I was lucky to be provided with an ARC from the publisher - all opinions my own.

Skyward is the sci-fi novel I didn't know I needed in my life until I read it.

It is action-packed, addictive, beautiful and exciting. Having never read any of Sanderson's novels before (but heard many good things), I dived in with no pre-conceived notions about his work.

Skyward follows Spensa, the daughter of a dishonoured pilot, as she struggles to make it out of the lowest class on planet Detritus - a barren rock in space, regularly attacked by an alien species, where people live underground - and into the prestigious flight school to become a pilot and set right her father's reputation. In the process, she discovers that the corrupt administration is set against her for reasons quite different to the story she'd been told so far.

One thing worried me from the start: the girl on the cover. Could a man write a convincing young female character in a dystopian sci-fi setting? Yes, yes he can. Spensa is one of my favourite characters of all time because she is like no other girl I've ever read about before. She is as brash and reckless as any male YA character, but also determined, humble, funny and clever. She makes mistakes and then fixes them. In other words, she's like so many girls I know. I was rooting for her the whole way through.

I loved every other character for similar reasons: each of them was unique, flawed and complicated, and the most unlikely of friendships form (but not so unlikely that you wouldn't believe them). Some are reminiscent of a typical American superhero film (e.g. the gritty war veteran mentor with sometimes questionable teaching methods). There are some moments that are almost predictable - but Sanderson makes up for it with edge-of-your-seat cliffhangers, characters you want to call your friends and world-building that leaves you wanting more.

I can't wait for the next book. (My husband would like Sanderson to finish The Way of Kings first, though!)

Super fun YA from Brandon. I admit I had to warm to the wit and banter but I did really love it in the end. Was cool to read something a bit different from him, his world building incredible as usual.
Really looking forward to the next instalment

attacking the planet with increasing frequency, looking for weaknesses in its defence.
Spensa is a young girl, desperate to be a fighter pilot, but is having to fight for the privilege to train to fly. This is because her father, also a fighter pilot, died in combat but was labelled a coward and traitor. She is packed full of attitude and a drive to succeed. Her naivety causes her to make many a mistake, but she manages to brush these aside as she follows her instinct to succeed. Whilst faced with prejudice and discrimination she is undeterred and defiantly fights back.
It has a nice mix of action, humour, mystery, and surprise twists and turns that kept it an engaging read with a compelling plot. The character development is exceptional, Spensa develops the most, but the gradual insights, growing humility and an ability to see the bigger picture. All is executed in a realistic and well timed way. Her trainee fighter colleagues make for an interesting and varied bunch, of which not all will survive. The plot has lots of weaves and layers that keep it twisting and are not easy to foresee. There is a great sense of purpose, spirit and gritted determination that keeps the story tense and pacy. The technical stuff related to flying was conveyed in an easy to understand manner, which made it comfortable to read and enjoy. Lots of flight action scenes. In all it was an exceptionally good read and I cannot really think of any niggles, it just flowed brilliantly.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher on Netgalley.

This is a beginning of a new YA Sci-Fi series by Sanderson. In it we meet Spensa. She has had a tough childhood due to her father's reputatuion that follows her. He was a pilot and a hero in her eyes, but the rest of their world sees him as a coward that betrayed his own.
She is determined to follow in his footsteps of becoming a pilot and proving herself.
Spensa was a likable character, but she could also me annoying at times because of her intensity and singlemindedness.
The world was very interesting, but to a certain extent Sanderson leaves you in the darkness only to knock you donw at the end with one of his great reveals.
The writing was enjoyable and easy to get into as is usual with Sanderson and of course I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

"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.

Another great tale from Sanderson, who never fails to disappoint. Having only read his Mistborn trilogy before I was interested to see how he handles a sci-fi story, and I was pleasantly surprised. He still writes with the same strong story, characters and humour. A great read.

Awesome and exciting sci-fi tale for teens and adults. A little bit 'Top Gun' and a lot snarky teen girl trains to be X-wing starfighter pilot for the Rebel Alliance in 'Star Wars' on a doomed planet despite all the odds.

There's lots to love about this; great characters, fast-paced, action-packed, mysteries to unravel and themes of bravery/cowardice and class privilege add a decent emotional depth to it all allowing the characters to grow appropriately.

I'd almost forgotten how enjoyable a Brandon Sanderson book is and can't wait to read the next one.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

4.5 stars

I was a little worried that I wouldn't like "Skyward" because Sanderson's other YA series was the weakest series I've read from him so far, but "Skyward" didn't disappoint.

Spensa is a fun protagonist and I really liked her character development over the course of the novel. I'd heard that the book was really fun before picking it up, but I was more impressed by how serious some of the subject matters dealt with were.

The weakest part of the novel was, in my opinion, the ending because it dumped a lot of information on the reader, but it also built interest for the next part in the series.

