In the past I have been focusing
on mostly self-published teen superhero novels and recounting them in a very
structured way. In truth, structure bores me, so as start of my renaissance
into reviews of mainstream novels, I’d like to be more conversational and less
robotic in my approach. Comprende?
“ I’ve seen
Steelheart bleed.” Spoiler alert! That is the opening line to Steelheart, the
superhero fantasy concocted by Brandon Sanderson. Steelheart is an Epic, able
to Midas touch anything inorganic into steel. But Steelheart is no benevolent
ruler, in fact all Epics are evil, a side effect of their amazing abilities.
This line in such few words, and maybe with some prior knowledge, let’s me know
that David, the protagonist, has seen a man who essentially a God among men
show his humanity, and if David doesn’t use every ounce of his strength to see
this overlord dead, then the author has failed to produce a novel worthy of
it’s premise.
What I am
saying with that convoluted sentence is David is the chosen, this novel is a
Hero’s Journey and we know he will kill Voldemort in the end, drop the ring in
the fire of Mount Doom, bring balance to the force. So why read this book if
the first line gives away the whole story? I can say everything that first line
neglected to inform me, the characters, location, and the imagination managed
to enthrall me.
If I could
pick out one thing that amazed me, it would be the twist. Not like an “ I see
dead people twist,” where the revelation changes the reality of the entire
story, but the tidbit of hidden information that is hinted at throughout the
story and then revealed. All the connections come together and there’s that
moment of “Aww, I should have seen that coming.” This book managed to fool me
on 1 of 2 accounts.
One
objection I had was that most of the characters didn’t resonate enough with me.
They felt like cogs in the plot, given a quirk. David makes terrible metaphors,
Abraham has a slight French accent, Cody is eccentric about his heritage, Tia
likes soda. I’d like to see the kind of humanity in them that David saw in
Steelheart.
This one
goes on my shelf.
No comments:
Post a Comment