Steelheart
There are no heroes, only villains. My father believed that a hero was going to step in, and he died for that belief. Steelheart killed him for seeing that he had a weakness, and no one knows I saw. Now I've spent years getting their weaknesses, and plotting my revenge.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
6mentions
6people
2015–2023years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- While Mistborn is an excellent choice, I sometimes start people on some of his YA (as a lower commitment):
- Rithmatist is my favorite, but is only one book. - Steelheart is a very fun fresh take on super powers. - Skyward is like Dragon's Blood meets Space Invaders - it's great. The third book should be finished this year.
Finally, he does have one middlegrade series which most people seem to overlook: Alcatraz vs The Evil Librarians. It is just awesome, especially for anyone who loves trope busting.
- I couldn't get into Mistborn either--solid, just didn't grab me. His Reckoner series is my favorite (Steelheart, Firefight, Calamity), though it's YA and more superhero than fantasy. Also Elantris, his first published novel, and its follow-up The Emperor's Soul.
- I read almost all of Brandon Sanderson's novels. I'd heard of him before, but I was hesitant to jump into his huge universe. I'm really happy I did, though. In roughly 2 months I binged on all the Cosmere novels and Steelheart.
He's creating a truly magnificent universe with the Cosmere. As I understand it, he expects it to reach 32+ books total. It's all centered around Stormlight Archive, which is an ongoing 10 novel series.
The killer detail that helped win me over as a big fan was the fact that he communicates with his fans. He's a fast writer, but he still gives updates. After a few years of following GRRM, having an author that so openly speaks with his fans is a breath of fresh air. I think everyone is usually aware that estimates are never truly accurate, but at least it gives you an idea of what the author expects to accomplish. If he says he's hoping to get the next Stormlight Archive book by the end of next year, I know that doesn't mean it's definitely going to happen. But that's fine, at least he's being open and communicating with his followers.
Honestly, I think Stormlight Archive has blow away pretty much everything else I've read.
This year I discovered a genre called LitRPG [0] and picked up all the major books in the genre. It's very light reading, for when you just wanna go off on a brief adventure. I enjoy videogames but I tend to find myself too tired or busy to want to go into the grind myself, so this made for an entertaining proxy.
[0] http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/28/11801040/have-you-heard-ab...
- Riyria Revelations trilogy - quite good. Follows two thieves for hire. Read the books in publication order
Ready player one - liked it
samurai's garden
Expanse series by James Corey entertaining
Steelheart and Firefight by Sanderson- good but like Mistborn better
Worm online serial parahumans good
Nonfiction I read: Delivering happiness, Drive, Power of Habit, Power of full engagement
- As far as his epic fantasy stuff goes, I started with Mistborn (starts slow, but finishing the 1st trilogy is mind-blowing) & my friend began with Elantris (release order, in my opinion, his writing gets better every book--there are now 50 & I've read/loved nearly all of them). Alternatively, Way of Kings could be a good starting point as well (my personal favorite).
And of course there's a ton of non epic fantasy (Skyward & Steelheart skew younger).
See also: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
- It's a profoundly idiotic book. But the pacing achieves its goals. You're not bored while you're reading it.
What people get out of reading The Da Vinci Code, or other books in that style, is the same thing they get out of watching thriller movies. So I think it makes sense to call the book a thriller.
> Brown's style is cinematic, or at least cinematic-aspirant.
This is an interesting comment. I didn't get that vibe from Dan Brown. But Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart struck me, while I was reading it, as an effort to put a movie into book form. I was completely unsurprised to later learn he'd shopped out the movie rights.
