Calamity,The Reckoners Book 3.

1. Author: Brandon Sanderson

2. Name of the book: Calamity

3. Editorial: Delacorte Press

4. Number of pages: 417 in Hardcover

5. Publication date: February 16th of 2016

6. My Grade: 7,5

7. Summary: Picking up from where we left it in the second book, Prof is now and Epic who has caved in for his powers and turned “evil” and on the other hand, David leads what remains from the Reckoners. They are currently broke and in need of equipment, so they break into the Knighthawk Foundry, which gets David shot, and Megan ends up using her powers to save him, almost given in to them. Before they can escape they involuntarily meet Knighthawk, who turns out to be an old associate of Prof. David asks him for help to recover Prof, and Knighthawk gives them two motivators (epic-derived technology that allow others to use their powers) and tells them where the Prof is, in the city of Atlanta. David reveals to Knighthawk that his ultimate plan is to kill Calamity in order to get him on board but he doesn’t’ want to get more involved.The group goes to Atlanta, now called Ildithia. The place is a moving city of salt, currently located somewhere in Kansas. Everything has been transformed to salt, and as the city moves structures grow out of salt near the front while those near the back crumble away. In the city there is an Epic called Stormwind whose presence provides rain and unnaturally fast crop growth near the city. When they arrive, they find a power conflict between Prof (now called, Limelight) and the previous ruler, Larcener. The later, has the ability to steal powers from other epics, so he has a lot of powerful abilities, but he is lazy and satisfied with ruling his single city and allowing other epics to do as they will. Soon they encounter Prof, who is in the process of hunting down Larcener to secure his control of the city. Megan's illusions, (images drawn from other realities, one of her powers), allow them to avoid his detection. While Megan is using her abilities Firefight inexplicably appears and talks to David. Using one of Knighthawks motivators to set up a base out of salt that blends in with the city. Larcener shows up on their doorstep. (He is a dowser, able to sense other epics). He wants to talk and see if there can be any advantage that he can use as a protection from them, and of course, David agrees to an alliance with him, after this, David and Abraham track down Tia. She promised Prof that she would kill him if he ever turned and so she is making a plant to finish him. When they have found her, she tells Prof's weakness to David: which is when he uses his own powers, when gifted to others. Prof has tracked Tia down too, and appears where they are so she gives herself up in order to protect the others, though she urges David to beat Prof and save her. David and the team adapt Tia's plans into a rescue attempt, infiltrating a party at Sharp Tower, the base of Prof, to get her out. Obliteration recognizes David at the party but doesn't give them away as he considers that they are on the same side in wanting to destroy Prof. They rescue Tia, but Prof is alerted of them in the process and they are aware thanks to Obliteration that Prof is making a boom. David and Tia clash over what to do next. Tia has learned that Prof is following through on Regalia's master plan, and wants to go through with her original plan to steal his data, but David insists they have to escape, but before they can get out, Prof confronts David and Megan, causing that Megan brings an alternate universe version of Prof's daughter to confront him with powers that match his own. It somehow works as Prof is wounded, and David manages to get a tissue sample.With different realities bleeding into one another, David slips into an alternate world, one where there is no Calamity, where Steelheart and Firefight are good epics and apparently fighting alongside the Reckoners, after that David returns to his world, and Prof has found them and make his guards open fire, killing Tia. Prof, agonized by her death, destroys the entire Sharp Tower, and thanks to Megan the remains of the Team survives. In their hideout, they found out that Knighthawk was able to pull Prof's data off of Tia's mobile. It is to make a motivator of Larcener’s ability and use it to steal Calamity’s powers, becoming the ultimate epic, and so Knighthawk agrees to use the tissue sample to make motivators of Prof’s powers. Meanwhile David kind of tells Megan that even thought he refuses to have powers, somehow they are manifesting in him. Prof attacks their hideout and they are forced to face him with minimal preparation. Megan, finally accepting her powers as part of her, fights like she never has before but is eventually neutralized by minions with flamethrowers, as fire is Megan's weakness. David fights Prof wearing the tensor suit, a collection of motivators that gives him all of Prof's powers, but it's still not enough to drive away Prof's darkness. Finally, when David is beaten, he realizes Prof's true weakness: the fear of failure. They remind him of all the ways he has failed–leading the Reckoners to destruction, killing Tia–and his powers are neutralized. Larcener steps in and takes Prof's powers for himself. Before anyone can respond Obliteration appears and teleports David away, fulfilling a promise to give David a chance to destroy Calamity. David, armed with an Obliteration-powered bomb, is deposited at Calamity's red star (actually the International Space Station, which has been turned to glass.) David discovers that Larcener is Calamity, a supernatural being that loathes humans and at the same time fears their world. It is his hatred and disgust that corrupt epics to evil, and he believes that humans are destined to destroy themselves. Then David detonates the bomb, to no effect, but before Calamity can kill him Prof and Megan appear. Prof has faced his fear–of his powers, of failure–in order to save David, and this is the key; he has reclaimed his powers in a way that Calamity can neither steal nor corrupt. But even together, they can't beat Calamity. Instead, David has Megan send him and Calamity to the other universe. There Calamity sees proof that epics–Steelheart, Firefight–can be good. Forced to accept that humans are not wholly evil, he fades away. Back in the normal world, the ISS begins to fall to Earth, and David embraces his epic powers to save them. With Calamity gone, epics are no longer compelled to be evil (although they can still choose to do so, as Obliteration does). David learns that in the alternate universe the epic known as Steelheart is in fact his father, with whom he is joyfully reunited. After returning to his universe, David and the others are still in the space station which has started to fall down since Calamity is not there to hold it in place. David recalls his father’s words before he dies: "There will be heroes. Just wait." With this in mind, David seizes the power from within and turns into an epic. He holds the same powers as Steelheart and his father from the alternate universe, and by turning the ISS into steel, the team survives the landing. Obliteration meets them and reveals that he has faced the darkness five years ago but he is still determined to continue on with his plan of killing everyone. He tells David he will give him one week to rest and that his next target is Toronto. (Possible Spin-off?) In a final scene, Megan sends David into the alternate universe. David and his father talk, noting to one another that David's powers mimic those of his father—the ability to fly, the power to transform matter into solid steel, and immunity to bullets. David jokes that he hasn't quite got the flying part down, and his father offers to teach him, to which David eagerly agrees.

