Michelle Herbert reviews Firefight by Brandon Sanderson…
The second novel in The Reckoners series,Firefight starts not long after the events of Steelheart, with David and the rest of The Reckoners handling new threats to Newcago and making new alliances to help keep the peace during this transitional time. If you haven’t read Steelheart, you may not want to read further as there maybe spoilers for that book below.
Firefight thankfully is not a rehash of the first book; instead David, Tia and the Professor are quickly on their way to Balibar (once New York) to see what is happening with an Epic there known as Regalia. This is after another team of Reckoners loses one of its members to Firefight. With half the team left behind in Newcago and new Reckoners to get used to Firefight had a significantly different feel to it, I did miss Cody and Abraham from this book, as they feel more fleshed out than some of the newer Reckoners; I hope that we will see more of them in the future.
David the hero of the last novel is still impulsive and working on his metaphors, and is again the focal point of the story. David is still endearing although I do have to wonder why he is still worried about being seen as a nerd, as the Reckoners are a mixture of knowledgeable types who are also quick to action and no one else is bothered about how they are seen. In Balibar we also learn more about the pasts of the Professor and Tia who were the most mysterious Reckoners in Steelheart. Their motivations become much clearer during the course of Firefight.
Balibar itself is an interesting setting, as there seem to be two Epics controlling the environment of the city. Regalia, who has control over water, has flooded the city so that people are living in camps on the rooftops of skyscrapers. These residents rely on the food and warmth provided by Dawnlight, who the residents of Balibar seem to worship as a god, even though no one has seen this benevolent benefactor. Balibar is so different in structure from Newcago and provides an interesting counterpoint for the characters having to deal with these realities. There is also a real world context with climate change and the increasing water levels which may one day flood low lying areas, Balibar is almost a worst case scenario setting as you do wonder, where did all of the additional water come from?
David also has to come to terms with the fact that not all Epics are Steelheart and that he may need to treat his job on a case by case basis, rather than deciding to kill all Epics due to their unstable nature. David needs to work out if there can be more than one kind of Epic and then convince his fellow Reckoners that they need to change their course of action. This leads to the question are all Epics dangerous? As well as if there is a way for Epics to reverse what has happened to them, with the question of will they want to change after having access to so much power? Firefight has true progression not only in the character arcs, but also David’s working theories on Epics which are constantly being updated as he learns more about them.
Throughout Firefight there is a lot of talk about redemption, as David searches for a way for Megan (the Epic known as Firefight) to rejoin the Reckoners and be able to work along with them rather than against them. With the new team members; Val, Exel and Mizzy there are a lot of trust issues to work through as they do not all have the same level and access to the main Reckoners secrets, which allows for mistrust and betrayals around every corner. David is again the newcomer to a very different team, but doesn’t seem to realise that he needs to step carefully as he did when joining any new situation. What could have been a fairly simple story turns into a game of cat and mouse, where The Reckoners as a whole seem to be deceived and divided, which is bad when the teams survival is based on putting your life in the hands of barely known people.
I am really happy with the way The Reckoners series is growing, and where it will go from here after the shocking ending. Will David get to test his theories or will The Reckoners go back to what they know best? There are a lot of interesting questions waiting to be revealed and I for one can’t wait to see what happens next.
Buy Firefight by Brandon Sanderson here.
Michelle Herbert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=qqtW2LRPtQY&x-yt-cl=85114404&feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E
Originally published February 2, 2015. Updated November 7, 2019.
