Lux

[Venno]

Who else REALLY liked Lux. I love the steelheart origin story.

[HSuperLee]

I did really enjoy Lux. I thought it was an excellent expansion to the Reckoners universe, and I loved seeing another Reckoner's cell and how they fought Epics without access to Prof's abilities. I will say though, it seemed like there were a few subtle retcons and distinctions from the original series (which I reread in preparation for Lux) that did kind of bother me. For example, in the originial trilogy motivators were pretty much black box technology that only a few really knew how they worked. Yet in Lux, Zeff seemed to act as though them being incubators for epic cells was common knowledge. And then Firefight has a whole subplot of David being the first one to really piece together that Epic's weaknesses come from things they feared before getting their powers, yet in Lux they figure out all the weaknesses by thinking about and analyzing the Epics' pasts. And finally, there's a whole in universe debate before Steelheart over whether or not its the powers that make an Epic go evil, or if only evil people get powers, and in Lux we have Languish pretty quickly confirm the former.

Now, that said, I understand that these were done to provide a reader who may have never read the original trilogy with important information about the world, but it was still a little jarring to see right after a big reread. However, it is pretty much my only complaint. Other than that I think the story was very well written, and it definitely kept me guessing. I predicted pretty early on that page was still alive, but I also thought before we actually got to Lux that Lifeforce would be a decoy villain, and that Wingflare would be the real big bad, since she was the one the audience was really set up to hate, and I didn't think there was time to make us hate Lifeforce more than her.   I was wrong about that.

As for the Steelheart origin, I honestly didn't make the connection until he fired off an energy blast. I figured the line about having a heart made of steel was just a shout out, and somehow despite my reread I forgot that Steelheart's actual last name was Jackson. In my defense, I was remembering when Tia described him as basically an average joe pre-calamity, and wasn't expecting him to be a spec ops solider. That was definitely a surprise. But after the energy blast, I recognized the powerset and the name clicked, which led to me blurting outloud (luckily I wasn't in public,) "Wait a minute HE'S FREAKING STEELHEART!"

I'm now really excited to see where this story goes from here. I didn't realize there would be multiple books when I started Lux, so the cliffhanger ending really got me, and now I need more. I've wanted to see the world post-Calamity's departure for years, and now that the Deathrise mystery is in play I want it even more.

[+Player22]

I gave it a 7 or 8 out of 10. I, too, didn't like the retcons and outright contradictions but thought it was still well written and exciting. I liked it enough that I picked up all three of the original trilogy on audiobook for an easy reread. I really liked the narrator, he is a perfect fit for the series.

[LewsTherinTelescope]

On 8/10/2021 at 8:29 PM, HSuperLee said:

And then Firefight has a whole subplot of David being the first one to really piece together that Epic's weaknesses come from things they feared before getting their powers, yet in Lux they figure out all the weaknesses by thinking about and analyzing the Epics' pasts.

I'm trying to remember, I think there was a discussion about it early on in Lux with regards to Mitosis, but I can't actually remember and looking through an audiobook is a pain... so maybe this one really is just a weird hole and I'm just remembering when David did the same in Firefight.

On 8/10/2021 at 8:29 PM, HSuperLee said:

And finally, there's a whole in universe debate before Steelheart over whether or not its the powers that make an Epic go evil, or if only evil people get powers, and in Lux we have Languish pretty quickly confirm the former.

I feel like this makes sense, Languish was hidden away similarly to Conflux, so people in-world still wouldn't really know. I'm trying to remember, when do they actually meet Languish? I thought it was still pretty decently towards the end, but my sense of this stuff is all weird with audio.

On 8/10/2021 at 8:29 PM, HSuperLee said:

For example, in the originial trilogy motivators were pretty much black box technology that only a few really knew how they worked. Yet in Lux, Zeff seemed to act as though them being incubators for epic cells was common knowledge.

Huh, didn't even catch that. Yeah, that's weird. Only thing I can think of is maybe Prof explained it to this cell specifically so that they can develop things, but it's secret elsewhere? I have no idea.

