[REVIEW] STARSIGHT BY BRANDON SANDERSON (2024)

Book Info⭐

Name:Starsight (Skyward #2)
Author:Brandon Sanderson
Release Date:November 26th 2019
Edition:UK Hardcover
Pages:469
Genres:Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she’s a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing.

Spensa is sure there’s more to the story. And she’s sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars–and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie.

But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself–and she’ll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.

I rated this book4.75/5 stars!

I waited far too long to carry on this series. I don’t exactly know why, I loved Skyward. It was the book that introduced me to Sanderson’s writing. Yet somehow his work also scares me somewhat. He’s such a talented writer but I always fear that something won’t resonate with me. But I really need to stop worrying.

This book feature’s all the tell tale signs of Skyward but it takes a very different path. We meet a new set of characters, new destinations and we get to learn more about Spensa’s gifts. Those that are particularly fond of the characters from book #1 may not gel with this quite so well as they feature very little in this story (although we do get some very well placed interludes that get you more than curious about life back on Spensa’s home planet). But for me.. I grew to love our new crew. I really did. Learning about their species, their personalities, their history. I really really did enjoy it.

Morrimur was probably my favourite side character in the new crew. Although I did enjoy the concept and inclusion of Vapor and Hesho as well. I liked that we were able to see Morrimur grow as their own person despite being a literal physical combination of both their parents. And seeing Spensa grow attached to them all was so well done. Her realisation that actually.. there is no bad side, only misunderstood sides and the odd power hungry person too. Because what’s a whole society without them.

We do get to experience more M-Bot and we get to learn more about Doomslug in this book too. Things change quite a bit for them. M-Bot has a growing personality and spends chunks of this story questioning their reality. It feels very relevant when we talk about advanced AI in real life. Can it grow to be its own person, can it make decisions on it’s own. And Doomslug too has a rather large part to play in this book, although we don’t find out it’s relevance until the end of the book.

This book doesn’t feel as intense as book #1, the plot goes a little more smoothly for a lot longer (Although the ending is pretty intense and very much gets me excited to read more). There’s the odd dogfight, the odd action scene but the main device of this book is Spensa learning. She’s learning about society off Detritus, she’s learning about history of both humans and other species in the galaxy, she’s learning what her gifts mean, she’s learning politics and friendships and about this all looming dark force called the Delvers.

She learns a lot, and we learn a lot with her. But most of us know by now that Sanderson has a way to make you keep reading, he has a way of showing the information rather than telling it in a tedious manner. And the world building jumps tenfold in this book. It has too, as we’re introduced to more of the galaxy. But it’s not overwhelming, this is still very much YA in it’s feeling, it’s intricate enough whilst allowing the plot to move forward in a way that’s relatively easy to follow.

I genuinely cannot wait to carry on this series. I’m very intrigued to see where it’ll all go. Something tells me that Sanderson has a hell of a ride in store for us. And there’s still 2 more books in the series. We’ve got a lot of unanswered questions that I have no doubt we’ll get fed to us in the next instalment. Plus some more questions added to the mix. I’m not usually a sci-fi person, but YA sci-fi is more digestible for me… and on the talent for writing that Sanderson has… well I’m hooked. And I definitely won’t be waiting so long to get my hooks into the next book!

Have you read this series? What did you think of it? Until next time!