Lux

A Texas Reckoners Novel

By: Brandon Sanderson, Steven Michael Bohls

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

A new team of Reckoners must infiltrate the flying city of Lux to take down the Epic Lifeforce in this audio-exclusive novel from Brandon Sanderson, the best-selling author of the "Stormlight Archive" and "Mistborn" series, and co-author Steven Michael Bohls.

When the great red star Calamity appeared in the sky, some believed the end had come. They were right.

Calamity created the Epics: humans with incredible powers they didn't deserve.

They could have saved mankind. They could have lifted us into harmony and prosperity. Instead they burned. They slaughtered. They conquered. And then they ruled.

Jax has learned all of this the hard way. Orphaned at an early age, he's spent most of his childhood training to be a Reckoner - determined to find the Epics' weaknesses, unlock their secrets, and protect those of us who are still left.

But now, the mysterious High Epic Lifeforce has arrived with his flying city, Lux, to plunder what's left of Texas. So Jax and his ragtag team - the few who remain of the once-mighty Texas Reckoners - must take their battle to this floating fortress of riches - and defeat the invincible.

To avenge what has been lost. And rise anew.

©2021 Mainframe, LLC. (P)2021 Mainframe, LLC

Not as good as the usual Sanderson imo

The first half of this book felt like a rehash of Steelheart, and the second half was like a strange series of loosely connected, overly edgy, vignettes (which took priority over the story :/). I usually enjoy a good bit of blood n guts, but in this book it just felt melodramatic.
The best part was the setting, and even that was significantly less interesting than the city of salt from the third Reckoners book, or the shadowy city of steel from Steelheart.
Great narration though 👍

A fun read enjoyed getting back to the reckoners

The first 1/2 of this book is superb and really deserves a 5 start. unfortunately the Second half was a bit bizarre and fell flat for me. I would still recommend that fan of the series give this book a chance. The characters are interesting. I was hoping for a cameo from the Main team but they did not show up.

An ok book, but just that

I quite enjoyed the other Reckoners novels, but this one just made me bored. The story started out interesting and I liked the development of the characters, even if it feels a bit of a rehash of the archetypes from the first trilogy, but as it progresses it becomes a bit of a slog, a tad boring you might say.
Not gonna give out spoilers, but be warned that everything ends in a pretty big cliffhanger.

Great continuation!

Highly recommend to anyone! Great book, can't wait to continue the journey. Listened through and couldn't stop.

Disappointment

I don't usually do this, but I decide to return this book. I didn't even finish it, something exceptional rare for me.
I love the rest of the series and the other books of Brandon Sanderson and I'm really surprised that I so much dislike this book.
But the story is so much mind eroding...
Almost nothing make common sense, it's full of lazy plot progressing devices and the surprises are not surprising at all.

As usual a spectacular novel narrated wonderfuly

Loved this book, Sanderson is my favorite author and rarely disappoints, I read steelheart, firefight and calamity as a kid (I skipped mitosis sry Mr Sanderson) and this new addition brings just as much joy to my adult self as it did to the kid I once was, thank you Brandon Sanderson and all contributing influences for fostering my love of reading my entire life.

Too much action, not enough heart

I love the original Reckoners series, so I may have come to this story with my expectations too high, but I have to admit I was disappointed.

Let me say up front: this is NOT a bad book. This story is probably great for some tastes, but just not for mine. For me, the story lacked the heart and emotional depth of the previous series. Too much time was spent on gadgets, manipulating epic powers, and unnecessarily drawn out action sequences that felt more like clearing video game levels than true plot advancement and the result was an unfortunate lack of character development. You just don't really get the chance to learn or care about anyone other than the main character and even he felt kind of flat and two-dimensional, despite a compelling backstory and good set-up. I guess for me the whole "fighting for my family" bit doesn't land the same when you don't get a chance to feel invested in the characters and their ties to one another. It kind of made them seem almost selfish after a point, like all that mattered was killing epics and making sure their team survived, no matter what it cost the innocent citizens of Lux.

There also seemed to be few moments when there was a chance to feel true peril or concern for anyone because as soon as there was a problem, there was a way to solve it easily a minute later. By the 500th "oh no we are totally trapped and really about to die now" moments that were quickly and easily resolved in the next breath, you stop feeling like there's any stakes to be had, and you're just watching the OP main characters blaze through a slow trail of motorcycle jumping, tank-smashing, stone-hopping side-quests until they reach the center of the maze and execute the boss.

