Reading Time: 4 minutes

Spoiler-Free Review

About a decade ago, I read the Cinder series as well as Ender’s Game but I’ve unintentionally veered away from sci-fi and stayed mostly in the fantasy realm. So now I’ve decided to start truly working my way into the sci-fi genre, and I thought, what better place to start than a YA series written by Brandon Sanderson?

What’s Skyward about?

Spensa, aka Spin, wants nothing more than to become a pilot to fight the invaders. But her father’s legacy as a deserter follows her, and she’ll have to fight prejudice, politics, and history for her chance to succeed.

Book 1: Skyward

This had everything I could want from a young adult sci-fi book. Not just because it pairs character growth and exciting battle scenes in a nice balance, but because of its side elements too. Good friendships, a talking spaceship, a strange little cave dwelling animal companion, etc. It was a good time.

I did feel we spent a lot of time in training with our main character, which slowed the pacing down somewhat. Other parts felt a little drawn out. But at the same time, it works as a worldbuilding technique, so I couldn’t begrudge it too much. Plus, the time in the classroom is how we got to know the other characters and how things work.

And I’ll tell you what, I loved the ending. I needed to know all that info to appreciate it.

Book 2: Starsight

I love sequels that take the opportunity to show us a new setting or location. It adds some excitement, new worldbuilding, and new opportunities for discovery. This also helps it feel like its own distinct story from the first installment, even as it builds on the discoveries and plot points of book 1.

The characters continue to be a strength. I appreciate that the all the characters have flaws and arcs of their own, including the side characters (even the AI spaceship). We got to explore more about this universe in fun ways, too, and as I was reading I could totally picture this as an animated movie.

Book 3: Cytonic

This installment leans much more in the adventure direction, with a quest-like plot. Like book 2, we get to explore a new location and new cast of characters, which I appreciated.

However, if you know me, you know that I rarely find quest stories that enthrall me. That was also the case with this one, except that I was still engaged by the quirky characters that are basically the hallmark of this series, and was therefore still able to read it fast. It was just harder to escape the feeling this was not adding much new to Spensa’s story, and I’m wondering if this installment was as necessary.

Overall, there were more slow moments and it felt like it was following a more formulaic path for this series than bringing in something new.

Book 4: Defiant

This was a nice conclusion to the series that brought it all together. From Spensa’s growth to all they’d discovered about the universe to the villains, everything fell into place. This installment built on some big ideas, some of which I honestly had a hard time conceptualizing. The first half was a bit slow, and some of parts of Spensa’s character arc felt rehashed from the earlier books, but it was a good time overall. There was a romance subplot in this one that reminded me so much of the main couple in Mistborn.

Final Thoughts

Once again, Sanderson has crafted some really interesting and compelling characters. Spensa, who wants to be a warrior and must learn to work as a team; all her various friends and flight companions; M-Bot, the AI spaceship contending with burgeoning personhood; Doomslug, the blue and yellow slug companion; and even the aliens they encounter all have personalities and arcs of their own that I enjoyed.

(I am learning belatedly that there was once a plushie of Doomslug for sale on Sanderson’s website, and I am devastated to have missed the boat).

There was a deal of exposition throughout, and a lot of context explained directly to the reader. However, I say this knowing that it’s a YA series, and that’s often the case for this category.

Another consideration is that it introduces its own timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly elements (a few that were real brain teasers for me), which was interesting. But it does ignore relativity – again, as a YA series, I don’t hold that against it. It certainly would ruin the fun if every important character who left the planet started aging at different rates from their friends and support network back home. But knowing Sanderson, he likely has an explanation for this and I just haven’t learned it yet.

Should you read Skyward?

This is a true young adult series. There’s a lot of books out there billed as YA, but which are really toeing the line on that front with some of the content. Not this one. Our main character is young, and acts like it. Spin makes mistakes she has to own up to, steps on some toes she has to apologize for, and has to learn to work with others. She is overly confident in the way that teenagers tend to be, and she gets proven wrong several times over.

I recommend it to YA Sci-Fi fans of any age, but in particular I think it’s great for any young reader who might be aging out of middle grade books and branching into YA.