Review: The days of Newcago
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2014
Steelheart is finally dead, and Newcago is free of Epic rule.But that doesn't mean that the city is Epic-free -- and it definitely doesn't mean that some Epic won't try to fill the power vacuum. "Mitosis" is a solid little short set between Brandon Sanderson's "Steelheart" and its forthcoming sequel "Firefight," with his usual robustly witty style and likable characters. Best of all, it leaves you hungry for two things: hot dogs, and a second Reckoners book.With Steelheart finally gone, Newcago is returning to a semi-normal city that is NOT ruled by Epics. David is having a long-awaited hot dog when he sees an odd man, and decides to tail him. It turns out the man is Mitosis, an Epic who has the power to split himself into multiple copies -- which makes him hard to kill, since if they missed even a single copy, he would survive.Even worse: Mitosis wants the person who killed Steelheart, and plans to kill a person every five minutes until the "Steelslayer" comes forward. So while the Reckoners are desperately searching for Mitosis' weakness, David goes on a wild goose chase, hoping to hold out long enough for Mitosis' weakness to be used against him. Will Newcago be ruled by a new tyrant?Obviously it's not as epic as a full-length novel, but "Mitosis" makes a nice bridge between Brandon Sanderson's first two Reckoners novels. For one thing, the first few pages serve as a nice coda to "Steelheart," showing the ways that Newcago is slowly recovering from Steelheart's reign -- they're painting buildings, running the infrastructure and even doing fun frivolous things. Also, daylight has come back.But when Mitosis shows up, Sanderson's story takes a dark turn. Suddenly we've got blood, gunshots, melting corpses and a seemingly unstoppable Epic who wants to take over the whole city. And Sanderson ends it on a suitably ominous note, hinting that dark days may be ahead for the Reckoners. This rather bleak turn is still lightened, however, by David's relentlessly oddball observations ("Rhinoceros astronaut!").And if "Steelheart" was a realistic depiction of what a world with superhumans would be like, then "Mitosis" is an equally realistic look at what might happen if one of them were stopped. Sure, the city is working pretty well instead of falling into chaos, but let's face it -- another Epic would see a newly-freed city as something to claim for themselves.This story also brings it home to David that life is not really going to be more peaceful now that Steelheart is dead. He's finally destroyed his enemy, but the Reckoners have an uphill battle against other Epics in the world. But his optimistic view of humanity and their chances of victory against the Epics is oddly infectious, even though the odds seem to be stacked against them."Mitosis" is a solid little snack between full-course meals, serving as both a glimpse of a post-Steelheart city, and as a prelude to "Firefight." It's exactly what you expect of Brandon Sanderson.