Review of Skyward: Book One

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Personal Rating: 12+

What It's About

Skyward is a Science Fiction book in a series of four, about a young woman named Spensa Nightshade. Spensa lives on a planet called Detritus, though her entire civilization are refugees from earth. Detritus is a desolate planet, running with rivers of magma and teeming with automatic guns from another era, though they still fire at anything that gets within range. These guns (turrets) form a barrier around Detritus, with a few spots that the pilots can fly out of. 

The pilots are men and women who brave the wrath of the Krell* to protect Detritus by flying in spaceships and shooting down the Krell ships. Spensa, in fact, is in an academy designed to train cadets in order to fight the Krell. Spensa must fight to stay a cadet though; many years ago, when her father was a pilot, he strangely turned evil in the middle of a Krell skirmish and shot down the people on his flight, or group of shooters. This betrayal caused the Nightshade family to lose all credibility, and to be scorned by everyone on Detritus. The woman in charge of the flight school doesn't want Spensa to bring shame to her academy with another treasonous act, so she makes it as difficult as she can for Spensa without directly expelling her.

Spensa fights to stay on her flight, while also repairing a mysterious ship she finds hidden below the surface of the planet.

*Krell are an alien species that constantly sneak thorugh the barrier around the planet via spaceship.

What I Liked

I liked the idea of people flying around the planet in spaceships, fighting aliens. I've always hated Star Wars and other Sci-Fi stories (I know, I know-I'm broken), but Skyward redeems the genre spectacularly! There are also some powers, though I won't give anything away... but if you ever read this book, you will see why I like them so much!

What I Disliked

There was absolutely nothing I didn't like about this book! Everything was amazing!

Conclusion

Skyward is an amazing Sci-Fi book, with a strong-willed main character and aspects of it's genre that were so cool! You should definitely give it a try!