Summary:Steelheart

This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Steelheart. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book. Similar summaries will be completed about future books in the Reckoners trilogy

Prologue

"I have seen Steelheart bleed."

David (who is eight years old at the time)and his father visit First Union Bank. The bank is an extremely large building fashioned with revolving glass doors and a multitude of cubicles and hallways. During their visit, David's father is speaking with a mortgage man and negotiating payments. In the midst of their conversation, David notices an epic dressed in a black business suit stroll casually through the bank's entrance. Initially, no one pays the man much attention. Then, the newcomer raises a finger, and with a nonchalant tapping motion, causes a nearby woman and her clothes to vaporize instantaneously into dust. Then screams begin to sound and the epic, who eventually introduces himself as "Deathpoint", continues to massacre people at random within the bank chamber. During his slaughter, Deathpoint remarks to the victims how he decided to rob a bank that morning and came to the realization that money is worthless to him, as he can take anything he pleases. And since killing humans is "extremely inconvenient", he decided to strike fear in the people instead, so that no one would dare challenge him from any future requests or favors. While Deathpoint continues to kill the people one-by-one, Steelheart (an extremely powerful and virtually invincible epic) bursts onto the bank's floor and asks Deathpoint, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?". Deathpoint is dumbfounded and fearful at Steelheart's arrival and begins to stammer. Deathpoint then tries to harm Steelheart by pointing a finger at him, but his attempted attack appears to be futile. Steelheart tells Deathpoint that he has claimed dominance over the people of Chicago and that Deathpoint may be a subservient epic to him. Then, enforcement and police officers arrive on the scene and begin shooting at the two epics. Deathpoint hides behind Steelheart in the midst of the fire-fight and prepares to try and kill Steelheart again, from behind. Before the officers entered, David's father managed to scramble into a nearby cubicle and obtain a pistol from one of the fallen bank guards. When all of the enforcement had been killed, Deathpoint raised a finger to Steelheart, directly behind him. David's father reacted instinctively, and shot Deathpoint cleanly through the forehead. He dropped and Steelheart turned to see where the shot had come from. In that moment, a huge realization came over David, his father, and Steelheart. The bullet had grazed Steelheart's cheek while passing by and blood was seeping from the small cut. Steelheart stared at his own blood in horror, and then proceeded to break David's father's ribs with an energy blast and shot him in the chest with the same pistol that had killed Deathpoint. Wild with rage, and in an effort to make sure no one would be able to speak of seeing the blood, Steelheart transfused every inanimate object in the entire building into steel, and called upon Faultline (a powerful female epic with the power to move tectonic plates) to bring the building crashing down and bury it in a massive pile of dust and rubble. David, after seeing the transfusion, hid within the steel vault of the bank. The vault provided ample protection during the collapse, and a rescue team was able to get him out later that day. So as to keep himself safe from Steelheart's knowledge, David fakes his own death while being removed from the remains. David then runs away from the site and vows to do all in his power to see Steelheart bleed again.

POV: David

Essential Characters: David, David's Father, Steelheart, Deathpoint, Faultline