Since well before Superman, people with superhuman powers have been beating the crap out of ordinary people like only the super privileged can. Thankfully, the worst of this has been confined to the big screen. The bright side of superhero culture can be summed up in the gospel of uncle ben “With great power comes great responsibility.” Lamentably, this idea has remained largely unexplored. The favored flavor of the Superhero genre is otherwise unremarkable people suddenly becoming remarkably powerful, and then inexplicably becoming heroic. The sickness of the genre might be summed up by the contradiction with the adage “power corrupts”. what if superhumans acted like regular humans, driven by lust, greed, laziness, etc.?
Sanderson answers this question in this dystopian novel of super people where the heroes don’t have power, only the villains do. The series follows the life of David Charleston from “NewCago”, Chicago remolded after the “Epics” took the world by chaotic demonstration of power. The story is riveting and the writing is characteristically good.
Sanderson’s novels tend to be thick in paper and thick with themes of race, class, politics, etc. By comparison, this read is relatively juvenile and mostly about creative entertainment and the classical lessons of adventure (Courage, grit, exploration, love, etc.); there are also unique perspectives on power, temptation, and responsibility. One fun dimension of the exploration is Sanderson’s signature Science of Magic, turning haphazard superpowers into coherent phenomena.
In short, this book isn’t going to change your life, but it is entertaining and genuinely thought-provoking at the same time.