There's nothing wrong with that type of story and if that's your cup of tea then you will probably enjoy this book. But I was expecting something as layered and compelling as the first series, so I was disappointed and am not sure I'll read more in this sub series. Maybe. We'll see.

Don't worry about it being co-authored!

I was reluctant when I saw that this isn't purely from Sanderson's mind, I worried that co-author Bohls would be a weak link in the writing and lower the quality of the storytelling, or that this wouldn't *feel* quite like Reckoners 1-3. I was relieved to find that both fears were unfounded. You can barely tell the difference between writer voice in Lux vs. Steelheart.

If you were entertained by the first trilogy and enjoy exploring the world of Reckoners killing Epics, you will be pleased to have spent a credit on this.

I'm also a sucker for MacLeod Andrews' voice though, so maybe I was just hypnotized by his beautiful narration.

great Reckoners audiobook

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I love anything Brandon Sanderson writes, but I wasn't sure if I would like the co-writing. this is still an excellent book even by Brandon's standard

Masterful Story Tellers

I’ve been hooked since discovering Steelheart 8 years ago. The entire series is interwoven. I absolutely love the Easter eggs between the stories. Sanderson is a master of story telling and his collaborations from Jordan to Bohls have always been phenomenal, award worthy literature.

Not A Sanderson Novel

Please be aware, because I think it is unclear, this is not written by Sanderson himself, only overlooked by him.

While I don't think it is a bad book, it does not follow the same Sanderson quality and I found it slow and unengaging. Which is a shame.

I also felt it was very disjointed and struggled to relate it to the other books in the series.

Not Sanderson’s usual standard

I’m a Sanderson fan and enjoyed the main Reckoners series. This is the first of his books where I’ve given up halfway through. I really can’t continue, the story is just too poor. It starts off okay, if a little predictable, but the pacing and character work start to fall apart and the story makes less and less sense. I know this is a collaboration but, Sanderson has put his stamp of approval on it so I don’t want to blame the other author. I wonder if Brandon is just doing too many projects simultaneously and standards are slipping a bit.

Decent listen.

As I understand it this book wasn't primarily written by Sanderson and it shows. Where the original Reckoners trilogy is a mix of A-team and YA detective story, this one is more McGuyver. That is, the team is constantly reacting and finding Ex Machina solutions to impossible situations. While there was certainly a degree of improvising and good luck present in the original trilogy as well, it goes a couple of steps to far here making it feel more like an action movie. The lore goes a bit overboard as well, think midichlorians in the SW universe.

Still, its a good read. The narrator is fantastic and the story is still entertaining once you choose to stop caring about the slightly annoying things.

Excellent expansion to the Reckoners world

Loved this story. It fits into the established Reckoners world wonderfully, whilst expanding on the ideas and being its own individual story. Really fun new characters and I'll look forward to the sequel.

Pretty dark story for a book called Lux!

Really enjoyed this, as usual a very imaginative story and brilliantly delivered by the narrator.

Amazing as always and we’ll worth a listen!

I’ll not prattle on, but if you’ve already read Brandon’s work, expect more awesomeness!
If you’re new to Brandon Sandersons work… get ready for something epic!

Poor follow up

Feels like really basic one dimensional fan fiction that a lazy Sanderson loaned his name to. One or two half decent ideas lost in mundane narrative and a hole ridden plot.

Definitely one to return!

Epic

Great installment in the Reckoner series. I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling, characters and plot.

Also, this in the best audiobook I’ve heard so far. MacLeod Andrews skills in bringing all the voices to life is nothing short of epic - the good kind of epic.

For a comparison, I do not like the Stormlight voices, and my previous favorite narrated book was Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, narrated by Ray Porter. That one’s also really good, except for getting the Dutch accent wrong, and as most films making it German. So a close second, but MacLeod tops it with this one.

Finally a continuation from the steelheart series

Loved it all the way. A lot of people are asking where does this story take place in the Steelheart timeline? This story exactly matches the steelheart series from start to finish, all ready to carry on from the end of the last series book.
Is it the start of a new series? I will let you decide 😉

Another great addition to the reckoner series

Great book and so glad there will be more. A much darker story than the other books in the series. Really exited to see how the story evolves.