Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Summary from Goodreads:
Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

In the first 6 pages, I was already gasping out loud at what was happening. The book begins with our main character, David, witnessing the horrifying acts of Epics - people gifted/cursed with abilities after a burst in the sky (Calamity) - while at the bank with his father. The prologue was an amazing set up for the book. I loved how it was tied back to the middle (not the end like most prologues are!).

David was an interesting main character who had internal battles with metaphors. It was quite funny reading his struggles in coming up with good metaphors and his jealousy at how other characters came out with amazing ones! He had been collecting years and years of information and profiling various Epics in hopes of joining the Reckoners and taking down Steelheart, it was nice to see he still possessed a sense of humor and wasn't wallowing in sadness. I didn't really connect with any of other characters considering they didn't reveal any back story (since sharing their life story could have put their loved ones in danger).

During action scenes it got real annoying when every single character used the words 'Sparks!' and 'Calamity!'. I took it to replace swear words but it felt a bit like the characters were immature and refrained themselves from full out raging and using real swear words. I wanted to mentally kick them and force real swear words out of them!

Speaking of action scenes, the book was fast paced and there was not a dull moment in sight. It would be cool to see a TV series or movie based on this book!