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...

I did enjoy the characters even though Spensa was some what annoying at first, there was growth in her character. I liked M-bot. For over a 500 page book, not much happened though and only a handful of big moments came to be, the rest felt like watching a daily vlog of the same thing.

I will read the 2nd but I'm in no rush.

Sanderson y Ciencia Ficción.

¿Qué puede salir mal?

Nada.

Entretenimiento a raudales, en un universo bien planteado, sin fisuras. Primera entrega de lo que promete ser una gran saga.

Muy recomendable para cualquiera que quiera pasar un buen rato con una lectura accesible, entretenida y Sandersoniana (niano-niano).

This book really takes you along for the journey in such a way that you, as the reader, feel that you have grown with the main character Spensa. By the time the book was done, I felt wiser, like I had been through all the same growth that Spensa had except in just the few days it took me to read this book. I loved that I really couldn't quite guess where the book was going. Hints were dropped, but they were so expertly weaved within the story that I really didn't see the twists coming. I can't wait to read the next book!

1st read:
AHHHHHHHHH! this is my first brandon sanderson book and though i know he mostly writes adult fantasy, i am looking forward to reading everything else he's published.

i read the majority of this on my 8 hour flight back from vacation and it was honestly perfect. the sequel comes out in december and i can't wait!!!!!!!

3rd read:
still as good as it was the first two times.... this is on the list of books to read if you genuinely want to know me

Same as BLC post; 4~4.5 for me! I loved the storyline/plot and the world building! After the first death, it hit me hard because it reminded me too much of Gundam (personally Gundam 00 for me), and that feeling is all too familiar T__T I loved the random comic relief here and there, mostly from M-Bot, gotta love an AI who's spewing out "unpleasant adjectives!" (p. 489) LOL I've sped through mostly with the goal to see where M-Bot's origins are but I'm left with unanswered questions ;-; Kind of interesting that Krells are really prison watchers, and they're actually afraid now. I wonder where this will all go now, now that Spensa has some control over her power/'defect'. Also Cobb. "Cobb is flying M-Bot" will happily forever be engrained in my mind. I hope Cobb will get over the fears of flying one day and maybe chat with M-Bot about mushrooms or something. That sounds like an awesome duo that I'd love 1000%!

Like every Sanderson books, i felt in love with Skyward. SciFy is not my favorite genre, butr he manages to make me love it ! At the start, i didn't really like Spensa, the main antagonist. Okay, she had a tough childhood but she's still mean sometime and didn't like people with no reason... I was glad she evolved through the book, and her flighmates too ! We had everything in this book : characters evolution, action, team-building and humor ! I actually am at one click to buy the sequel ahhaa PS : M-Bot, my favorite

This book is substantial to me. Not only is a favorite of mine, but it's my daughter's namesake.

The protagonist is one that is stubbornly determined to do what's right and prove herself. Even though she's been constantly on the defensive, she is unyielding. Spensa is one of the greatest heroines I've had the pleasure of reading.

Skyward is the story I pass down to my tenacious little girl. When you put your mind to something, you'll claim the stars. I love you, Spensa.

____

1st Read: Physical (2018)Re-read: ebook (2023)

Executive Summary: After a bit of a slow start, I liked this a lot more than I expected to. I guess I'm not quite done with Brandon Sanderson's non-Cosmere stuff after all. 4.5 Stars.

Audiobook: I don't believe I've listened to a book by Suzy Jackson before, but she does a good job. Her normal reading voice is a good fit for the main character and she does a few other voices as well making audio a good option here. I particularly liked her voice for Kimelynn.

Full Review
So after Mr. Sanderson's Reckoner series, I swore off his non-cosmere books for good. My tastes and Mr. Sanderson's work was starting to diverge apparently. When this was announced as a YA sci-fi series, I said: “Nope, not for me.” I didn't even add it to my to-read pile in case I changed my mind later.

Fast forward oh, 6 weeks after it was released and I bought it. So obviously I have really great willpower!

