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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my first Brandon Sanderson book, I liked his style of writing. I can see why he has a lot of fans, I'll be adding a lot of his books to my tbr. This series is great so far!
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Woah this book was AWESOME. It reminded me of a YA more hopeful version of Starship Troopers. Great opportunity to have your younger not quiet adult readers think about: good and evil, bravery and cowardice, authority and allegiance, free will and choice, how knowing someone’s story makes you understand their actions but may not justify them. So many discussion worthy points!
Spoilers below (just some of my favorite quotes nothing super plot revealing)
"Claim the stars," I said. Cobb looked up at me. "When I was a girl," I said, "I wanted to become a pilot so I would be celebrated. And my father told me to set my sights higher. He told me to 'claim the stars.'" I looked upward, and tried to imagine those twinkling lights. Past the roof, up through the sky, piercing the rubble belt. Where the Saints welcomed the souls of the fallen when they died. "It hurts," I said. "More than I thought it would..."
"They're up in the sky now," I said softly. "Forever among the stars. I'm going to join them." I snapped out of the trance, and was suddenly back in the room with the others. "I'm going to strap in, and I'm going to fight. That way when I die, at least I'll die in a cockpit. Reaching for heaven."
"Moving faster would either break our ships or crush those of us inside with g-forces." "Ah yes. Human squishiness quotient. Is that why you're so mad at that space junk? Jealousy is not pretty, Spensa."
"I refuse to be trapped by bonds of autocracy and nationalism," FM said. "To survive, our people have become necessarily hardened, but alongside it we have enslaved ourselves. Most people never question, and doggedly go through the motions of an obedient life. Others have increased aggression to the point that it's hard to have natural feelings!"
"It's an embarassment to the DDF, what the admiral has done to you, " FM said. "But it's a natural outgrowth of the totalitarian need for absolute power over those who resist her-the very example of the hypocrisy of the system. Defiance is not 'Defiant' to them unless it doesn't actually defy anything."
"Albeit," FM added, "one who had been thoroughly indoctrinated by a soulless system design only to spit out willing, jingoistic, obedient thralls. No offense."
"You are very attractive and intelligent, " M-Bot said. "Spensa? is my moral support subroutine functioning? Um, you're quite bipedal. And very efficient at converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, an essential gas for plant life to-"
"Have you you temporarily stopped being bipedal?"
"Humans don't have programming." "Yes you do. You have too much of it. Conflicting programs, none of it interfacing properly, all calling different functions at the same time-or the same function for contradictory reasons. Yet you ignore it sometimes. That is not a flaw. It is what make you you."
"She started talking in her rambling, yet engaging way. "My father was a historian on the Defiant. He kept the stories of Old Earth, of the times before we traveled into space. Did you know that even then, with computers and libraries and all kinds of reminders, we found it easy to forget where we came from? Maybe because we had machines to do the remembering for us, we felt we could simply leave it to them."
Spoilers below (just some of my favorite quotes nothing super plot revealing)
"Claim the stars," I said. Cobb looked up at me. "When I was a girl," I said, "I wanted to become a pilot so I would be celebrated. And my father told me to set my sights higher. He told me to 'claim the stars.'" I looked upward, and tried to imagine those twinkling lights. Past the roof, up through the sky, piercing the rubble belt. Where the Saints welcomed the souls of the fallen when they died. "It hurts," I said. "More than I thought it would..."
"They're up in the sky now," I said softly. "Forever among the stars. I'm going to join them." I snapped out of the trance, and was suddenly back in the room with the others. "I'm going to strap in, and I'm going to fight. That way when I die, at least I'll die in a cockpit. Reaching for heaven."
"Moving faster would either break our ships or crush those of us inside with g-forces." "Ah yes. Human squishiness quotient. Is that why you're so mad at that space junk? Jealousy is not pretty, Spensa."
"I refuse to be trapped by bonds of autocracy and nationalism," FM said. "To survive, our people have become necessarily hardened, but alongside it we have enslaved ourselves. Most people never question, and doggedly go through the motions of an obedient life. Others have increased aggression to the point that it's hard to have natural feelings!"
"It's an embarassment to the DDF, what the admiral has done to you, " FM said. "But it's a natural outgrowth of the totalitarian need for absolute power over those who resist her-the very example of the hypocrisy of the system. Defiance is not 'Defiant' to them unless it doesn't actually defy anything."
"Albeit," FM added, "one who had been thoroughly indoctrinated by a soulless system design only to spit out willing, jingoistic, obedient thralls. No offense."
"You are very attractive and intelligent, " M-Bot said. "Spensa? is my moral support subroutine functioning? Um, you're quite bipedal. And very efficient at converting oxygen into carbon dioxide, an essential gas for plant life to-"
"Have you you temporarily stopped being bipedal?"
"Humans don't have programming." "Yes you do. You have too much of it. Conflicting programs, none of it interfacing properly, all calling different functions at the same time-or the same function for contradictory reasons. Yet you ignore it sometimes. That is not a flaw. It is what make you you."
"She started talking in her rambling, yet engaging way. "My father was a historian on the Defiant. He kept the stories of Old Earth, of the times before we traveled into space. Did you know that even then, with computers and libraries and all kinds of reminders, we found it easy to forget where we came from? Maybe because we had machines to do the remembering for us, we felt we could simply leave it to them."
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Listened to the audiobook and it was fantastic. Very well done
I can absolutely see why this book has the cult following it does. This is the quintessential YA military sci-fi. It has all the tropes that can be ascribed to all three of those genre-descriptors. Lone wolf, chosen one, the best from nothing, defying orders for the greater good, comic-relief side-kick, the robot/computer/AI does human badly, the world is against you... blah blah blah.
So, while the writing was solid and the action was definitely there, each battle/exercise felt repetitive. The tropes kept our character(s) from standing out; I can take a trope when it's subverted in some way, or broken, or even just met head-on, but Sanderson does none of that. He walks right in the footsteps of others who have written this story before in a different setting (I'm thinking primarily Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series).
I think this was a great introduction to a writer who has such a cult following - which can be intimidating when you're very rarely impressed (yes, I am talking about myself here). I'm still curious to know where the story goes from here and I'm convinced of Sanderson's talent, if not necessarily his creativity.
So, while the writing was solid and the action was definitely there, each battle/exercise felt repetitive
Spoiler
(though I will give Sanderson props for consistently killing off characters of various levels of importance)I think this was a great introduction to a writer who has such a cult following - which can be intimidating when you're very rarely impressed (yes, I am talking about myself here). I'm still curious to know where the story goes from here and I'm convinced of Sanderson's talent, if not necessarily his creativity.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes