Skyward

3.5 stars. This book was an interesting one for me since I don't read much in the Young Adult Genre. I overall liked the book and will continue with the series.

WRITING STYLE
This is my first Brandon Sanderson so I don't know how this compares with his other works. However, I found this book was easy to read with no special prose. I thought that nothing really stood out for me. Scud, I forgot, this book has a very distinct feature in that swear words have been replaced with “Scud” or “Stars”. This didn't annoy me but it was a tiny bit jarring to read all the time.

PLOT
The story begins with our main character “Spensa”, a teenage girl who lives on a planet (Detritus) where humans have crash-landed before her time, attacked by aliens termed the “Krell”. Spensa is aspiring to become a pilot which is a very honorable profession in the society she lives in. She is very talented as far as flying is concerned but she has one big problem that constantly sets her back in her life: Her father who was a pilot deserted his group, fled, and was thus marked a coward. (If I had 1$ for every time Sanderson mentioned coward in this novel I would be a billionaire. No, seriously, please somebody count the appearances of this word.) A coward in this world has a seriously bad reputation. As bad as it can get probably. Everybody apart from her (best friend?) “Rig” hates her and wants to see her fail. This of course makes her life hard, and unfair. But she gets to go to a pilot school anyway where she meets other people sharing her dream of becoming a full fletched pilot. The story then mostly takes place during her studies as a cadet to be a full pilot.
The plot was quite enjoyable for me. This might be because this is my first novel in the science fiction genre so I have no idea if the story is original or not. There were, however, several moments I particularly disliked. This book was full of rather strange coincidences that happened throughout the story. For example, Spensa, the aspiring pilot, discovers one day before her exam coincidentally an unused spaceship while wandering a cave. Later on, she wants to use said spaceship and asks her friend Rig to repair it. Rig, the same age as her, coincidentally knows how to repair the ship (a highly advanced ship btw...). He also, coincidentally, has the time and (most of) the parts for repair at the moment, due to him applying to some engineering internship (I forgot what exactly). At this point, Rig just became a plot device to continue the story which I did not like. Much later on, the ship flies with her but does not want to be used for fights. Thus, it turned itself off forever. However(!!!), in the end, the ship turns into a Deus Ex Machina and saves the day because it has rewritten some of its code allowing Spensa to be his master and because she wants it to be a war device, he now fights. I don't know about that...
The ending was definitely thrilling and interesting. We find out that the Krell are prison guards for human so that they do not conquer the galaxy. However, here I don't really understand why the Krell don't just kill off humans. I mean, why give them the slightest chance to flee when you could just kill them off? We know that it would be possible, they have enough spaceships for this. But maybe I just didn't get this part.

CHARACTERS
I found the characters rather one-dimensional (the religious one, the one that wanted to learn about weapons, the one that does not speak English, the nerd who can repair stuff etc.). Apart from our protagonist Spensa, and one other character not much development or growth happens. This, sadly, did not let me feel much for the characters and some deaths. I know that this is mostly based on the lack of interactions between Spensa and the other cadets due to the admiral prohibiting it. This is leading to the reader missing out on the experienced character growth of the other cadets.
I also had other problems, especially with the main character: First, she constantly makes stupid decisions, constantly does not listen to her flight leader or commander, or just behaves like an asshole to them. She hires her “best friend” Rig to repair the advanced spaceship for her but then just leaves him for days and does not care about him at all. Not once does she give him something as a thank you or whatever. I am glad that I don't have friends like her.

SOME THEMES DISCUSSED
Some themes that have been discussed or at least brought up are the concepts of freedom and cowardice.
It makes sense that freedom has a high value in a society that is highly shaped by its military force and the constant fight against the Krell. This fight is a fight against repression as the Krell do not allow the humans to leave the planet and force them to live in caves on Detritus.
However, freedom is not only discussed as the physical movement to another place when you want. Also, the freedom of choosing whoever you want to be is discussed throughout the book. For example, Jorgen complains about being rich and his life constantly planned out for him by his parents. Spensa even argues once that she might be more “free” than he is.
Cowardice is another topic that is very much discussed in this book. Almost on every other page, the characters name someone a coward. Of course, a coward is the worst thing (apart from a traitor), that can happen in a military society. I mean look at our history where they commonly executed deserters to force the remaining soldiers to fight. From an early age kids on Detritus are indoctrinated that cowards are the worst people out there. This leads also to some deaths in the story as pilots much rather die as heroes (martyrs) than eject when their ship is in danger.

CONCLUSION
I liked this book with all its strong and weak points and I will continue with the series as I am quite intrigued and want to know how it continues. But before I buy the sequel, I need to reduce my TBR pile further...