---

To be honest the main "hole" I noticed when reading was Lifeforce's "demon" being contradictory to how Megan describes the darkness... but it turns out that's actually important and I just needed to believe in the authors more lol.

[Use the Falchion]

Copy-Pasted from the other Lux discussion page:

 

I think this was the second best of the Reckoners book, with Steelheart in first place. And that's saying something since I'm not a fan of audiobooks AT ALL. I have maybe four total, and none of them are finished. (Dan Wells' Zero-G audio-novellas, and The Original are exceptions; but those were built for audio, which is a very different beast than something like Lux that's really made to be both print and audio.) Listening to this made for a weird experience. Had this just been a book, I probably could have knocked it out in a single day and have put on a nice soundtrack for the experience. But the audio form meant I had to sneak in almost fourteen hours of listening time, which was far more than ever before. I guess it wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't a Sanderson book, but still...

I really liked the science-y aspect of this book, but it felt a lot like Rhythm of War in a way, where Sanderson had characters discover secrets, explain the secrets, and then use the secrets. There were times where this became repetitive, but it all worked out in the end.

Jax is a solid leading man. He's a lot like a Science Hero in an Action Hero's world, contrasting David's Action Hero with a Science Hero's demeanor. Zeff (which I couldn't help but think of "Szeth" until I saw the spelling), Abigail, Hersh, and Wade were all solid characters as well. Each had their own flavor and dynamic with Jax, and none felt too cartoonish, like the side characters in the original trilogy sometimes felt. Paige was the heart and soul of this book, and I'm very excited to see where her story takes her.

Lastly, leading up to this book, Brandon kept saying that the story of Lux takes place during and after Calamity. This is a technical truth at best - Lux takes place at the same time of Calamity, with their endings lining up pretty well. If the Reckoners was a series, it'd be easy to imagine the two books' finales happening at the same time.* (YMMV on whether or not this would be a good thing, considering the stakes are different in each, but it's food for thought.)

 

Overall, Lux was a very good addition into the Reckoners fold. It's a lot darker in tone than David's story, and I like that aspect of it.  I'd love to see this turn into a complete trilogy over the next few years, because Jax and Paige's story is far from over. The twists and turns in this novel are pure Sanderson, and the writing is world is crisp and distinct from other Reckoners locations. I'd give this a solid 8.5/10.

 

Other notes:

I know it's not stated, but I imagine Jax as black.

*While listening, I kept thinking about the Reckoners as a television show, and how to balance both stories. I currently have it as two dual stories being told. Season 1 would deal with David's story in the present and Hersh's backstory in the past. Season 2 would begin with Mitosis in the present and Jax's backstory in the past, and then the two would ultimately sync up. Season 3 would be the dual stories of Calamity and Lux. This is all subject to change, but that's how I have it now.

I still worry about The Apocalypse Guard and how it'll fit into all of this. I really want to see the book someday. Given Dan's reading of it last year, it'd probably do really well as an audiobook. But I honestly don't care about the form so long as it comes out. And who knows, maybe we'll get that Mizzy story too.

Lux's first novella's working title was Deathrise. I kept wondering why that was when the book came out, but it makes some sense as of why by the end.

Not really related to Lux, but as much fun as this surprise drop was, I think I'd like something of a scheduled window for future Mainframe drop dates. Maybe not specific days, but something like "Coming, Spring 2022" or whatnot whenever possible.

[StormingTexan]

I thought it was entertaining and a good expansion of the Reckoners Universe. I agree some of the things like weaknesses and motivators being so well understood in this book was a little distracting. It did not bother me a ton though. 

[MGershone]

On 8/10/2021 at 7:45 PM, Venno said:

Who else REALLY liked Lux. I love the steelheart origin story.

Me. I loved it. Reckoners has always been a favorite series of mine, and Lux only re-affirms that.

