Skyward

"When this is done, Jerkface, I will hold your tarnished and melted pin up as my trophy as your smoldering ship marks your pyre, and the final resting place of your crushed and broken corpse."The room grew quiet. "All right....," Jerkface said. "Well, that was...descriptive."The easiest, and only, five star I've given this year. This book was intelligently crafted, a genuine pleasure to read and almost felt like a cinematic experience because the writing was so damn good. After her father infamously broke rank at the Battle of Alta and retreated from his wingmates who were later forced to shoot him down, Spensa, or "Spin" as she's largely known in this book, has been branded as the daughter of a coward - a label she just can't shake off. So despite the fact she is determined to become a pilot herself, almost everyone who knows who she is wants to stand in her way; after all, who could trust her as their wingman when her father ditched his?Proving she isn't a coward has become part of Spensa's identity and this is portrayed really intricately in this book. Spensa competes for flight school knowing that only the best of the best will qualify. Whilst Spensa is a very complex and well-crafted, character equal parts headstrong, confident and defiant as much as she is strange (in a good way!), resourceful and funny that isn't actually what made her stand out for me. What I liked the most about her character was that she actually isn't the best at all. None of the characters really are. They are each remarkably flawed, rather than being the heroic special girl we've come to expect, and I absolutely adored her personality.As a matter of fact, all of the characters in this book are developed exceptionally well. Subtle nuances between Spensa and her flight teacher Cobb (who manages to wrangle her a spot in the school) and her flight leader Jorgen (not-so-affectionally named Jerkface) make this book really special. Each of the members of the flight are interesting, have strong personalities but most importantly are really memorable - a large cast like this can be hard to identify and relate to unless they're well-imagined and each of these characters absolutely is. I felt completely invested in each of their well-beings, spending my time torn between feeling anxious alongside Spensa that one of her crew wouldn't make it back from a mission, the stark reality of which was perfectly captured, and wanting to throttle them myself for them making her life difficult!Now add to that a talking ship. When Spensa is forced to live in a forgotten cave after Ironsides, the leader of the school, despises her enough to prevent her from being able to stay in the same quarters as her crew, she stumbles across a wreckage in the form of a ship. A much better ship in fact than the ones her crew are used to, particularly as it can talk. M-Bot is an advanced, personality coded, ship with the biggest attitude of an AI I have ever seen; almost every interaction between M-Bot and Spensa is hilarious. Sanderson explores the potential for AI's to build memories, personal opinions and personalities in a fun and unique way.Whilst all of that constitutes the necessary ingredients for a really great book, it's perfectly achieved thanks to Sanderson's frankly phenomenal writing. A relatively complex world filled with quite foreign concepts for some readers - flight school, alien lifeforms, artificial intelligences, the engineering behind ships and so on - are simplified just enough to make the book entirely palatable but not so far as to patronise or lessen the experience of the reader. Equally, and most notably for me, there are no conveniences within this book.Often authors will lead you towards an upcoming death, leaving bread crumbs in their narrative for you to follow, so you know what's about to happen. Often they will tease you with a character death, but really you just KNOW the character won't be dead and despite being happy they're not, you're also pretty disappointed the author was so unoriginal. Often they leave gaping great plot holes big enough for YOU to see without even trying so God only knows how THEY missed them. Not so with Sanderson, he was utterly ahead of me every step of the way, expertly filling in potential holes, acting on his decisions regardless of whether it's going to hurt or not and not at all finding a convenient eagle for anyone to fly off on at every turn to save the day.This is a wonderfully created novel bursting with genuinely likeable characters and a snarky, talking space ship. I honestly don't know what more you need."Just for that, I shall hunt your firstborn children and laugh with glee as I tell them of your death in terrible detail, with many unpleasant adjectives!". "May a pox of unique human diseases - many of which cause an uncomfortable swelling - come upon you!". - MBot.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would, but the last 25% was absolutely brilliant.Mini SynopsisAn alien race called the Krell exists simply to make attack after attack on humankind. Humanity's only way of defending themselves is to take to their ships and fight their enemy in the skies. Pilots are deemed to be the heroes of what's left of the human race, and seventeen-year-old Spensa has always dreamed of becoming one of them. However, her chances of that happening were always extremely unlikely; she is the daughter of a coward who tried to flee during one of the hardest battles humanity had ever seen, and no one would take kindly to the daughter of a coward taking to the skies. However, since the Krell doubled their attacks, it's possible that humanity's desperation to survive might finally take Spensa skyward...I really liked the majority of the characters in this book. There were a lot to keep track of, and I think my favourite was definitely Admiral Ironsides. She isn't present in the book that much, but I spent the majority of it trying to decide whether to hate her or not. I definitely began to like her more and more as the book progressed, as I began to understand the reasons for the choices she was making. M-Bot was also really interesting, and I spent a lot of time wondering what his true intentions were. Spensa was a strong lead character who I could relate to a lot.This took me so long to read; I just couldn't get into it as much as I thought I would. I spent the majority of the book wishing it would end so I could move on to something else, but I forced myself to finish it. I actually don't know if I'm glad I did this. I really struggled with the first three-quarters of the book, but I thought the last 25% was AMAZING. Amazing to the point where I NEED to know what happens next, but I'm not sure whether I want to sit through another book in order to find out.

