History Headscratchers / TheReckonersTrilogy

* How is it people's mobiles or any kind of radio can transmit reliably in Newcago when the entire city is basically a gigantic Faraday cage? The entire city should being having serious problems being able to transmit EM signals when everything is constantly surrounded by many meters of metal. It should be the worst in the Understreets and Steel Catacombs or pretty much anywhere that a significant amount of digging into the steel has occurred and there's many meters of metal on all sides. It wouldn't bother me so much if the Reckoners weren't explicitly using mobiles/wireless communication throughout the book.

[[folder:Newcago interfering with EM signals]]

* How is it people's mobiles can communicate reliably in Newcago when the entire city is basically a gigantic Faraday cage? The Overstreets can probably get reasonable service but the Steel Catacombs and Understreets should being having serious problems when constantly surrounded by many meters of solid metal.

*** Sure, in the book, the theme is explored [[spoiler: that perhaps Epics can be redeemed]]. But I'm talking about within the details of the actual story. Prof specifically says that their goal is to show the normal humans that they can fight back against Epics, so that others will take up the fight. They go over this point multiple times. [[spoiler: But, in the end, the Reckoners could not have succeeded without the aid of an Epic. David set the final trap, but he could never have lured Steelheart into that trap without Prof. Put another way, if Prof was taken out of the equation, then the Reckoners wouldn't have gotten as far as they had.]] It remains to be seen whether this will have any impact in the next book, i.e. whether it has to be kept secret from the populace, or if they embrace a new strategy [[spoiler: like mutually beneficial co-existence of Epics with humans.]]
**** [[spoiler: David acknowledges this in Firefight, now knows how to free epics from the corruption their powers cause, and has teamed up with Megan. It's likely that cooexistance will be the way of the future.]]

*** Sure, in the book, the theme is explored [[spoiler: that perhaps Epics can be redeemed]]. But I'm talking about within the details of the actual story. Prof specifically says that their goal is to show the normal humans that they can fight back against Epics, so that others will take up the fight. They go over this point multiple times. [[spoiler: But, in the end, the Reckoners could not have succeeded without the aid of an Epic. David set the final trap, but he could never have lured Steelheart into that trap without Prof. Put another way, if Prof was taken out of the equation, then the Reckoners wouldn't have gotten as far as they had.]] It remains to be seen whether this will have any impact in the next book, i.e. whether it has to be kept secret from the populace, or if they embrace a new strategy [[spoiler: like mutually beneficial co-existence of Epics with humans.]]

** Two points: First, Steelheart was finally defeated by [[spoiler: David, not the Professor]]. Second, the true lesson is that [[spoiler: Epics can be redeemed, not that mortals can kill them]].

* It seems to me that the Reckoners didn't actually fulfill their main goal: prove that non-Epics can and should fight Epics. [[spoiler: Especially with the reveal that Prof is an Epic.]]