Rating: 3/5
What It’s About:
Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.
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The Review
I’ve been meaning to read a Brandon Sanderson book for a long time now. I finally got around to reading Skyward and I was not disappointed. I liked the main character, Spensa and her character development throughout the story. In the beginning, I actually found her to be quite annoying with her the whole world is against me and I’ll show them kind of vibes. But she completely transformed once she started flight school where she had a wide range of experiences. It was compelling to see how she slowly started to figure out her core morals and principles. I also LOVED the artificial intelligence character, M-Bot and it’s relationship with Spensa. M-Bot’s character was so funny and his comic relief added an extra oomph to the book.
The book became really interesting once all the missing pieces and secrets started coming together. The book had a few interludes telling the story from the Admiral Ironsides’ (of the Defiant Defense Force) point of view. These interludes gave important information that added to the complexity of the story. There were several parts in the book that surprised me. The final battle was riveting and it just blew me away! It was a great ending/segue to the next book in the series.
My main complaint of the reading experience was that the book was too long for my tastes. A big chunk of book involved the training and lessons of the flight cadets. It slowed down the story and became repetitive after awhile. I would also like to get to know the other characters a little better, but maybe the next books will do that.
Final Thoughts
I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Starsight, and am excited to pick up where Skyward left off. I could also see this series being a great film or tv series…maybe one day! If you liked Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, you would probably like this book. You can read my review on Aurora Rising here!