Calamity is the concluding volume in the Reckoners series, comprising three novels and a novella, Mitosis, that if a reader wants to be completist with the canon can be read between Steelheart and Firefight (books one and two in the series). These books are also primarily written for the young adult market so the language is noticeably free of sex and foul language, however, there is some inventive linguistic substitution for the latter.
Unfortunately, for the new reader Calamity is not a good place to start in the series as there is too much plot and achieved characterandrelationship development that Sergeant Backfill (or whomever the author has decided is suitable for the task) would be narrating half the book to get the new reader up to speed. That point aside Calamity is a fitting and satisfying ending to the series.
Calamity sees the return of David Charleston, still creating metaphor appalling, and the surviving Reckoners as they seek to save Prof from his Epicpower induced rages and coopt him in their scheme to destroy the Epic Calamity. Naturally, the best laid plans of David and his crew repeatedly go astray – in part because Prof is their former leader and thus no slouch in the brain department and also because apart from that he is a high Epic and thus a tough nut to crack even when the plans do run smoothly.
The story has a few twists and surprises and was a very suitable ending to an engaging series. A keeper.
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