 

On 8/10/2021 at 9:29 PM, HSuperLee said:

I'm now really excited to see where this story goes from here. I didn't realize there would be multiple books when I started Lux, so the cliffhanger ending really got me, and now I need more. I've wanted to see the world post-Calamity's departure for years, and now that the Deathrise mystery is in play I want it even more.

Same. I literally spent the entire epilogue going, "Oh no, this is really bad, this is really bad, but I am so excited."

[bmcclure7]

On 8/18/2021 at 10:00 PM, Use the Falchion said:

Copy-Pasted from the other Lux discussion page:

 

I think this was the second best of the Reckoners book, with Steelheart in first place. And that's saying something since I'm not a fan of audiobooks AT ALL. I have maybe four total, and none of them are finished. (Dan Wells' Zero-G audio-novellas, and The Original are exceptions; but those were built for audio, which is a very different beast than something like Lux that's really made to be both print and audio.) Listening to this made for a weird experience. Had this just been a book, I probably could have knocked it out in a single day and have put on a nice soundtrack for the experience. But the audio form meant I had to sneak in almost fourteen hours of listening time, which was far more than ever before. I guess it wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't a Sanderson book, but still...

I really liked the science-y aspect of this book, but it felt a lot like Rhythm of War in a way, where Sanderson had characters discover secrets, explain the secrets, and then use the secrets. There were times where this became repetitive, but it all worked out in the end.

Jax is a solid leading man. He's a lot like a Science Hero in an Action Hero's world, contrasting David's Action Hero with a Science Hero's demeanor. Zeff (which I couldn't help but think of "Szeth" until I saw the spelling), Abigail, Hersh, and Wade were all solid characters as well. Each had their own flavor and dynamic with Jax, and none felt too cartoonish, like the side characters in the original trilogy sometimes felt. Paige was the heart and soul of this book, and I'm very excited to see where her story takes her.

Lastly, leading up to this book, Brandon kept saying that the story of Lux takes place during and after Calamity. This is a technical truth at best - Lux takes place at the same time of Calamity, with their endings lining up pretty well. If the Reckoners was a series, it'd be easy to imagine the two books' finales happening at the same time.* (YMMV on whether or not this would be a good thing, considering the stakes are different in each, but it's food for thought.)

 

Overall, Lux was a very good addition into the Reckoners fold. It's a lot darker in tone than David's story, and I like that aspect of it.  I'd love to see this turn into a complete trilogy over the next few years, because Jax and Paige's story is far from over. The twists and turns in this novel are pure Sanderson, and the writing is world is crisp and distinct from other Reckoners locations. I'd give this a solid 8.5/10.

 

Other notes:

I know it's not stated, but I imagine Jax as black.

*While listening, I kept thinking about the Reckoners as a television show, and how to balance both stories. I currently have it as two dual stories being told. Season 1 would deal with David's story in the present and Hersh's backstory in the past. Season 2 would begin with Mitosis in the present and Jax's backstory in the past, and then the two would ultimately sync up. Season 3 would be the dual stories of Calamity and Lux. This is all subject to change, but that's how I have it now.

I still worry about The Apocalypse Guard and how it'll fit into all of this. I really want to see the book someday. Given Dan's reading of it last year, it'd probably do really well as an audiobook. But I honestly don't care about the form so long as it comes out. And who knows, maybe we'll get that Mizzy story too.

Lux's first novella's working title was Deathrise. I kept wondering why that was when the book came out, but it makes some sense as of why by the end.

Not really related to Lux, but as much fun as this surprise drop was, I think I'd like something of a scheduled window for future Mainframe drop dates. Maybe not specific days, but something like "Coming, Spring 2022" or whatnot whenever possible.

 There was a reading of Apocalypse guard?

[Use the Falchion]

2 minutes ago, bmcclure7 said:

 There was a reading of Apocalypse guard?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfd5zIA0SYU&t=10s

Skip ahead to about 32 minutes in. 

The transcript from the Coppermind. 

 

Quote

The Apocalypse Guard

Part One: The Plural of Apocalypse

Chapter One

Emma's Instructions for Starting a Book:

1) Start with something exciting, to get the reader's attention.

