Rating: 4 stars
Spensa Nightshade is haunted by her past. Or rather, the past that everyone else knows her to have. Known as the daughter of a coward, Spensa has worked her whole life to redeem her family's name by becoming a fighter pilot for the Defiant Defense Force and helping eradicate the Krell - an alien life force intent on wiping out humanity. Spensa's dream will prove more difficult than she thought, as she deals with discrimination, loss, fear, and the burden of her family's legacy - including the truth of her father's demise.
This is my first Brandon Sanderson book. Brandon Sanderson, in my circle of reading friends, is basically worshipped as a god of science fiction. I started out with a YA because I thought it would be a simple introduction into his writing. I also really want to read the Mistborn series eventually, and this book makes me more excited to do so. The world and the characters that Sanderson builds in Skyward show skill that not a lot of science fiction writers have.
Not cowards. Not backing down. Brave until the end.
The themes of fear versus cowardice in this book are very well done. It shows a lot of character development in Spensa. Here she starts out bloodthirsty and recklessly brave. She doesn't fear anything, a trait she's adopted to compensate for the cowardice everyone expects her to have due to her father's legacy. When she actually starts flight school, she has to confront how to fear and still be brave, and recognize how fear can sometimes save your life. Because of her past, Spensa has a very warped idea of cowardice and bravery. Even before her father's infamous ending, Spensa is fearless. Ironically, she's absolutely terrified as being seen as a coward, she's afraid of people seeing her afraid. The way that Spensa comes to understand, embrace, and overcome her fear, really show her development as a character from an ignorant little kid who just wants to be a hero, to someone who doesn't see themselves as a hero but must actually become one to save her city.
This is a good segue into the characters of this book. This is an action-packed science fiction space battle book. All things considered, it should be a plot-driven novel. But it really didn't feel that way to me, and I'm a plot-driven reader. The characters really steal the spotlight. That's not to say the plot isn't good or interesting, but the characters are just stunning. Spensa is a very compelling protagonist, and apart from her we see major character development from Jorgen, Kimmalyn, Rig, Cobb, and many others. Not to mention I just love their personalities. Spensa is a very distinct YA female protagonist, and I loved M-Bot and Doomslug (who literally doesn't even say anything original in the entire book). M-Bot is probably my favorite character, and I just thought it was impressive how an AI can have character development in a way that's believable. I identified a lot with Jorgen, and I think that Spensa and Jorgen's relationship development was very original and intriguing.
Honestly, I wasn't 100% on board with this book the entire time I was reading it. I had certain expectations (guesses) for the mystery aspect of the book (the whole question of what really happened with Spensa's father), and because of that I thought it would turn out cliche which hindered my overall reading experience. I think the reason I speculated so much is because the plot does move really slowly so you have a lot of time to create theories as to what really happened as more evidence comes to light. Now after having read the ending, I do find myself intrigued to continue the story in the next book. It is not my favorite science fiction YA ever, so by the time the second book is released this fall I might not care enough to pick it up, but as of now I will plan to continue with the series.
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