Blog Tour, Book Reviews

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson | 5 Star Book Review and Blog Tour

Item: Skyward
Rating: 5
Author: Jenniely

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson 5 Star Book Review

Hello friends! Today I’m here on the blog tour for Brandon Sanderson’s new book, Skyward! I had to pinch myself in all honesty, I’ve loved Brandon Sanderson for so long, I cannot believe I was sent the book for review and added onto the blog tour!

5 Stars to Skyward: Claim the Stars

Now we all know Brandon Sanderson, he’s amazing and talented and just… yes. When I heard he had written a YA Sci-Fi? I WAS THERE. I was so excited and I was not disappointed.

As always I’ll be avoiding spoilers in this review.

Skyward is the Young Adult Sci-Fi that we’ve needed. A strong heroine with an incredible character arc keeps us hooked to this story, as the literal fate of her people lies in her hands.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
Published by Gollancz on November 6th 2018
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 528
Goodreads

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.

Skyward: Claim the Stars is wonderful in epic proportions. I honestly was hooked and devoured it so quickly, and I found myself wishing it was as big as some of his other novels! It has intense stakes but with added humour and I genuinely couldn’t get enough.

Skyward is a refreshing take on a school setting, where the main character, Spensa, is enrolled into flight school and is training to defend their planet from the Krell. It is engaging and nail biting as we see the students train in live combat, Sanderson really keeps the stakes high! The characters are real and go through their own journeys and I lived for how they developed. Unlike his other novels, Skyward doesn’t have a magic system as such, however there is a really unique kind of supernatural element? I won’t go into more detail as I don’t want to spoil it but I loved it!

The World building is amazing, as is to be expected of Brandon Sanderson. It isn’t dumped on the reader, instead being revealed through the character’s experiences and narratives. I’ve always admired Brandon’s magic systems and have read his advice on creating your own for my writing process, so I was interested to see what this book had to offer in place of a magic system. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some magic in Skyward, maybe it’s more of a supernatural element? But there isn’t a magic system like in Way of Kings. Instead he turned his amazing skills to describing epic fighter-pilot battles and I was honestly blown away. As someone who is usually bored reading action sequences, I really enjoyed these scenes. I followed along easily, and I think it definitely showed that he got advice from actual pilots.

The prologue starts with a bang, throwing us into the world and giving us an insight of what it’s like to live on the planet without shoving it in our faces. We then have a time skip as Sensa grows up, which I LOVED, showing who she had become as a result of the events of that day in the prologue. The whole book is fast and keeps you hooked.

As I mentioned, I loved the way the characters were developed and how they didn’t quite follow the route that I expected. I won’t go into huge amount of detail about all the characters because I want you to be surprised and not spoil it for you!

Sanderson doesn’t write the characters we expect, he writes the characters we need.

Our main character, Spensa, learns a lot of hard life lessons throughout Skyward. Dealing with the sins of her father, Spensa is spunky and very abrasive. Her go to response for dealing with the animosity shown to her because of her father’s apparent cowardice is aggression and a desire to prove everyone wrong. Sanderson explores what it’s like to have your die hard beliefs shaken, making you doubt everything you’ve ever known and stood for. Spensa’s arc really is spectacular, struggling to overcome obstacles again and again, whilst slowly growing as a person. I really loved her, she’s the kickass heroine I really needed, and for once we have a heroine that isn’t obsessed with a love interest!

I won’t say much about him, but I LOVED M-Bot. He’s such an interesting character and honest to god funny. I kept laughing throughout his dialogue, and his obsession with mushrooms cracked me up all the time. That’s all I’m saying! Just trust my vague assurances that you’ll love him

The rest of the supporting cast were amazing and so interesting. We had kick ass women who learnt to soften up, and a cocky guy who grows as well. I really enjoyed them all!

I hope you enjoyed this review! I always find it hard to review books I loved and this one was no exception. If you like sci-fi, check out my other reviews of amazing Science Fiction books!

Let me know what your favourite Science Fiction novel is below, or if you’ve read any of Brandon Sanderson’s books!

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