Skyward

Pixel reviewed Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

The real MBot stands for Mushroom not Murder

4 stars

Sure, she jokes that her ship with huge guns should really be classified as a fighter ship, a murderbot even. But no, the ship disagrees: with a partial fungal database, the stealth features must have been intended for swiftly foraging across the land. Fuck yes, finally some good mushroom loving representation in fiction, where mushrooms are cool and neat to check out - not mind controlling monsters.

I think a former classmate recommended the author to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. YA can be really cringey, and there were the seeds that could have been hard cliches. A part of me worried it was going to be an attack on titan or hunger games. In the end, the story really matured to be unique along with commentary on classism. I could tell how committed the author was to building an immersive world …

Sure, she jokes that her ship with huge guns should really be classified as a fighter ship, a murderbot even. But no, the ship disagrees: with a partial fungal database, the stealth features must have been intended for swiftly foraging across the land. Fuck yes, finally some good mushroom loving representation in fiction, where mushrooms are cool and neat to check out - not mind controlling monsters.

I think a former classmate recommended the author to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. YA can be really cringey, and there were the seeds that could have been hard cliches. A part of me worried it was going to be an attack on titan or hunger games. In the end, the story really matured to be unique along with commentary on classism. I could tell how committed the author was to building an immersive world and I found the flight combats surprisingly engaging. It wasn’t too overtly romantic either which was a relief. Still, it would be nice to have some queer trans rep given this is supposed to be a far flung future.

Fans of the murderbot diaries might enjoy this too. It’s not an incredibly difficult read but is very lengthy to keep you company for a while.

I’m dreading that the first two audiobooks are audible exclusives. The rest aren’t though!

Tyler Cipriani reviewed Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Fun yet formulaic YA scif

3 stars

This was the first Brandon Sanderson book I've ever read and it was fine.

He's an excellent writer and the story was engaging. The ending left me wondering whether or not I'd read the next one.

This is a very "Hero With a Thousand Faces" story. Spensa, a young woman drawn to her destiny to become a pilot, is haunted by the shadow and mystery of her father's actions as a pilot.

As the story unfolds the perspective widens. And then, towards the end, the perspective gets wider than anyone thought possible. That's also where the book lost me: I am uncertain whether I like the world this story was building towards. There's nothing wrong with it, maybe just not my cup of tea.

frogplate@ramblingreaders.org reviewed Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

A fun YA hard science fiction yarn

4 stars

I greatly enjoy Brandon Sanderson's fantasy novels. His world-building and magic systems always have an interesting logic - balancing a power's advantages against its limitations or disadvantages. I always feel that those rules would translate directly into a well-tuned RPG.

"Skyward" is the first Sanderson science fiction I've read, but it won't be the last. It's a hard sci-fi YA adventure with a teenage girl protagonist who makes mistakes and embarrasses herself but has you cheering her on every step of the way.

The technology and action scenes are convincing, and I enjoyed the way Sanderson went into some detail about how the spacecraft and their weapons worked.

Overall the plot was a little predictable but didn't detract from the fun of the story, and the final revelation was a good surprise and set-up for the sequel.

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