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I am so pleased Rated Reads reviewer Meaghan introduced this series to me with her review of Skyward because I am enjoying it so much. Space and flying make me happy. Brandon Sanderson has crafted an entertaining and adventure-filled set of books, with quirky characters you have to love and clever humor scattered liberally throughout. With all those elements, these actually remind me of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s two series, the Illuminae Files and the Aurora Cycle.
Spensa was able to prove herself as a pilot and as the daughter of a pilot branded a coward by her whole society, small as it is, on a far-flung planet called Detritus. Their small group of humans has been stranded on the planet for 70 years and kept there by an alien race called the Krell. But as they fight back and finally get a leg up on the Krell with Spensa’s help, they begin to find out the facts: They’ve been held as prisoners on Detritus by the Superiority, who basically regulate space, because humans centuries before tried to use a very dangerous force to win a war.
That uncontrollable force wreaked havoc on planet after planet before it finally returned to its home in what Spensa calls “the nowhere.” She’s been through that dark space where malevolent beings watch her because she has cytonic abilities, like her ancestors and others, which allow her (among other things) to travel anywhere in an instant.
As this second book gets going, Spensa gets an opportunity to go to the home base of the Superiority as a spy, in hopes of learning more information and of stealing a hyperdrive. So this book takes place almost entirely away from Detritus and her friends and family there, and it introduces a whole new set of alien characters.
While readers miss out for most of the story on the characters we got to know and love in the first book, we get to bond with new ones. The kitsen, little aliens who look like foxes and are maybe a foot high (or less?), are particularly entertaining, as is their leader. We still get to enjoy her ship’s AI, M-Bot, but it (he?) doesn’t get as much time on the page.
As the plot progresses, we learn more of the truth of what has been happening, and there’s still lots of action balanced with the perfect amounts of wit, cleverness and learning moments for Spensa. Great clean young adult books.
Rated: Mild. There are 7 uses of mild language. There is one kiss. Violence is mostly fighting in space, with reference to pilots being killed.