I'm a little bit unsure about this one. There was a lot to enjoy (and I did definitely enjoy it) but there were certain things that just left me a little bit cold. It tells the story of Spensa, a young woman who is desperate to become a pilot on her planet so that she can escape the legacy of her father, branded a coward. As you would expect from Sanderson, the story is interesting and the plotting is good. I did feel like the book was overly long and there were times that it felt quite repetitive. I also questioned some of the character motivations at times and there were a few plot points that just gave me pause. Having said all of that, the last 100 pages of the book were incredibly compelling and I will definitely be picking up the sequel as I think that it will really advance the plot in interesting ways. I liked this one - I just didn't love it.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Spensa's ancestors came to the planet of Detritus while escaping an alien race called the Krell.
Ever since, the survivors have been struggling to defend their new home and pilots have become heroes.
Spensa has always dreamed of being a pilot, but she is the daughter of the only pilot to flee a battle, something that she is never allowed to forget.
Can Spensa achieve her dream of becoming a pilot?
Can the inhabitants of Detritus win against the Krell?

Skyward was my first Brandon Sanderson book and, after hearing so much praise for his books, I'm very disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.
I liked Spensa overall but there were times when she was very juvenile - although I think this was probably a defence mechanism.
My favourite character was M-Bot the talking spaceship. I would like to find out more about where/when M-Bot came from.
I found the setting interesting, especially the debris that formed a protective layer around the planet.
I feel like Skyward could have been a lot shorter. I know that this is the first book in a series so it was setting up the series, but not much really happened. Some of the cadet training was a bit repetitive. The twist at the end was interesting but I'm not sure if I'll read the next book.
I liked the writing style and I do want to try another Brandon Sanderson book.

Overall this was an enjoyable but disappointing read.

great world and character building. loads of twists and turns and a book that has you reading for way longer than you wanted to in any stretch. From the flawed people to the amazing world I couldn't read this book quickly enough, then had to re-read to ensure I'd missed nothing the first time. I can't recommend enough

No lo voy a negar, Brandon Sanderson es el escritor de fantasía más importante de nuestros tiempos. Ha supuesto un cambio generacional a gran escala, es decir, el gran público comienza a reconocerle como un nuevo Robert Jordan (autor ultra super ventas de los 90 y los 2000) e incluso como un nuevo Tolkien a nivel de popularidad (aunque esta comparación siempre es arriesgada). Brandon Sanderson vende millones de ejemplares con cada uno de sus libros. Y es innegable que su presencia e influencia es una larga sombra que se extiende por (casi) todas partes. Como nota adicional, me alucina la inteligencia del autor para planificar y compartimentar su obra: una obra principal, varias sagas co-principales y luego novelitas más ligeras para llenar huecos entre libros y libros. ¿Quién es capaz de capitalizar tanto su propia literatura? Me flipa, de verdad. Porque luego saca libros de gran calidad, que no es fácil (y sí, sé que tiene un equipo bastante grande de gente que trabaja full time con su obra). En cualquier caso, hoy vengo a hablaros de una de esas obras escasas en su bibliografía, se trata de Escuadrón (Skyward), un libro juvenil de ciencia ficción, publicado por Nova y traducido por Manu Viciano, actual traductor de la obra del autor de Nebraska.


Escuadrón es una novela de ciencia ficción notable, que sin pudor y sin vergüenza recoge tropos y leit motivs del camino del héroe y una novela de aventuras de lo más típica y traduce estos elementos a lenguaje Sanderson. Esto quiere decir: emoción, épica, sentido narrativo sobresaliente y una aventura de esas que nos recuerdan que, a veces, los libros son para pasar un buen rato, alucinar y ya. Es curioso como el libro que comienza con esa trama más bien simplona (niña tiene que crecer desde lo más bajo de la sociedad para convertirse en piloto y combatir a los aliens que amenazan a su pueblo) acaba con varios giros de guion interesantes que le dan una perspectiva mucho más dramática a la historia. Las obras de Brandon Sanderson siempre, siempre, van a más. Es un in crescendo constante.



En Escuadrón seguimos la historia de Spensa, una joven que vive en Detritus. Uno de los últimos planetas habitados por la humanidad tras huir de la Tierra. En Detritus todo está jerarquizado para economizar al máximo los recursos y la defensa constante ante alienígenas, una especie de Mad Max muy edulcorado (con sus forjas y su suciedad). Muy posapocalíptico todo, o al menos así me lo imaginé yo. El padre de Spensa es un piloto de cazas que defiende Detritus de los krells (yo no podía dejar de pensar en una fusión entre kree y skrulls, del universo Marvel). La humanidad por lo tanto debe vivir bajo la superficie para protegerse de estos ataques, excepto los pilotos de cazas que salen en defensa del mundo. Al comenzar la novela, el padre de Spensa sale en una misión de defensa y, al parecer, o según le cuentan a Spensa, huye, haciendo que ella y su familia caigan en desgracia, humillados por la supuesta cobardía de su padre.

Aquí comienza una historia de superación, de crecimiento personal y de muchas aventuras, que parte de una arrogante y furiosa Spensa y que terminará en un clímax espectacular. Por supuesto, es un libro de Sanderson, y en Escuadrón no todo es lo que parece. El autor experto en construir mundos desarrolla una sólida historia que explora y explota todos los aspectos necesarios para la propia historia. Sí, es cierto, Escuadrón no es original, no es una historia nueva y posiblemente a muchos no os sorprenderá. Pero es como ver una película de Steven Spielberg un sábado noche. Es divertida, es emocionante, es apasionante y engancha. Y Escuadrón no busca ser otra cosa. No engaña en su propósito. Es una novelita de aventuras ligera que se lee en un suspiro. Por mi parte, estoy ansioso por leer la siguiente aventura de esta serie, de lo mejorcito que he leído este año. Sin pretensiones, honesta, sincera, aventurera. Más novelas así, por favor.

