Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. But with incredible gifts came the desire to rule. Nobody fights these Epics but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they study Epics, find their weaknesses, and then assassinate them. And David wants in. He wants Steelheart, the Epic who killed his father.

Matt has always been nothing but a clone --- grown from a strip of old El Patron’s skin. Now, at age 14, he finds himself suddenly thrust into the position of ruling over his own country. The Land of Opium is the largest territory of the Dope Confederacy, but while Opium thrives, the rest of the world has been devastated by ecological disaster --- and hidden in Opium is the cure.

In the good old days, magic was indispensable, but now magic is fading. Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians --- but it’s hard to stay in business when magic is drying up. If the visions predicting the death of the world’s last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer, everything will change for Kazam --- and for Jennifer.