Book Review: Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

This review contains spoilers for Steelheart and Firefight. To read my full reviews of Steelheart and Firefight, follow the links here and here. 

Calamity [The Reckoners, #3]
by Brandon Sanderson

Genre: YA dystopian

My Rating: ★★★★

Description:

After the disaster at Babilar, the Reckoners are forced to find a new strategy. With their once-leader, Prof now corrupted by his powers and working under the Epic name Limelight, leadership of the Reckoners falls onto David's shoulders.

David has realized that the Reckoners old goal of killing Epics isn't going to be enough. Instead, he sets his sights on the impossible -- he wants to redeem Prof... and kill Calamity.
But there are more powers at work than any one of them alone realizes, and while the Reckoners attempt to implement their impossible plan, David struggles to hide a secret he feels sure will destroy them.

Overall Thoughts

By the time I finished reading Firefight, I was more than excited to read Calamity. It was, overall, a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, and I really loved some of the plot elements -- David's dilemma over Prof, the discovery of who Calamity is, etc. I also loved the characters, and seeing their story lines come to a satisfying close.
However, by the epilogue, I almost felt... cheated. The conclusion of the Calamity plotline felt rushed, and many of my questions were left unanswered by the end of the book. Who really was Calamity? What was his motivation? What was Calamity?
Megan's control over her powers also seemed to jump suddenly from 'I can't do this or I'll be corrupted', to using them without hesitation with little to no explanation as to why.
So I have mixed feelings overall about this book. I wish there was more explanation about some of the plot devices, but at the same time, I feel that it ended the book -- and the series -- well.

The Characters

David's internal struggles in this book were very well written and not overdone. In the hands of a less skillful author, I feel like it would have been easy to become melodramatic, but Sanderson dealt with it gently and without becoming annoying. 

I enjoyed seeing Mizzy's character develop, and I liked the fact that while she and David had their own opinions, they still remained friends. I also liked the fact that a love triangle never developed between Mizzy, David, and Megan. David and Mizzy were just friends, and I loved seeing that. 

I also liked that even though Prof has been corrupted by his powers, he still acts like Prof to a certain extent. He didn't just develop a completely new personality. 

I still struggled with Megan's character, but I wasn't annoyed by her as I was in Steelheart. Her personality stayed fairly consistent, which pleased me. 

Plot 

It's really hard for me to decide what to say about the plot. On one hand, I thought that it was well-paced -- up to the last few chapters, at least -- and had a good build up of tension and plot reveals.
On the other hand, I felt that the final battle with Calamity was a bit rushed, and didn't explain a lot of things I was hoping to discover.
The plot twist at the very end was excellent, and I enjoyed the way the epilogue wrapped it up.

Worldbuilding/Writing

As I've come to expect from the Reckoners books, the city setting in Calamity was just as interesting and vibrant as the settings of Newcago and Babilar. The salt city was such an interesting concept, and I was intrigued by the way that the setting influenced the way that the ordinary people lived -- just as in the other books.

Content

Recommended for ages 15 and up.

Action violence. Descriptions of blood. Characters are brutally injured, and there are semi-detailed descriptions of pain. Several characters die on-page. 

Sexual content is limited to a few comments, mentions of kissing; one character mentions what she and another character did "last night", not detailed. 

Swearing is minimal, mostly made-up swear words as well as minor cussing; implied heavy cursing is covered up by a profanity filter on the main character's phone.