A great book. Brandon Sanderson has done it again. A great new book. It is a bit of a slow start, but that is mainly as Sanderson is constructing the world and characters. The story is great and the character development is amazing. By the last quarter of the book I could not put it down.In the acknowledgments page talks about how he channelled his own passion and inner struggles into Spin's character. This really show in the writing. The artwork and sketches on the cover and between the chapters are amazing and add another level to the book.At the beginning I was not sure about Spin as the main character I did find her a bit much giving her speeches of death, destruction and vengeance, but as the book and story carried on she continued to impress me by over coming every obstacle or smashing through every road block.The book is great scifi, even though I would have liked a bit more action the great character development made up for that. Even the side characters are extremely well done. Everyone has the own strengths and flaws. The way they come together is amazing. Dispite the book being 500 + pages as soon as I finished I wanted more. Now that the gauntlet has been thrown down let's see how defiant these characters could become.

Wow. This book just kept getting better and better. The dynamics, Spensa’s development and one liners. The relationship of the group both the good and the bad, the deaths although they destroyed me when I first read them but as the plot developed you began to understand why they happened. There are literally no flaws in this book, how is that even possible.I loved that this story did not become a romance, even though it could have easily. I loved the world, the background stories. I just frigging love this book.I honestly feel as though this is my new favourite book and will be recommending it to everyone. You know that feeling when you read a good book and feel as though you have just lost a friend... well that is how I am feeling right now, I need the sequel like now!I didn’t think I was going to love this book as much as I have and I finally understand the hype behind Brandon Sanderson and will definitely be picking up more from him. Until then I will leave this review with some of my favourite quotes while I sit in a dark place and wait “patiently” for the next book! 😩“ You get to choose who you are. Legacy, memories of the past, can serve us well. But we cannot let them define us”.“We must not cower in the dark because we’re afraid of the sparks within us. The answer is not to put out the spark but to learn to control it”.“ just for that, I shall hunt your firstborn children and laugh with glee as I tell them of your death in terrible detail, with many unpleasant adjectives”.

I'll keep this short. AMAZING NOVEL! I absolutely love it! It has been a long, long time since a book kept me OBSESSED! I kept ignoring my daily responsibilities and going to bed way too late just so I can keep reading! This was the easiest 5 / 5 rating I've ever given! I didn't even hesitate!About the actual style - it's very light, the language isn't overwhelming. The chapters are short - usually less than 10 pages. The story is told from the point of view of the protagonist. It's definitely a Young Adult Fiction.It doesn't matter if you're more of a Sci-Fi fan or more of a Fantasy fan (I myself am the latter), or if you're not a fan of either of those genres - Brandon Sanderson is a genius! Don't hesitate - BUY THIS BOOK NOW!