Firefight [Book Review]

 

You've possibly been wondering what happened to the last few updates. Well... I had a change in schedule, and it has wrecked havoc on me. I did manage a few hours to finish off this book... thankfully.

This is the author, Brandon Sanderson.
I have no idea to whom I should attribute this image. If you know... tell me.

Not too long ago I reviewed the first book in The Reckoners series. I was super excited to read the sequel. I ate up the first half of the book real fast, before life got in the way.

4.5 out of 5 stars

I have to say at the outset that this book is not quite as good as Steelheart.

I think I know what to blame that on: Two things.

The first thing is the setting. In Steelheart the entire story takes place in Newcago. Newcago is cool... it is epic, as it should be. Firefight takes place in Manhattan, renamed 'Babylon Restored.' Whereas Newcago was a city of steel, created by the power of Steelheart... Babylon Restored is actually just a sunken version of Manhattan with rope bridges, strange glowing fruit, and glowing spray paint. It is not nearly as foreboding nor as impressive as Newcago.

Secondly we leave a good chunk of the original team behind and replace them with a new and less charismatic crew. Abraham and Cody were personable. Val, Mizzy, and XL are less so. XL looked like he might be headed in that direction, but he really does not show up much in the later chunks of the book, not until... well... spoilers!

I'm not saying the book was bad, oh far from it. The book is good.
There are just a few things that make it less interesting than Steelheart.

I think this book suffers a little bit of the middle child syndrome I talked about when I reviewed The Desolation of Smaug. This is a middle book. It is very important to the story arc, but it suffers because its primary job is to set up the next book. That is what I feel Firefight is doing... it is setting up the state of play for Calamity.

This is still a 'must be read' book.
There are many details I could give, but I really do not want to spoil this novel. Read it. It might be YA fiction, but it matters not. This is enjoyable for many ages. 

Why is it not February yet?

When I first saw Calamity's cover I thought, "Oh, this is the final book in the trilogy." That may not be true, as on one of the last pages of Firefight, it says "The Reckoners series continues with Calamity, Spring 2016." That to me says that there will be at least one book after Calamity, otherwise it would say 'The Reckoners series concludes with Calamity, Spring 2016.'

Still... this series needs to be movies. Needs to be.