
Wow! That sounds really cool. I’d love to get this book. 🙂 If I don’t win the give away, I might even buy it with my own money. :3
It’s worth it. It was fun.
I really like Azog The Defiler from The Hobbit and Durza The Shade from Eragon.
Nice ones, Sarah!
Favorite super villain…that’s a hard one. :unsure: I don’t really have one, actually. But I’ll go with The Joker for now. 🙂
Good choice! I like The Joker.
I’m really more of a Hero-loving kind of girl, but if I had to pick a favorite villain, I think I’d have to go with Gollum! I mean, really, where would we be without “My Preciousss!”
Gollum is really well done because we see him struggle. Great one, Rachel!
I can’t say I really know any super villains, but I always think it is interesting when someone actually explains the villain and makes them three dimensional rather than just a killer.
True, Nettie. I like that too.
My favorite super villain is Marsuveous Black.
Nice one. He’s creepy. 🙂
Loki is from the Marvel movies Thor and The Avengers. 🙂
Favorite super villain? Oh, wow… that’s a tough one. There have been a number of fantastic villains in recent years, but Moriarty from the BBC’s Sherlock tops my list. He’s utterly bad, but completely riveting.
Thanks for holding this giveaway!
Ooh, yeah. Moriarty is creepy.
I guess I haven’t seen those movies, though I thought I saw The Avengers. Hmmm…
Loki from Thor… he is a great villain because he has a heart and you feel for him, even though he’s bad you still see a good side to him and you want him to turn good and get redemption, but he keeps turning back. I also like the villains on the tv series Once Upon a Time… they too have heart. I like the kind of villain that you sort of care for and hope to turn good. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KTvjFGgGkk
Rumpelstiltskin and Regina. Oooh…
Yup, you’ve seen Loki then. This is Loki
http://thelifeofleauphaun.weebly.com/9/post/2013/09/loki-of-asgard.html
PS: This link goes to my blog, no some random place.
Ohhh, that guy. Hey, that’s a really cool blog. 🙂
This book sounds so cool! 😀 I want it! My favorite super villain is Loki especially in Thor. I love the depth of his conflicted intentions, plus his costumes and dialogue are really cool. Thor is one of my favorite movies so I am a little biased. 😉 But Loki is awesome! 😀
Does Voldemort count as a super villain? Haha 🙂 I really like the way J.K. Rowling gives us his past in the fifth/sixth book. I found it so interesting and couldn’t put it down! I think any super villain with a story and a passion is enough to make me like him.
Also, for some reason, I am drawn to Cruella Deville 😀
You want a dalmatian fur coat, don’t you?
Yes, Voldemort counts! And yes, she did a good job of building his past and making his motivation believable.
My favorite supervillain would have to be Loki. He’s just not evil enough for me to dislike him 😛
I don’t watch/read/whatever a lot of superhero stuff, but a lot of people seem to be putting fantasy villains as well. So I guess I’d say . . . hmm. Of all the villains I’ve read about, Marsuuves Black from the Paradise Trilogy has got to be the most creepy I know.
I love Rumplestiltskin from Once Upon a Time. And The Marquess from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland (I shortened the title) by Cathrynne M. Valente.
I would have to say the super villain in the new Spider-Man movie( though I haven’t seen the movie yet!)
I would have to say that my favourite villain is the Lizard from Spider-Man because Kirk Conners just wants to be like everyone else and have both of his arms, but he becomes a villain because he doesn’t know when to stop.
There are a lot of super villains I think are awesome (sorry, superhero nerd over here). I especially adore Loki because of his conflicting self (he’s good and bad because how he was raised as Odin’s son and brother to the mighty Thor but was actually adopted). But then again Magneto from the X-Men is pretty awesome. And if we’re going off the purely superhero track and into just SUPER villains… Khan from Star Trek and Moriarty from Sherlock. I don’t think it is a good thing to like bad guys!!! But I can’t stop!
Villans are hard…
Voldemort is a good one, and Moriarty is one I’ve enjoyed recently (from the BBC show).
My fav super villain isn’t really super, or even a villain possibly. It’s Skye from Terra Nova, it wasn’t the greatest tv show but I loved how she was the antagonist and yet from the start she was only trying to do what she thought was best, save her Mum from the Sixers (enemy troops). She’s the kind of villain I’d love to create in a story, a totally unwilling participant and yet one who has no choice. Would create a lot of beautiful confliction 🙂
Umm, while I’m here, your October giveway is in a little while. I won your last one, and I’m wondering if it’s ok for me to participate in the next? I’d love to win another one of your books, but if I need to sit out on this next one, a heads up is appreciated.
You’re always welcome to enter, Madison. 🙂
Thanks!
Hmm, I also love the villein to hero story line-thus the reason I love Edmund Pevensie so much. But as far as just straight up bad guy goes, I have to say Dr. Doom from the Fantastic Four is one of my favorites…but then there’s Guy of Gisborn from Robin Hood BBC…
Thanks for the giveaway!
LOKI<3
Hmm…as a fangirl, I love Loki and Rumplestiltskin (Once Upon a Time) as villains, but as a writer, I really love Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. 🙂
Favorite supervillain so far is Lord English from Homestuck. Essentially he’s a time traveling demon who devours universes for fun, and at first he’s just terrifying and bad and evil and that’s all. But through the wonderful world of time-travel-induced backstory, we see that he grew up forced to share a body with his sister, whom he grew to hate and eventually killed her as she slept. When he learned that her ghost still survived in the deepest recesses of space and time, he decided to rip it all apart until he found her to kill her for good.
