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Steelheart vs Firefight


Quiver

Favourite Reckoners book?  

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  1. 1. Which Reckoners book is the best?



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The books I mean, not the Epics. derpytongue2.png

 

I didn't see a poll for this, so I thought I'd post it. I just finished Firefight -literally; I finished it an hour ago- and I was curious what people's thoughts were- which of the books did you think was better?

 

Personally (and with the caveat that I haven't really given Firefight a chance to "settle" yet)...

 

I think Steelheart has the stronger concept- or at least, the simpler one. But that is part of why i think it is the stronger concept, because it is such a straightforward idea: kill evil!Superman.

(Granted, it might be a little too simple- the idea of an evil, tyrant Superman is hardly new, but it's one that works). Newcago is a wonderfully straightforward setting, an oppresive, dictator state where supervillain's can do whatever they please, and everyone is powerless to stop them.

There's also a very straightforward throughline- we're going to kill Steelheart. Every part of the story is a step on the road to that objective, and each part ends with them taking a pretty big step towards that goal.

The technology is fairly low-key, too. Sure, 'gravitonics' might seem odd, but it isn't anything that far-fetched froma typical science-fiction tale.

 

By contrast, Firefight (and Babilar) are... weird. The setting is a lot more complicated; in Steelheart, the Epics all had a pretty well defined role, in government and in the book's plot. In Firefight, that isn't as clear- newton attends local parties, and Obliteration... destroys things indiscriminately. But it's a different kind of indiscrimination than the epics of Steelheart, who at least avoided property damage for the most part. 

Not to mention the city itself. While Steelheart has Conflux and Nightwielder as contributors to the state of Newcago, the emphasis is on what Steelheart himself has done.  Babilar -with Regalia's water, Dawnslight's trees, Newton's gangs and Obliterations...Obliterationess- feels more like the different Epic characters are interacting with and actively shaping the city.

 

But... I think I prefer Firefight. As I say, the story isn't as clear as Steelheart's was; most of the narrative is the Reckoners team trying to get a footing on the situation, rather than making the strides they did against Steelheart. But in Steelheart they felt very... effective; they didn't really "lose" (besides Megan's death, but they got Conflux out of that and she came back to life anyway). Firefight feel's more... complicated, in that regard.

 

It's also, I think, stronger on the character side. I liked the character's of Steelheart -but Mizzy clicked with me quicker than Cody and Abraham did. I liked Tia in Steelheart, and I liked her here. But...

Frankly, the main reason I like Firefight is that i finally feel like I understand Megan.

 

I just could not get her in Steelheart. Maybe that was intentional -it made me emphasis with David's position- but it also made me wonder just what it was he saw in her.

Firefight made me really like the character, and I'll probably go back and read Steelheart again because of it. It turned a romance I was ambivalent about into one that I was interested in reading... with bonus points for the fact that, during the whole thing, I understood why David did what he did, while screaming at him to stop doing it. Megan rushing into the fire to save David? Her last minute appearance to force Prof back?

Awesome.  

 

So... I think I like Firefight over Steelheart, at least a little. I liked the character work more, and the world felt more complicated and complex.

 

(Oh, and I haven't read Mitosis... but I figured I should include it for completion's sake.)

Edited by Quiver
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The primary reason I (think I) prefer Firefight is the villains/Epics. Overall the villains in Steelheart lack personality, which granted is justified in most cases. Interestingly they share a specific structure, so let's compare.

 

Early Epic that gets killed off

Fortuity vs. Sourcefield: Granted we don't exactly get that much personality from either but Sourcefield gets the better action sequence. :P

 

Minor Epic

Refractionary vs Knox: I'm really only mentioning them for completion's sake. :ph34r:

 

Dragon that gets way to little screen time

Nightwielder vs Newton: We don't get a lot from Newton, except that she goes to parties and that she puts up a though gang act to keep people from triggering her weakness but I don't think we really got more for Nightwielder than that he's asian. :ph34r:

 

Nice Epic that's in there against his will

Conflux vs Dawnslight: Until they stole Edmund he had exactly zero personality and after that he got a couple of scenes that were only slightly larger than his appearance in Firefight. Danwslight, who to be fair never really was a villain, got alluded to for the entire book which made him to the more intersting mystery when compared to Conflux.

 

Fire Epic that makes an appearance in the sequel

Firefight vs OBLITERATION: Do I even have to explain? Firefight (not Megan mind you, her appearances cancle each other out) isn't even a character and Obliteration is motherstorming badchull, has some awesome scenes and matters to the plot!

