A review by amber_lea84
Starsight, by Brandon Sanderson
3.0
This review is going to be a mess because I don't know how to organize my thoughts about this book/series.
Much like the first book, so much of the story feels flimsy, and yet I was still super into it. I still find Spensa's character to be kind of non-sensical, though she's far less annoying in this book because she's stopped boasting about being tough all the time. But she's still short-tempered and impulsive, right? And yet she never wants to punch Brade in her dumb face. I think Brandon Sanderson is going for a whole, "See? Spensa's not so bad. She's so calm and empathetic even when dealing with someone like Brade. She's grown so much since the last book!" but like, come on. I'm so much more chill than Spensa and I would have shot Brade in the face at least three times by the end of the book. I feel like a lot of what happens just happens to keep the plot going and set up other things that happen later and that low grade annoys me because Spensa never gets to act like an actual person who makes sense because of it.
Also, most of this book takes place over a two week period which doesn't feel right at all. It seems more like two or three months. At one point I thought a weeks worth of training happened and it turned out to be ONE DAY.
Also, neither of these books wrap up neatly and they leave all kinds of lose ends. Like in the last book you never learn what the deal is with doomslug and you can tell she's important because the foreshadowing was almost unbearable. In this book a character is introduced and then it's crickets for the whole book. Is she dead? Where did she go? What's going to happen with her? We didn't even get a paragraph at the end to acknowledge that she still exists. I'm sure it's all answered in the next book but I just don't like that. It feels sloppy.
This is one of those books/series where I could easily write a whole essay about it's flaws, but it's still fun and some things about it do work really well. I'm a little mad at Brandon Sanderson for not trying a little harder to make these books better, but I feel like the problem with this series is that it just doesn't work if you think about it too hard.
Like oh my god, (moderate spoiler alert) this idea that this whole society is anti-aggression to the point of having no real military is so dumb. It's just an easy way to make Spensa more of a badass by comparison and constantly leave them wide open for every hair brained scheme. But if they weren't that way the whole story would fall apart. There are so many things in this story that you can't really change to be better without having to change basically everything.
These books remind me of eating trail mix. I'm like well, I don't like peanuts very much, and I don't know what this other nut is, but I do like cashews and chocolate. It will never be my favorite snack, but I'm not exactly upset about it. This series is a lot of good ideas and a lot of bad ideas mixed up together and I'm like...eh, I guess I can just pick some of this stuff out. Like this book/series doesn't make it impossible to ignore what I don't like about it.
Like okay the thing with Brade is stupid. BUT there are parallels between Brade and Spensa and THAT works. (moderate spoilers) Like what Brade is experiencing is like an even more extreme version of what Spensa went through in book one. And I feel like that works and is interesting, even if Spensa going through it in book one was kind of annoying on it's own because it was so dumb. You understand why Spensa empathizes with Brade. But then the fact that Spenda never gets mad at her just doesn't work for me at all. Brade is INFURATING and Spensa is short tempered. This is the world this book set up! Give me Spensa rage damn it.
Probably my favorite thing about Skyward is how creepy the Delvers are. If I didn't find the Delvers creepy I'd probably give this book two stars. But I have to give it credit for creeping me out because it's no easy feat.
Much like the first book, so much of the story feels flimsy, and yet I was still super into it. I still find Spensa's character to be kind of non-sensical, though she's far less annoying in this book because she's stopped boasting about being tough all the time. But she's still short-tempered and impulsive, right? And yet she never wants to punch Brade in her dumb face. I think Brandon Sanderson is going for a whole, "See? Spensa's not so bad. She's so calm and empathetic even when dealing with someone like Brade. She's grown so much since the last book!" but like, come on. I'm so much more chill than Spensa and I would have shot Brade in the face at least three times by the end of the book. I feel like a lot of what happens just happens to keep the plot going and set up other things that happen later and that low grade annoys me because Spensa never gets to act like an actual person who makes sense because of it.
Also, most of this book takes place over a two week period which doesn't feel right at all. It seems more like two or three months. At one point I thought a weeks worth of training happened and it turned out to be ONE DAY.
Also, neither of these books wrap up neatly and they leave all kinds of lose ends. Like in the last book you never learn what the deal is with doomslug and you can tell she's important because the foreshadowing was almost unbearable. In this book a character is introduced and then it's crickets for the whole book. Is she dead? Where did she go? What's going to happen with her? We didn't even get a paragraph at the end to acknowledge that she still exists. I'm sure it's all answered in the next book but I just don't like that. It feels sloppy.
This is one of those books/series where I could easily write a whole essay about it's flaws, but it's still fun and some things about it do work really well. I'm a little mad at Brandon Sanderson for not trying a little harder to make these books better, but I feel like the problem with this series is that it just doesn't work if you think about it too hard.
Like oh my god, (moderate spoiler alert) this idea that this whole society is anti-aggression to the point of having no real military is so dumb. It's just an easy way to make Spensa more of a badass by comparison and constantly leave them wide open for every hair brained scheme. But if they weren't that way the whole story would fall apart. There are so many things in this story that you can't really change to be better without having to change basically everything.
These books remind me of eating trail mix. I'm like well, I don't like peanuts very much, and I don't know what this other nut is, but I do like cashews and chocolate. It will never be my favorite snack, but I'm not exactly upset about it. This series is a lot of good ideas and a lot of bad ideas mixed up together and I'm like...eh, I guess I can just pick some of this stuff out. Like this book/series doesn't make it impossible to ignore what I don't like about it.
Like okay the thing with Brade is stupid. BUT there are parallels between Brade and Spensa and THAT works. (moderate spoilers) Like what Brade is experiencing is like an even more extreme version of what Spensa went through in book one. And I feel like that works and is interesting, even if Spensa going through it in book one was kind of annoying on it's own because it was so dumb. You understand why Spensa empathizes with Brade. But then the fact that Spenda never gets mad at her just doesn't work for me at all. Brade is INFURATING and Spensa is short tempered. This is the world this book set up! Give me Spensa rage damn it.
Probably my favorite thing about Skyward is how creepy the Delvers are. If I didn't find the Delvers creepy I'd probably give this book two stars. But I have to give it credit for creeping me out because it's no easy feat.