2) Don't start with a blog post. Like this one.

3) Crap. Let me start over.

Smoke in the air, a red sky, huddling alone in the ruins of a dying world. (See, that's better already.) My name is Emma, by the way. Yes, that Emma, from Emma's Instructions. But unless you're one of the six people who follows me on Snapgram, that probably doesn't mean anything to you. So, let me introduce myself. I'm eighteen years old. I'm from <Idaho>, sort of. And I just realized that I got totally off track again. What happened to the red sky and the dying world? Well, let me tell you.

Remember how I'm only sort of from <Idaho>? I've lived there since I was two, but I was born in a place called <Ard>, which is basically like a different version of <Idaho>, but in an alternate reality? And if you're reading this, you need to know about alternate realities. There's Earth. And then there's an infinite number of different worlds that are kind of like Earth, but also different. Sometimes a little, and sometimes a lot. Like there's one called <Hona> that's mostly the same as the world you know, except instead of continents it's all islands. Even <Idaho> is an island in a giant North American archipelago. Crazy, huh? So there's <Hona>, and there's Terra, and there's <Erodan> and <Pangaea>, and a bunch of others. And there used to be an <Ard>, but it's gone now. Because I called it a dying world before, but that was sixteen years ago. Today, it is all the way dead. Burned to a crisp. And I almost burned with it, except that the Apocalypse Guard swooped in and saved me.

Holy crap, the Apocalypse Guard! Why didn't I start with them?

Emma's Instructions for Starting a Book Correctly:

1) Start with something exciting to get the reader's attention.

2) Like, for example, if your story includes a group of amazing heroes who travel the multiverse saving entire worlds from destruction, maybe lead with that.

3) I mean, come on.

The Apocalypse Guard are based on Earth, but they hop around from world to world stopping Apocalypses. Apocalypsi? Apocaleeps? That word doesn't even have a plural, because why would you ever need to talk about more than one Apocalypse? Most people just get one, and then boom, you're done. That's what an Apocalypse is. But the Apocalypse Guard can actually stop Apocalypses, and they've already stopped a bunch of them and now we're in <Erodan> to stop a giant asteroid and it's AMAZING.

Important Note: did you see how I casually dropped that "we" in there? Now "we're" in <Erodan>? That's because I'M TOTALLY A MEMBER OF THE APOCALYPSE GUARD AND I CAME HERE TO STOP AN ASTEROID! (I know it's kind of lame to type in caps lock like that, but seriously, if you were in the Apocalypse Guard traveling to a different dimension to stop a giant asteroid, you'd totally put it in your Snapgram, too, and I would not say anything about your excited over-use of caps lock because I am a good friend.

Which is also why I am going to stop talking about myself and start telling you the story about how we saved <Erodan>.

Starting right now.

I was standing in the Apocalypse Guard command center, looking up at the screens that showed the giant asteroid hurtling down toward the planet when Commander Visco signalled that it was time for me to do my part.

"Emma," she said, and waved her coffee mug toward me. "I'm empty again."

Okay, so my part is very small.

"Yes, sir!" I seized the Commander's mug and hurried over to the small kitchen beside the command center. I mean, I was only eighteen, and fresh out of high school; it's not like I was gonna be out there flying around in a power rig, draining kinetic energy from an extinction-level space rock. I was a cadet! And this was still very early in my training, so coffee was all they let me do.

One pot of coffee was already brewing on the counter, but we had about forty people in the command center, each with their own station and responsibility. So I got a second pot going, just in case. To tell you the truth, I was a coffee-making genius. Which is weird, because I don't drink coffee. I'm not just from <Idaho>; I'm from <Iona, Idaho>. Population 1,803, approximately 1,802 of whom are in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, including me. So I don't drink coffee, but you know what I can do? I can follow instructions. It's practically a superpower. Though, I guess if you followed me on Snapgram, you already knew that.

Emma's Instructions for Perfect Coffee:

1) Follow the freaking recipe.

2) Serve it way hotter than you think it should be.

