Steelheart

Steelheart is a novel that should be better than it is. From my perspective, I thought that this book should have been amazing, as it had interesting powers, a main character who I liked, and a gritty world for our characters to inhabit. Sadly, the characters were all flat, the villain is very generic, and the story is all too predictable at points. All of these facts are true...and yet I still really liked this book.

Perhaps why I liked this book is because the writing is sharp and works well. For a thriller, there has to be not only moments of true suspense and action, but also moments where the pacing slows down in order to get us time to breathe and look at the characters, situation, and environment. This novel has a level of writing that makes all of this feel effortless and important. Not a scene is wasted and it all works toward the final climax that is riveting and works well given the rules of the world, for the most part...but more on that later.

Another interesting fact about this novel is that I like is the main character, David. He is smart, dedicated and worthy of the readers sympathy. He, along with all of the other characters, thinks before they act. This allows us to see their motivations for doing anything and that is essential in a story like this. The other characters are given small amounts of background info as well through dialogue and different descriptions in the narrative. I also enjoyed the little mention of education in the book, where David gets just enough wrong on the test so he doesn't work for Steelheart, but gets enough of them right so he gets a good education and doesn't appear to be stupid.

Sadly the good points about this book end there. Most of the time the characters I mentioned are there only to serve the plot and little else. They serve as the stereotypes one has seen in countless action movies and books, and they rarely deviate from that plan with the exception of a few times, which were major spoilers that I could see coming from miles away. I also felt that Steelheart is a weak villain in terms of his writing. We should have seen him be built up more. Also, trying to take down all of these minor villains felt like video games levels to me and there were some scenes that were clearly Michael-Bay-Levels of bad writing.

And despite all this...I still loved this book. Call it a guilty pleasure, but this novel was one that I enjoyed all the way through despite its flaws. I honnestly feel that this book is best served if given to a teenage boy who is in middle school. I believe that is the market that was targeted, and that is who will enjoy it the most, me notwithstanding. For sheer enjoyment alone, I give this book a four, out of five.