Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence and death.

“Downtown Newcago spread out before me, its surfaces reflecting starlight. Everything was steel here. Like a cyborg from the future with the skin ripped off. Only, you know, not murderous. Or, well, alive at all.

Man, I thought. I really do suck at metaphors.”

These lines from the book’s opening chapter establish the world of the Reckoners series while serving as a practical reminder of the events in Steelheart. Taken alone, this excerpt describes the massive power that Epics possess, as Steelheart has turned an entire city into steel. This section also reintroduces David’s unique narrative style, including his odd use of quirky figurative language to describe his world and his emotions. As David realizes that his descriptions have become nonsensical, his self-conscious declaration that he “suck[s] at metaphors” also gains a new level of irony, given that his comparison of Newcago to a cyborg is worded as a simile.

“Once upon a time, my father’s idea that good Epics would come had been laughable to me. Now, after meeting not one but three good Epics…well, the world was a different place. Or I guess it was the same place—I just saw it a little more accurately.”

This quotation indicates that David has grown considerably as a result of the events in Steelheart. Far from hating all Epics universally, David now realizes that Epics are just people and that not all Epics have given in to the corruption caused by their powers. By accepting that his previous worldview was flawed, David also acknowledges that the world has not changed; he has simply incorporated new information to work past the rage that was keeping him ignorant of the truth.