Here it is! After more than a year of waiting for the second installment, it. Is. Finally. Here!

For those unfamiliar with the series, it's better known as the Reckoners trilogy. The first book, titled Steelheart, came out September 2013, and Firefight came out January of this year. You can read my review of Steelheart here so you can join in on the epic (pun intended) journey that it is.

Let me just say first off that I liked the first book better. That is not to say that this book is a complete letdown.

To pick up where Steelheart left off, David goes with the Reckoners to pursue fish just as big as Steelheart, after his successful assassination (spoiler!). David was left with this big void that Steelheart used to fill. And now that he's gone, he's doing what he's been used to doing best: pursuing and studying epics, and plotting ways to kill them. And possibly finding Megan in the process.

The Reckoners' modus operandi this time is to kill Regalia, a high epic with the power to control water, who is currently ruling over Babylon Restored a.k.a Babilar f.k.a (formerly known as) New York, NY. 

You won't get your usual characters in here, but the main ones, Prof, Tia, and David are in it, of course. They set off to a new base with a completely different theme. Not to mention, the portrayal of Babilar has such a stark difference compared to Newcago. Images of Pandora (the Avatar world) meets civilization pops to mind whenever glowing neon graffiti are mentioned.

So glow. Much color.

Story-wise, the bulk of the middle of the book is mostly about background stories, running around Babilar, and not a lot of action compared to the first book. It's not the same whirlwind ride as before, although, of course, like the first one, the action is always packed at the very last chapter. I'm beginning to think that's just Sanderson's style. It hooks me. I like it. But there's more tactic and planning involved since they were dealing with an epic that they didn't know how to locate.

Regalia's powers (one of them) is like an all-seeing mirror on the wall, except that it's any surface of water. What makes this interesting? Babilar is a flooded city. She basically can see anything as long as there's a pool of water around. Interesting. Another thing that makes Babilar really fascinating is this mysterious epic called Dawnslight that people seem to worship. It's weird, but the one who's behind Dawnslight is even weirder.

David gets a little frustrating in the book, his judgments clouded by his love for Megan. I keep forgetting that's he's still this lovestruck teenager, and teenagers often do stupid things in the name of 'love'. There was this whole trust issue throughout the book, since, knowing what happened last time, is she really telling the truth or is she just acting under Regalia's orders? Sometimes I wanted to punch David.

Also, we get to see Prof (still think of him as a slightly younger Morgan Freeman) using more of his powers, which means we also see more of his temper. A lot more is revealed about him and his connections to the other characters in the story. And I have this feeling the next book might revolve more around him. Just a feeling.

A little tidbit about Calamity is also revealed, and, unsurprisingly, that is the title of the next book. When Calamity was mentioned, I stood upright and couldn't stop reading (the middle of the book stretched out for a whole week for me).

Overall, it's a nice second book, lots of info, epic weaknesses, previous lives. It dragged on a little bit, until you get to the end that was a CLIFFHANGER. I could almost just picture this as a movie, and I bet it would make all the viewers ask for more. Just get this on as a movie, please!

The gist: 8.5/10

A bit of a lower score because I didn't find it as big of a page-turner as the previous one, but I still liked it all the same. It's like the pickled ginger you eat after having a piece of sushi: cleanse your palette for the next bite.