Brandon Sanderson always creates realistic worlds with engaging characters. Skyward is a new world with a gutsy heroine, Spensa . The book rips along with challenges and thrills aplenty. The plot always hangs together - no unlikely actions or clunky plot devices- and you are caught up in events. Whatever your sex, if you've always dreamt of changing people's perceptions of you with the added bonus of attempting to save the world then this will strike a chord. Thank you to Gollancz and Netgalley for providing me with this free ARC.

This was fabulous Sci-Fi where you can immerse yourself in the story and become part of the action. Everything was so realistic and believable. Great characters with normal interactions but producing something captivating. Loved the M Bot! The conclusion hit the bullseye. Great read.

In brief:
- Clear that the protagonist has always been a lively character
- Possible enemies to lovers trope
- Love Doomslug the non-traditional pet sidekick
- A bit info-heavy during the pilot training
- All characters have distinct personalities, even Spensa's ship's AI
- Snippets of key info for plot twists are subtly interwoven
- M-Bot is hilarious
- Builds to a great climax
- Leaves you craving the next installment
- Even though it's quite lengthy, you don't get bored

Sorry Brandon, you're great, but I did not like this book at all. I found the main character "Spin" annoying, childish, misogynistic and an absolute pain in the bum. I really couldn't stand her. I suppose it's a compliment that she is so well written that I have such strong views about her....

Thanks to Netgalley for the copy though!

I loved this soooo much! I'm not usually a fan of science fiction (and requested this because I thought it would be fantasy), but Sanderson is so skilled a writer, it didn't matter.

Spensa dreams of being a pilot and redeeming her family name after her father was shot down for abandoning a battle. Living on a strange planet surrounded by space debris, the evil Krell frequently attack the remaining human settlements and pilots are in high demand, but because of Spensa's family history, nobody wants her to fly.

Whereas the first books in other series have a heavy focus on world building, Sanderson's touch is so deft you just don't notice all the information you're being fed as you follow hot headed Spensa and her attempts to overcome all the obstacles in her way.

I'm desperate for the second book now - while this is a complete tale in its own right, you just know the rest of the series is going to be amazing.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

I cannot ..... Words just cannot convey how much I loved this book!
Spensa is a wonderful character, she has had a hard start in life, adoring her fighter pilot father to then having to deal with his death and the rumours that he was a coward who broke ranks in a sky battle. She has a great backstory and this book reminded me of the books by Tamora Pierce like Alanna the Lionness and Keladry of Mindelan. Spensa, callsign: Spin is an underdog, she has to fight for everything she wants out of life with everyone trying to hold her back but when she gets in to flight school she finds acceptance and friendship and she realises she is not her past, she chooses her path.
I absolutely love Spensa and I could not put this book down. The action, the world building, the characters, it all pulled me in and like a gravitational pull I could not have pulled away if I wanted to (which I definitely didnt). This book is a masterpiece and I cannot wait for the next installment.
I want to be back up in the air with Skyward Flight claiming the stars.

Just epic Mr Sanderson, absolutely epic.
🍸 raising a glass to you, Sir! Masterful storytelling at its best.

Thank you Netgalley and thw publishers for access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

Due to the loss of my kindle I, sadly, was not able to read this book.
I sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.

So Brandon Sanderson is back at it with another YA read, and of course I was ridiculously excited about it. Even more excited from Netgalley provided me with a free ARC! I didn’t have time to read it before it’s publication date in November, but I’ve finally got around to it and of course I loved it.

Brandon Sanderson is like...Ronald Dahl? Tolkien? Enid Blyton? Not in style or substance, but in the way that all of these authors were just needed. Sanderson is needed. After discovering his work, I don’t feel like I could ever go back - I am constantly amazed and engaged and impressed with his stories, and I probably will be for the rest of my life. I don’t care whether a book is aimed at teens or adults - if it’s got his name on it, I’ll read it.

Anyway, ignoring my tangent, Skyward is a great book. It’s not as much to my taste as Mistborn, but it’s undoubtedly a thoroughly enjoyable read - especially if you’re a fan of aliens and AI and Star Wars. It felt a bit like reading Star Wars, but in the best way. And of course he managed to bring a multitude of characters to life in a way that only he knows how - this man can create dozens of characters and by the end of the novel you will still remember the names and backstories of every single one of them.

There were bits that I was less fond of and found immature - cough, Jerkface, cough - but this is aimed at a different audience and it was still a fantastic read. I would especially recommend it to anyone YA readers who have heard of Sanderson but are unsure about tackling Mistborn or the Stormlight Archives. Skyward is a lot softer, but it still gives you a brilliant taste of Sanderson’s talent, and it will leave you craving for more.