Firefight

by Brandon Sanderson
416 pgs  (The Reckoners series #2)

By my count Brandon Sanderson is currently writing six different series of books: The Stormlight Archive, The Reckoners, Mistborn, The Rithmatist, Legion, and the Alcatraz books. Let me explain why this prolific pace works so well. First of all, they're all very good books, different from one another, both in style and, to a lesser extent, genre. But most of all, it means that I'm never waiting too long for the next book by him to be written. There are other fantasy series that I'm in the middle of reading right now, and my biggest point of frustration is having to wait five or more years for the next book in the series to come out. So while I know I'm going to have to wait about two years or so between each of the books in his Stormlight books (his magnum opus), I know that while I'm waiting, two or three books from his other series will come out and will keep my frustration in check.

Firefight is one of those books. It's book two (or three if you count the short novella Mitosis) in The Reckoners series. David and the other Reckoners were able to prove in Steelheart that the High Epics, individual who were altered and given unique super powers that drove them evil years ago, were in fact vulnerable; that they all had a weakness that could be discovered and exploited in order to kill them.

Having dealt with Steelheart, their attention is drawn to Regalia, a High Epic who rules over what used to be Manhattan. Regalia has the ability to control water and has used that power to flood the borough. She can also project images of herself within a range of her physical body, so no one knows where she's actually at. David believes that Regalia holds the secret to the true nature of all Epics. If he can find her and discover it, he may be able to save the Epic he fell in love with and lost in his battle against Steelheart--Firefight.

Firefight is excellent. Just like everything Sanderson has written so far, it's got plenty of action and the storyline is intelligent and full of surprises. It's written primarily for a young adult audience, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it just as much as my teenage daughter will, now that it's her turn to read it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