Calam Up

Previously, I've blogged about the Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson. Steelheart and Firefight -- books one and two of a trilogy -- were fun audiobook adventures. I had a few reservations with each, but generally enjoyed their premise and narrative.

Those being: when people begin to develop superpowers in our own world, society quickly collapses. That's because the "epics" who get powers are invariably corrupted by them, turning evil. Young David Charleston has a history with one epic in particular, and his deep desire for vengeance leads him to the Reckoners, a group of humans dedicated to learning the weaknesses of epics and taking them out. Now, in book three, Calamity, the Reckoners are forced to fight one of their own who has been corrupted by powers. But David is convinced there is a way to turn epics back from the darkness. If he's right, the world will be forever changed again.

There are a couple of other Reckoners stories floating around out there, including an interstitial novella and an audiobook exclusive. But Calamity is the end of the trilogy, and as such has two almost competing goals to fulfill. First, it has to pay off the very personal conflict that the Reckoners now have with one of their own. This is by far the most interesting part of the story, with stakes built up over multiple books, characters you've come to care about, and a Return-of-the-Jedi-esque "there is still good in him" tension. This part of Calamity is quite successful. The story doesn't shy away from the corrupted former Reckoner doing some truly horrible things, making any redemption uncertain -- and bittersweet if it does come.  

But second, the book also has to bring an "end" to the larger issue of the epics in this world: how is the red comet Calamity responsible for making superheroes, and is it truly inevitable that all of them will become corrupt and evil? This is a much harder element for the story to tackle, for a number of reasons. Sanderson has wanted to keep some of the mechanics of this secret for a big third act (third book) reveal, making for a heavy freight of exposition just before the finish line. Some of the answers relate to new characters we haven't spent any time with before now, making it much harder to invest in what happens. And ultimately, how complete a resolution do any of us actually want here? Sanderson ultimately went back to his Mistborn series that started it all, writing a whole new trilogy; does he really want to foreclose any possibility of returning to this setting? All of these elusive qualities make it essentially impossible for this third book to satisfy the reader in this second aspect. It can kind of only just end abruptly, in a bit of a letdown.

Together, these two aspects of the story average out to a book I found to be the least satisfying of the trilogy, even as I acknowledge that it probably could not have gone any other way. I give Calamity a B-. It's not a steep enough drop in quality for me to regret reading the Reckoners trilogy; indeed, I think I would still recommend it overall to anyone tantalized by the premise. This is neither a perfect ending (that's really hard!) nor a... well... calamity.