3) Never talk about how bad it smells.

I know a lot of people love the smell of coffee, but they're wrong. You call it an acquired taste; I call it Stockholm Syndrome.

"You don't have to read the recipe every single time you brew a pot," said Sophie, jogging up with a few empty mugs of her own. She was a cadet, like me, and was mostly just a coffee girl, like me. "Trust me," she said, "I've been drinking coffee for years and I..."

She caught a whiff of the pot I had just filled, and her eyes closed in aromatic pleasure. "Wow, that smells amazing!"

"Thank you," I said and smiled. What did I tell you? Coffee. Making. Genius. When you read the manual and follow the rules and measure things exactly, it will always turn out better than if you just do something by instinct. Always.

I gave Sophie a fist-bump of cadet solidarity, filled Commander Visco's mug, and rushed back into the command center. I said before that we were on <Erodan>, but that's "we" in the communal sense. We, the Apocalypse Guard, had a presence in <Erodan>. When most think of the Apocalypse Guard, they think of the Power Riggers, and their fantastical abilities. And yes, a bunch of those people were on <Erodan> and up in orbit around it, fighting the asteroid. The rest of us, the operators, scientists, engineers, medics, Commanders, janitors, accountants, and cadets were back on Earth using something called a dimensional tunneler to communicate with the Riggers.

We were doing it from an orbital space station, though, which is still pretty friggin' rad, huh? I love this job.

I gave Commander Visco her steaming mug of coffee and took the opportunity to look over her shoulder at the room's main screen, currently showing a view of the asteroid. One of our technicians had named the asteroid "Droppy." Which was why we didn't usually let our technicians name things.

 

[bmcclure7]

On 8/10/2021 at 8:29 PM, HSuperLee said:

I did really enjoy Lux. I thought it was an excellent expansion to the Reckoners universe, and I loved seeing another Reckoner's cell and how they fought Epics without access to Prof's abilities. I will say though, it seemed like there were a few subtle retcons and distinctions from the original series (which I reread in preparation for Lux) that did kind of bother me. For example, in the originial trilogy motivators were pretty much black box technology that only a few really knew how they worked. Yet in Lux, Zeff seemed to act as though them being incubators for epic cells was common knowledge. And then Firefight has a whole subplot of David being the first one to really piece together that Epic's weaknesses come from things they feared before getting their powers, yet in Lux they figure out all the weaknesses by thinking about and analyzing the Epics' pasts. And finally, there's a whole in universe debate before Steelheart over whether or not its the powers that make an Epic go evil, or if only evil people get powers, and in Lux we have Languish pretty quickly confirm the former.

Now, that said, I understand that these were done to provide a reader who may have never read the original trilogy with important information about the world, but it was still a little jarring to see right after a big reread. However, it is pretty much my only complaint. Other than that I think the story was very well written, and it definitely kept me guessing. I predicted pretty early on that page was still alive, but I also thought before we actually got to Lux that Lifeforce would be a decoy villain, and that Wingflare would be the real big bad, since she was the one the audience was really set up to hate, and I didn't think there was time to make us hate Lifeforce more than her.   I was wrong about that.

As for the Steelheart origin, I honestly didn't make the connection until he fired off an energy blast. I figured the line about having a heart made of steel was just a shout out, and somehow despite my reread I forgot that Steelheart's actual last name was Jackson. In my defense, I was remembering when Tia described him as basically an average joe pre-calamity, and wasn't expecting him to be a spec ops solider. That was definitely a surprise. But after the energy blast, I recognized the powerset and the name clicked, which led to me blurting outloud (luckily I wasn't in public,) "Wait a minute HE'S FREAKING STEELHEART!"

I'm now really excited to see where this story goes from here. I didn't realize there would be multiple books when I started Lux, so the cliffhanger ending really got me, and now I need more. I've wanted to see the world post-Calamity's departure for years, and now that the Deathrise mystery is in play I want it even more.

 Lux takes place after steelheart so David has already figured out how weakness work and told prof who must have told the other reckoners.