Book Review: Skyward
Happy Sunday!
I hope you’re having a nice restful weekend. Mine’s been pretty good.
Today I’m stopping by with another book review. This time it’s Skyward by Brandon Sanderson.
This is a buddy read I did with Gigi aka The Beachy Reader, and it’s my first time reading Sanderson. I’ve heard nothing but great things, so a lot rode on this being a good book.
This post will be followed up by a buddy read and rant, so stay tuned for that.
So, how did I like this book? Keep on scrolling, folks!
Blurb:
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.
GoodReads
The Review:
I gave this book four and a half stars!
This is my first time reading Sanderson, and this guy has a lot of good word of mouth. That made me really nervous jumping into this book, but it really paid off.
In this scifi novel we follow Spensa aka Spin on a bizarre world. Ever since her dad died in the famed battle for Alta, all she’s wanted to do is redeem her family’s label of coward and make him proud by becoming a fighter pilot. But that journey’s easier said than done. With an extremely low graduation rate and internal forces working against her, can Spensa rise to the occasion or will she crash and burn under the pressure?
I really enjoyed this book! Spensa was a fun character to follow around. She’s punky and scrappy, and I love those kind of personalities in books. It was easy to relate to her given her past and how others treat her, and she had some guts, so it wasn’t hard to root for her along her journey.
An easy favorite of mine was M-Bot. All the great humor and interaction with Spensa made this book really shine.
There was plenty of character progression going on, not just with Spensa and M-Bot, but with her fellow flightmates as well. Each of them had a distinct personality that made them feel extremely three dimensional.
The plot was intriguing from the start. Spensa and her civilization live on this strange planet where a large outer crust of buildings and ships orbits the planet. Her people are essentially stuck on the planet and have to unite to survive. Things really hang on a thread to begin with, so the stakes only get higher with each plot twist.
We follow Spensa’s journey into getting into flight school and her struggles to persevere and survive from not just Krell attacks from space, but against the admiral, who carries an awful, judgmental grudge against her because of her father’s disgrace.
If I had to pick at anything, I would say that the first half of the book could lag here and there with certain chapters, but in the second half things really took off and kept me hanging on the edge of my seat.
I can’t wait to continue reading this series and explore Sanderson’s other works!
That’s a Wrap!
Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!
Have you read this book before? What did you think? Do you have a book recommendation similar to this one? Feel free to share in the comments!
If you’d like to see other reviews of mine, feel free to check out the book review section of my blog or my GoodReads. You can also follow my GoodReads reviews here. There are some great binge-worthy books on there!
Have a great day!
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It’s a chunky book which intimidates me a little, but Spin and M-Bot sound like fun characters. Good review!
Yeah, I totally understand that. Oh, M-bot rivaled Spensa in greatness. Such a fun scifi.
Thanks friend!
I’ve been tempted to read something by Sanderson, but just haven’t gotten to it yet. This review might have just pushed him farther up my to-read list.
Yeah, I was in the same situation until my reading buddy and I agreed on this one. All his stuff is definitely going higher up on my list.
Glad I could help push it up on your TBR! 🙂
I really like Sanderson. I haven’t read this one, but in general, I enjoy his world building and magic systems. Sounds like a worthwhile read, Jonny. Thanks for the recommendation. 🙂
Yay, your comment didnt go to spam lol!
I’ve wanted to read his work for so long, and I’m glad that this verified he is an author worth reading.
Annnd my library has the next book available for my kindle. Hallelujah!
His Mistborn series has a super magic system if you’re kindle ever runs dry. Lol.
Actually, that’s how I first heard of him. A bunch of my friends read that series of his and loved it to death. I also have a thing for superheroes, so Reckoners is high up on my list as well.
Sanderson is the Stephen King of Fantasy he will publish sometimes three times a year the books will sometimes be huge. I have yet to read a under 4 stars Sanderson book.
Yeah, I knew he was really popular, but now I’m a believer! Definitely picking up the next one in the series soon, but I have a bunch of stuff lined up at the moment so I’ll have to try and be patient. We’ll see how that goes, haha!
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for about 2 years. One of my goals this year is to read more of my backlist. Your review bumped it up the line – thanks, Jonny!
Yeah, before reading I think it was on my tbr for a year or something like that.
Glad i could help you bump it up the list. It really was a lot of YA scifi fun. 🙂
This was my first Sanderson too! You can see my thoughts on my blog, but for similar books I’d actually recommend maybe Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, but it’s very possible you’ve read that before!
Oh wow, very cool!
I’ve actually read Pullman’s His Dark Materials series and enjoyed that.