8. Full opinion: Being the last book I wanted to see how David would get his powers and when, because I always wanted him to become an Epic. So it kind of makes me sad or I did not like it, that it wasn’t until the end that he would get them. Also I disliked that calamity “gave” to David the same powers that Steelheart had, I would imagine David with other powers that allowed him to control energy or something that would help even more to fight the Epics that now have the choice to do bad, since Calamity being gone makes them decide for themselves what path they want to go. I loved Obliteration and Larcener in this book, proving once again that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Both off them form alliances with David because they want to benefit from Prof being gone or getting back to his old self, and then at the end when Obliteration tells them about Toronto, it gave me, at that moment, the feeling that maybe we would see a new book of The Reckoners, and up to this date, 14/07/07, there is no news of a new book... I have enjoyed Megan through this trilogy far more than I expected, at the beginning it was like okay, you are rebel and a spy but there is something that makes her act against her evil side, which we later know its David that brings the best of her. In the second book she continues to fight against the Epics by David’s side proving time and time again that there is good in the Epics if they are willing to overcome some aspects. And in this one she outstands as someone willing to fight until the end, willing to be there and not giving a shit about what others think. David still doesn’t know how to do metaphors, and I loved the fact that in the three books he didn’t make any progress in that, as in he is still the same boy in Newcago even thought he killed one of the most feared Epics in this universe, but it annoyed me a bit when he didn’t accept to be an Epic, but I know it’s because I wanted him to have powers, not because of plot or anything, so I am aware that it may be just me that is annoyed by that. Tia’s death didn’t affect me much to be honest, it was sad as she was one of the originals, but I would rather her dying that any other member of the crew. But maybe it would have been okay with me that Prof died too, I don’t know why I just feel that after all, he surviving may have sense since Obliteration is going to destroy Toronto. Cody Abraham and Mizzy are an absolute treasure to read, eacho them so different but bringing so much in to the story. So much charm, sense of family, of unity, sense of humour since Cody has decided to tell all his infinite adventures involved with Scotland. The last bit, when David goes to the parallel universe and meets with his father, it gave me chills, it was so well written without being to sentimental but boning at the same time, and admiration from both parts. It was really gratifying to see them interact and to finish the circle how it begun, with David and his father, except for the fact that now both of them have the powers of Steelheart.

9. ISBN: 0385743602

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