I can almost see the movies for this series. ( )

Spring 2020 (Feb);

A good followup to book one, I found myself able to predict a far broader section of this book, but I, also, found myself more and more at odds with the choices of our main character. Several times he hid things which I didn't think made sense. Two or three times he forgot drastically important things that made scene more dramatic than they needed to be, if he'd only remembered them.

Again, I love the new found-family pocket in our new city. I was very, very happy to see another new pocket of Reckoners. I am endlessly more curious about Dawn's Light than anyone else in here. Except maybe Calamity, but that's supposed to be the point of that reveal and the denial of the offering, too. I think my only big surprise in this one was where Prof ended up (except we've already set up how that falls out with Megan, too).

I am very much looking forward to the next (and last) book in this series, but I'll be pausing to read some fitting books for Black History Month before I get there. ( )

I think I like this one even better than Steelheart, much to my surprise. I'm not entirely sure why -- perhaps because of the really fascinating and beautiful image of New York flooded and flowering with glowing fruit and radiant graffiti. Perhaps because of the cautious optimism that David seems to have despite increasing manipulations fomr the local Epics. Perhaps in the slow unfolding of a really satisfying story. In every way a worthy sequel. ( )

First published on Forest Azuaron.

Firefight is a serviceable sequel to the amazing Steelheart. We get a bit more of an understanding of the Epics and their powers, particularly where their powers come from... and not much else. David is David, Prof is Prof, Val is Val, and we've got some new characters to pad out the roster, but it all feels like filler, like it should have been shortened and used as the opening to Calamity.

Of course, having read all Sanderson's published works, it's entirely possible I'm just spoiled. It's still Sanderson, so it's still exciting and well-crafted. I just expect more from him at this point.

4 fortune cookies out of 5 ( )

Actual rating: like 3.5 I suppose?

I don't know how to feel about this entire book series to be completely honest.
Objectively speaking? It's fine. Not great, not incredible, just fine.
But the fact that it's a Brandon Sanderson series is making me judge it far too harshly.
Did I maybe go in with very high expectations? Hell yeah I did, mainly because all of Sanderson's other works I've read so far were incredible.

I still think the idea of this book is really good, it's written beautifully, has an interesting cast (mostly) but it's still lacking something!
Something that bothered me in this book was the romance. I just didn't connect with it at all, I didn't really care about it and hell I thought David was an idiot for just trusting her like that even after everything.
I didn't really enjoy the way things were revealed in this book, or even how the characters reached certain conclusions or information. There was a lot of telling instead of showing and a lot of the information was just handed to the characters.

I must however give credit where credit is due, the ending of this book was quite interesting, I liked how it played out despite everything else.

All in all this was a fine read, I probably would've enjoyed it more if I had lower expectations when I started it. ( )