Well- I personally love it when there is this terrible, beastly villain…or so it seems:) But deep down he/she is just a big ol’ softie! Like in Les Miserables…I know its not fantasy, but Jean Valjean makes a sweet ol’ man after his criminal days are over:)
Is there any reason not to enter a Brandon Sanderson?
No.
Anyway, my favorite villain is a toss-up between Ruin from Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, Revile from Matt Myklusch’s Jack Blank Trilogy, and basically everyone else. Some people write bad villains, some people write good ones, but none of them really stick in my mind as being spectacular.
Though, if I could classify John Cleaver as a villain (from Dan Wells’s Serial Killer trilogy), I would pick him.
Favorite villain?
Oh dear… My first inclination would be Sauron, but I think in this case if have to go with Murtagh from the IC. He’s a villain, but at the same time he’s just a generally unbalanced and resentful human being you love. Probably more than I should. To say more would be spoilers. He’s not a super villain, but we’re talking about favoritism.
Wow a lot of Loki fans… @_@ he’s AMAZING…
Voldemort would be my favorite “super” villain I suppose. 🙂
Since I don’t have a twitter I just liked his FB page.
I’m not sure who my favorite super villain is. I think The Red Hood from Batman: Under the Red Hood was the most interesting, and tragic. With just a little difference, he could have been an anti-hero. Lex Luther is also interesting but he’s not super, just a guy who is smart enough to keep the heroes on the run.
The Joker’s probably the creepiest super villain I’ve seen. I don’t like him though. He’s too creepy.
I don’t know if Star Wars count but it has the best villains ever. There’s Sidious, who is terrifying because unlike most villains, he manages to take over, not because of his power, but because of his brain.
I really have a thing for the villains who can take on heroes who out power them. Boba Fett and Cad Bane would be two of these types. Unlike some villains, who are more powerful than the heroes, these guys have to use their brains, not brawn.
Ooh, good question!
Scar of Lion King was *the* name in villainy for me as a child. Mufasa’s death was so evil and tragic! ;D
I like the way Inspector Javer of Les Miserables is the villain of the tale and yet his cause is just. It makes for such a rich and complex story.
Similarly, I’m very fond of both Megamind (of the film Megamind) and Dr. Horrible (of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), super villains who double as protagonists, one with a redemptive arc and happy ending and the other with a decidedly less positive outcome.
I suppose, as much as I appreciate villains that one loves to hate, I enjoy even more villains that one loves to love. 🙂
Thanks for reviewing this book (it looks fantastic!) and hosting this giveaway, Jill! And thanks so much for always sharpening our minds and prodding our imaginations with your great questions. 😉
EDIT: Thinking about it, I realize Inspector Javer is not so much a villain, as he is an antagonist. He opposes the protagonist but he isn’t really evil. In fact, though Jean Valjean is the protagonist, he isn’t necessarily a hero. Interesting…
From Kate S., who had trouble posting her comment.
My favorite super villian? Hmmm,.. Maybe Loki (The Avengers)? Or Saraun from Lord of the Rings? The French Revolutionaries in Tale or Two Cities (Dickens)? I am not sure. It’s a good question!
Thanks do the review and giveaway! I’m going to look this book up!
Kate
I liked the Lord Ruler from the Mistborn series, even though *SPOILER TYPE THING* he wasn’t as much of a villain in the last book. His arc was fascinating.
How about Peter Wiggin from Ender’s game, he is sneaky although if I were going super villain how about Red skull.
Does Darth Vader count? Because if so definitely him!
He totally counts!
Carnage from Spiderman.
Hey,
I went over to Amazon and checked out the book, and I was wondering if you could adjust some things when you review your next book?
I don’t know about everybody, but the violence, starting on page 4, seems like it would sicken and scare some people. I didn’t mind it that much, but it was still disturbing. Especially the description of the mother holding the bones of her infant – bleh.
Also, the graphic kiss on page 32 and the naked lady on page 35. Those disturbed me. And the fact that the characters were constantly cursing, albeit using different words than what we use now, was a detail I could do without.
I stopped reading soon after page 35. Could you please mention things like that in future reviews, for the more sensitive people?
Sorry about that, Maria. The book is pretty long, and I’d gotten so into it that I forgot about some of those images in the prologue. You’re right. They were pretty horrific images. I’ll try to mention those things next time I review. Thanks!
I really love characters who toe the line of good and bad–so my favourite “villains” are usually way sympathetic, misguided, and fit somewhere in that grey area of good and bad, depending on which day you catch them. So I’d go with Magneto, Loki (hopefully he redeems himself in Thor 2…), and Ben Linus.
I’d also have to say Moriarty, but not for any good reason. He’s just insane and evil and fun, all wrapped up in one bizarre package.
My favorite super villan is either The Joker or Moriarty. They were both great. My favorite movie ever is probably The Dark Knight, but the end of season 2 of Sherlock was probably one of the best things I’d ever watched.
my favorite villain would totally be the cardinal in the 3 musketeers. 🙂
(cant remember his name rrrgh!)
Abrielle Lindsay
Cardinal Richelieu! He is awesomely creepy. Love him/hate him.
Oh, and Tim Curry rocked the role in the Disney Three Musketeers movie. I love that movie!
Favorite supervillian would have to be Gollum, but Rumplestiltskin and Regina are close seconds.
Gollum is really a wonderful character.