 

Big bad that has a personal connection to one of the Protagonists

Steelheart vs Regalia: We only really see Steelheart in the begining abd the ending (and even then we don't actually see him fight) making him much more of an image and motivation for David. He's by no means a bad villain but as a character he could have used more exposure. Regalia however is a proper character and actively displays her powers, character and connections to the Protagonists. She also has an agenda on her own.

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Fire Epic that makes an appearance in the sequel

Firefight vs OBLITERATION: Do I even have to explain? Firefight (not Megan mind you, her appearances cancle each other out) isn't even a character and Obliteration is motherstorming badchull, has some awesome scenes and matters to the plot!

 

Edge, I don't think it's really fair to pit Obliteration against Firefight. Even if you made it a contest between interesting yet mysterious badchulls, there are only a handful of characters who can even play in the same league as Obliteration, and one of them is Batman. :P 

 

What made Firefight superior to Steelheart for me, in addition to your points, is the fact that despite being the second book in a trilogy, Firefight is more surprising. It's more world-driven than Steelheart, which was more plot-driven, and it both brings to mind and solves the biggest mystery of the series (why is every Epic irredeemably evil?). The answer is surprising, but makes perfect sense, and more than anything, it makes the Epics sympathetic. Many, many comics writers have tried to make irredeemably evil villains sympathetic, and many have only partly succeeded or failed entirely. Firefight took that idea and knocked it out of the park. 

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I personally felt Steelheart was better, but really for only one reason: the attitude towards Epics. In Steelheart Sanderson established Epics as gods, which they are given their superpowers. The more powerful ones were something to be scared of, mythical creatures with untold strength that would kill you for smirking the wrong way. In Firefight, though, they're just people with powers; the entire casts' outlook towards Epics is so much more bland. And before you go saying that David's, Tia's, and Prof's outlooks should have been more mellow due to facing down the big baddies in Newcago (which I agree with), I'd like to remind you that the Reckoners in Babilar were very mellow about it too. In the end I prefer the former to the latter.

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I personally felt Steelheart was better, but really for only one reason: the attitude towards Epics. In Steelheart Sanderson established Epics as gods, which they are given their superpowers. The more powerful ones were something to be scared of, mythical creatures with untold strength that would kill you for smirking the wrong way. In Firefight, though, they're just people with powers; the entire casts' outlook towards Epics is so much more bland. And before you go saying that David's, Tia's, and Prof's outlooks should have been more mellow due to facing down the big baddies in Newcago (which I agree with), I'd like to remind you that the Reckoners in Babilar were very mellow about it too. In the end I prefer the former to the latter.

That's actually part of the reason why I liked Firefight more. In Steelheart, we're introduced to Epics like Fortuity, sadistic monsters with godlike powers. David, and many others, assume that Calamity chose these people because of how awful they were. Firefight, having already given us Megan and Prof, shows us Sourcefield, Newton, and Obliteration--Epics who have done some monstrous things, but didn't ask to be the way they are--before revealing that each one of them essentially suffers from intense PTSD with a trigger Calamity made ten, fifty, or a hundred times worse than it already was. Aside from introducing greater moral complexity, Firefight also makes some profound statements on the role of fear in everything from tyranny to petty bullying, and how it may never really be too late for those fears to be faced.

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What made Firefight superior to Steelheart for me, in addition to your points, is the fact that despite being the second book in a trilogy, Firefight is more surprising.

It never actually occured to me that Firefight is the middle book and "should be" the worst. I though Steelheart was ok but I was hooked on Firefight - and I think for most of the reasons mentioned here - it was more informative, more mysterious, more world-based, and the characters didn't really know what was going on. I especially agree with Quiver on the characterisation of Mizzy. She's great :).

With the caveat that I've read Firefight far more recently that Steelheart, and Mitosis not at a.

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It was a tough decision to me, but I chose Firefight.

 

To be honest, the main reason was that there felt like more action, and certainly a lot more Epic powers being thrown around in Firefight than in Steelheart. It appealed to me more. And I liked the characters better as well- everyone from the villains to the supporting heroes were much more fleshed out than in Steelheart. I know nothing about Nightwielder's personality, or Stelelheart's, really. This didn't make them bad villains, and it made sense in the context of the book, but I still prefer fleshed-out and complex villains.

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