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Firefight (The Reckoners Book 2)
The #1 New York Times bestseller and sequel to Steelheart from Brandon Sanderson, the author of Oathbringer, coauthor of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn trilogy, presents the second book in the…
- Release Date
- 2015
- Length
- 434 pages
- Publisher
- Delacorte Press
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Our Review
About the book
The second Reckoners novel takes David and his allies from Newcago to a flooded, glowing Manhattan known as Babilar. There David seeks out Firefight, an Epic he cannot stop thinking about, while a powerful water Epic controls the city.
Our review
The Reckoners head to a drowned, neon-lit New York, and the trilogy’s questions start getting complicated.
Firefight trades the cold steel of the first book for something stranger: a flooded Manhattan where fruit grows inside buildings and residents live in a dreamy, carefree daze. It is a wonderfully weird setting, and Sanderson enjoys exploring it. David is now less certain that every Epic is beyond saving, and that shift in his thinking gives the sequel a different emotional texture.
The mid-book stretch loses some momentum as new team members are introduced and the mystery of Regalia’s plan unfolds slowly. Megan’s storyline adds depth but also leans on familiar young adult romantic beats. The ending, though, raises the stakes nicely and sets up the final book with a genuine surprise. It also complicates the trilogy’s moral rules in a way that makes us more curious about what Calamity really is, which is exactly what a middle volume should do.
What we loved
- Babilar’s glowing, overgrown cityscape
- David’s growing doubts about killing every Epic
- A finale that reshapes the trilogy’s direction
Keep in mind
- The middle third drifts while new characters are introduced
- Romance scenes can feel predictable
Read it if you like
Readers who enjoyed Steelheart, or who like dystopian adventures such as Pierce Brown’s Red Rising with a lighter tone.
The verdict
A solid middle book with a memorable setting, a bit baggy in places but stronger on ideas than its predecessor.
