Calamity is the third book in Brandon Sanderson’s YA series about what if superheroes were eeeeevil. If you haven’t read the first two, back away from this review slowly, ’cause I’m about to spoil the heck out of both of them.
Hokay, so, now that the Reckoners know (or at least think they know) the secret to bringing back Epics from the darkness, the Reckoners have gone from being the only people killing Epics to being the only ones willing and able to help them. And the first person they need to save is their former leader Prof, who at the end of Firefight was consumed by darkness when he used his powers to save the city of Babilar. He now goes by the name Limelight, and while they don’t know what he’s up to, they know it’s not good. Prof’s powers are terrifying and no one, including our hero David, is sure they can stop him, but they have to try. Only then can they worry about bringing down Calamity himself.
Prof has descended on the former Atlanta, which is now Illithia, a traveling city made entirely of salt, so that’s awesome and weird. The team follows him and works up a plan to infiltrate and sabotage his operations, all the while trying to figure out his weakness so they can save him from himself.
I thought this was a good ending to the series, although it didn’t wrap up as much stuff as I thought it would, and the ending was definitely on the hurried side, although that may be a function of Sanderson wanting to save some stuff for his spin-off series, which will be taking place in SPOILER one of the alternate worlds that Megan can access END SPOILER. I thought how things worked out for David were particularly fitting and even moving, even if the whole thing with Calamity was a bit of an anticlimax (there is a nice surprise in here, though, that you won’t see coming at all–actually, a couple of them). Sanderson is also clearly have a ball making up superhero powers and letting his imagination run wild. No wonder he wanted to keep writing in this universe.
Bottom line: this is a fun series. Worth your time.
I haven’t really gotten on here much over the last couple weeks. I come back on and you’ve just about hit your Cannonball, and you’ve reviewed Calamity, one of my favorites from this year.
I like your review better than mine.
Thanks, and here I was thinking it was lazy and too short. I liked your review!
My Cannonball review is seriously taking me forever to write. It’s giving me anxiety.