Audiobook Review: Firefight

Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Reckoners, #2
Released: January 6th 2015
Publisher: Audible Studios
Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Audible

Newcago is free. They told David it was impossible, that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet Steelheart - invincible, immortal, unconquerable - is dead. And he died by David's hand.

Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life simpler. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And no one in Newcago can give him answers.

Babylon Restored, the city formerly known as the borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic Regalia, Babylon Restored is flooded and miserable, but David is sure it's the path that will lead him to what he needs to find. Entering a city oppressed by a High Epic despot is risky, but David's willing to take the gamble. Because killing Steelheart left a hole in David's heart. A hole where his thirst for vengeance once lived. Somehow, he filled that hole with another Epic - Firefight. And now he will go on a quest darker and even more dangerous than the fight against Steelheart to find her, and to get his answers.

Holy Firefight, Batman! I’m such a Brandon Sanderson fangirl.

Here’s what you can expect from the second book in Sanderson’s Reckoners trilogy: A new city. Entertainment. Goofiness. Laughs. Almost unbearable tension. Hurt. Betrayals. So many tears. Frustration. Elation. Hope.


ALL the feels.

“My name is David Charleston. I kill people with super powers.”

Brandon Sanderson has done it again, and we’ve expected no less. While it didn’t surpass its predecessor (because seriously, Steelheart was almost perfect), Firefight was just as good, just as exciting, just as funny, just as well written. In it, Sanderson takes Prof, Tia and David to a new setting – former New York, now called Babylon Restored. Their mission is to save the city from Regalia, a very powerful water epic and Prof’s former friend, but David has ulterior motives as well. Firefight is already there, or at least she should be, and David is determined to find her and save her from herself, even if everyone else wants to see her dead.

David is sometimes almost childlike in his willingness to see good in everyone, and it’s both his best and his worst quality at once. He didn’t start out like that; when we met him, his world was very black and white, but over time, and with pretty good reason, his worldview started to change. In Firefight, he struggles with some very difficult moral choices, but he approaches things with his eternal optimism and the innate goodness that shines from everything he does.

“You’re like a potato!” I shouted after her. “In a minefield.”
She froze in place. Then she spun on me, her face lit by a half-grown fruit. “A potato,” she said flatly. “That’s the best you can do? Seriously?”
“It makes sense,” I said. “Listen. You’re strolling through a minefield, worried about getting blown up. And then you step on something, and you think, ‘I’m dead.’ But it’s just a potato. And you’re so relieved to find something so wonderful when you expected something so awful. That’s what you are. To me.”

Firefight is full of revelations of all kinds. David still has so much to learn about the post-Calamity world, and some of the things he thought he knew couldn’t possibly be more wrong. But surprises come from more than just the world around him. People are there to surprise him too – those he trusted implicitly, those he was unsure about, people he’s just met – but mostly himself. No one is more surprised than David to see how much he’s changed. 

Babylon Restored is gorgeous! The city is underwater so things mostly happen on rooftops, and there’s weird glowing fruit everywhere. The people are also strange, more relaxed, happy, friendly and open. At first, David has a hard time adjusting; in Newcago, people are terrified and keep to themselves, but in Babylon Restored, they look you right in the eyes and invite you to a party.

I’ve come to realize that folks at Audible Studios rarely make mistakes when it comes to choosing narrators, and the same stands true for this series. MacLeod Andrews was the perfect choice for Steelheart and Firefight, his voice is full of suppressed humor, but it easily transforms in David’s more difficult moments. Admittedly, his female voices need more work, but his voice has become inseparable from David’s and that’s pretty much all we can ask. I don’t know of any other narrator (except maybe Holter Graham) who could narrate this so well.

We’ll have to wait a year for Calamity… unless we find some way to get our hands on it sooner. I could maybe sell my soul or something. No price is too high, that much I know.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.