Skyward by Brandon Sanderson | book review

✧ This review is spoiler-free! ✧

“It has always seemed to me… that a coward is a person who cares more about what people say than about what is right. Bravery isn’t about what people call you, Spensa. It’s about who you know yourself to be.”

– Brandon Sanderson, Skyward

Title: Skyward
Series: Skyward, #1
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher:
Published:
Category: YA
Genre: sci-fi, fantasy
Pages:
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Goodreads page

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Synopsis

Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity’s only defense is to take to their ships and combat the enemy. Pilots are the heroes of what’s left of the human race.

Becoming a pilot has always been Spensa’s dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father’s–a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa’s chances of attending flight school at slim to none.

No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They’ve doubled their fleet, which will make Spensa’s world twice as deadly… but just might take her skyward.

[ This synopsis was taken directly from Goodreads. ]

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Thoughts

I’m not going to lie, I was worried I wasn’t going to like this book. After reading the Mistborn series, I was scared that no other Brandon Sanderson book would live up to my expectations. My fear got worse after I had to DNF this book about a year ago. The only reason I revisited this book was because of my goal this year to finish all the unread books on my shelf. Skyward is part of my physical TBR, so I decided to bite the bullet and pick it up again.

I’m glad I gave this book another chance, because it was really good! The first half of the story was pretty slow (hence why I DNFed it in the first place), but it really picked up in the second half. I wasn’t a huge fan of Spensa at first, but as the story progressed, her character development and growth made the story worth it.

The writing, as always, was amazing. Brandon Sanderson has a way of fully immersing you in the world and story. I felt like I was living on Detritus (the planet where Spensa lives) rather than watching someone live on the planet, if that makes any sense.

what if feels like to read a Brandon Sanderson book

vs

what it (sometimes) feels like to read other fantasy books

A few things that I hope are explained more in the future books:

1. What exactly Doomslug is and how its powers work
2. the Defiant gene
3. How M-Bot ended up on Detritus and who its pilot was

After I finished the epilogue, my immediate reaction was I need to read the next book right now. So, if you’re planning on reading Skyward, make sure you have the second book ready.

TL;DR

❌ the first half of the book is slow
➖ wasn’t sure about Spensa at first but grew to love her in the end
✅ the second half picked up pace
✅ great writing

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Rating

I give Skyward by Brandon Sanderson 4 stars!

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Stay awkward and amazing!