The reality was that I was looking for something light and fun to listen to for my Christmas week driving (14+ hours round trip plus a bunch in between visiting friends and family) and this seemed to fit that bill. Even if I didn't like it very much, there was very little chance of it bringing down my holiday spirits.

Early on I was pretty so-so on the book. I didn't regret buying it, but I was thinking I might have been right to avoid it. Once the main story got going however I started to change my mind. For one thing the dumb humor that drove me nuts in the Reckoners books wasn't here.

There are jokes. Most of them aren't great, but they weren't purposely bad and annoying. Humor isn't Mr. Sanderson's strong suit. In my opinion his best humor often comes when he's not trying too hard.

So as always the world building is fantastic. Since it's sci-fi there is no magic system. However this is far from hard sci-fi so you could almost count his space ship technology as a sort of magic and in that regard I really enjoyed it.

I thought the characters were all pretty good too. I particularly enjoyed Kimelynn. She's my favorite. Spensa was far more likeable than David from the Reckoners series.

I'm interested in the bigger picture of what's going on with humanity. We get some insights near the end of the book, but mostly I had more questions than answers.

So now I'll be picking book 2 up on release day. Maybe Mr. Sanderson and I aren't drifting apart as I thought. I guess I just didn't like his Reckoners books that much.

Primero voy a decir dos cosas 1) LEAN ESTE LIBRO POR EL AMOR A DIOS 2) ESTE ES UN LIBRO DE 6 ESTRELLAS NO 5.

Bien, no puedo describir lo que disfrute esta lectura, tal vez me llevo más tiempo de lo que creí terminarlo pero cada oración que leí la disfrute con mí alma.
Ame este universo que creo Sanderson, como manejo cada descripción sobre los elementos que forman este mundo.
Spensa, la cual es la protagonista de esta historia, es un personaje ASOMBROSO de derecho y revés; algo que me encantó de este personaje es la forma en la que nunca se rindió, no importa lo que dijeran los demás de ella o de su pasado. Siempre intento dar pelea y lo mejor de si para poder avanzar, y es algo que, por así decirlo, me hizo quererla mucho.
Otra cosa que fue algo que me interesó fue el hecho de que no hay una pizca de romance, no hay una pareja, no hay coqueteo, y me encantó porque no es necesario que un libro tenga romance para disfrutarlo.
Ahora la frutilla del postre, M-Bot, creo que ame desde que apareció hasta que terminó, el sarcasmo que usaba? SI A TODO.

Adoré cada segundo de este libro. Nada más que decir.

This is my first Brandon Sanderson book, and I must say it did not disappoint. I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this read, even though I am not much of a science fiction fan. It has likable characters and an engaging plot which kept me interesting all the way through.

The characters are the best part of this book. Spensa, aka Spin, is young woman fighting against a lot of obstacles, both internal and external. I enjoyed following her journey of discovery. The secondary characters are a diverse bunch with many interesting traits and personalities. The AI character of M-Bot brings some needed humor to the story in times of conflict and crisis. It's just a great cast of characters.

The plot has enough twists and turns to be engaging throughout the book. The flight scenes are exciting and tense, while the everyday scenes with Spin, Rig, and M-Bot bring some humor and light-hearted banter to the story. My only complaint is the revelations about the enemy in the end. I find them quite far-fetched and a bit a let down after all the build up. Other than that, I enjoyed the plot.

Overall, I am glad I decided to try this popular author, and I am glad I chose this book as my starting point. It was an easy, engaging read with an exciting plot.

Qué gran libro de Sanderson. Había descansado un poco de él tras su saga de los hijos de la bruma, y tenía cierto reparo por si era demasiado juvenil el libro. Y sí, son jóvenes, pero la temática es muy buena, ciencia ficción ligera fácil de leer, en ocasiones emocionante y muy muy disfrutable.
Buen primer libro que abre un universo gigantesco con unas posibilidades inmensas. Voy a por la segunda parte ya mismo.