Skyward
Skyward #1
by Brandon Sanderson
Adventure
Dystopian
Science Fiction
Review #1
* * * * * Stars (Amazing!)
All her life, Spensa has dreamed of joining the Defiant Flight School. After all, her father was a pilot, and he was one of the best.
There’s just one minor problem—as her father was on a mission for the DDF, he supposedly turned coward. In response, his own flight mates shot him down. Her whole life, Spensa has grown up known as the daughter of a coward. Not that the fact has deterred her from her dream of flying—like her father did. She is determined, even against overwhelming odds, an admiral who is determined to keep her out of the DDF, and a stacked test. Furthermore, she has a rather strong temper that has gotten her in trouble more times than she cares to count.
Once she’s in the DDF, she must get through training, especially since the person training her flight is her father’s best friend. Also, there’s the fact that the admiral has restricted her privileges so she cannot live at the normal training dorms, nor receive any food from the cafeteria, nor participate in any of the bonding activities. And to top it off, she immediately butts heads with a boy, Jorgen Weight, the son of a First Citizen.
Once they are up in the air, Spensa very quickly finds out that fighting the Krell, the aliens who periodically attack, is very different from all the techniques she’s learned in class. Especially after, one by one, the flight (Skyward Flight) is slowly being torn apart. Some people die, some people drop out, some people are pulled…
The Krell are massing for another attack, and Spensa has to see if she will be able to make the flight and do what she’s always done—claim the stars.
I loved the way the plot was woven—the plot twists were out of nowhere, the characters were diverse, and this book had me on the edge of my seat. I simply had to read the rest of the series. I think one of the most skillful parts that Brandon Sanderson made sure of was the way he developed the characters. They weren’t flat and static—each was faced with a certain problem and had to overcome it. For high school and adult readers.
