Firefight Book Review

Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.

The second novel of The Reckoners series didn’t suffer the “boring middle” issue that most trilogies experience. Taking place after Steelheart’s death, David Charleston and the Reckoners were summoned to Babylon Restored, formerly known as Manhattan, by its ruler Regalia, an Epic with water-based abilities. She summoned them by sending other low-level Epics to cause havoc in Newcago. Then when the team arrived in Babylon Restored, Regalia started destroying her own city, which was the central mystery in this novel. Why was she doing this? What was her endgame?

The mystery was a weak point in the novel. David, Prof, and Tia teamed up with a different Reckoners unit—a set of new characters—positioned in Babylon Restored, leaving behind Abraham and Cody in Newcago. It was an interesting dynamic introduced as David tried to bond with Excel, Mizzy, and Val. They had entertaining personalities, but there was a clear division between David and them in terms of goals.

The narrative was more concerned with David’s personal goal of saving Megan while the other Reckoners were more interested in the mystery surrounding Regalia and getting revenge on Megan for killing one of their own. While David was also involved in the mystery, he prioritized his feelings for Megan over the mission. The topic of Megan’s redemption caused a division between David and the new Reckoners.

Once again, the world-building for Babylon Restored was wonderful. It was both recognizable while feeling like a new setting at the same time. It was Manhattan drowned underwater with glowing fruit growing on the rooftops. This was an interesting change of scenery, especially for David because he had never left Newcago before. He was used to everything being encased in steel and found nature… “awesome!” David used that word a lot in Firefight.

David also compared Megan, the secondary protagonist and his love interest, to a potato. He thought potatoes were romantic for some reason. His inability to create metaphors was still a thing in this novel. I personally didn’t find them distracting, but I could see how other readers could be annoyed by it.

In addition, I enjoyed how the story built on the Calamity event that created Epics and the mystery of how they actually came into existence. There was also a debate that was introduced in the first book and expanded in this second one: Can Epics truly be good and not evil? This was presented in Prof and Megan’s character stories, who are both Epics trying to fight the corruption in them whenever they used their powers.

Overall, the second novel was… “awesome!” I would recommend this novel if you’re into superhero stuff. I would recommend anything Brandon Sanderson. Thanks for reading. I started the final book in the trilogy, Calamity! I’m excited to see how the story ends.