Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Starsight

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Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

11 reviews

avialaeleigh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

So much happened in this book. If I were one to annotate while reading a lot of the things that happened probably wouldn't have been as much of a surprise as they were and I think that to me at least is why I enjoy reading Fantasy and Sci-Fi.

And once again M-bot and Doomslug are my favorite characters even though both of them didn't get as much page time as I feel like they deserved.

Brade is a conundrum in my mind I hate her, but mostly because she has been brainwashed by the superiority to think that her kind, human kind, is something deserving of extinction when what Winzik is wanting to do is probably worse than what the humans had done in the third wars. At least from what I can tell the humans weren't wanting to keep hyperdrive space travel to themselves unlike Winzik and the superiority are doing. I also think that depending on how the next books go she might be one of my favorite characters and that she is much like Spensa in the fact that she was molded by those around her, in not a good way, to be the way she is, and outcast who is hated by those around her.

I also hope that we get to learn more about Alanik and her people. I also would like to know if the comment that Vapor about Alanik home planet having a colony on humans on her planet as well as her being half human has truth to it. I also just want to know more about the Cytonics and why they are the only ones that can hyperjump, cause even the Taynix (which is what Doomslug is) are a Cytonic species. I just want to know why some races have Cytonics but others don't. Like the Kitsen used to have Cytonics in the past but now they don't, but there are several species from my understanding that have never had Cytonics and I just an very curious as to why they haven't.

Also why is everyone against advanced AI and why are they so quick to attempt to destroy M-bot because he is AI? I feel like there is a huge plot point to this, but I could also be wrong.

Also why do Cytonics interfere with Taynix hyperjumping? The are both Cytonics I feel like maybe I might have missed something important there. Also why to the Taynix scream into the nowhere before hyperjumping. I don't believe that Spensa did that any other the times that she hyperjumped.

Also is there different kinds of Cytonics because Spensa can hear the "stars" calling to her but Jorgen can here the Taynix calling and I also feel like this is most likely something that is very important. Guess I'll find out in the next books.

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josiah17's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed this slightly more than Skyward primarily due to the expansion on the worldbuilding. That's easily the best part of this series. Sanderson remains a masterful worldbuiler regardless of whatever genre he chooses to write. And a lot of the unanswered questions and mystery from the previous installment are satisfyingly answered and given more depth.

I also enjoyed this more because Spensa has matured from the first book, and there's far less to be annoyed with here (in my personal opinion).

I'm still not crazy about the series, though. But I'm curious to read the next book after the ending of this one, and the seeming consensus opinion that's it's the worst in the series.

Edit 12/19/23: Already bumping down to 3 stars.

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readwithria's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.5

Starsight took the little nuggets of info we got in Skyward and ran with them! This book expanded on the universe so much, and I absolutely loved it.

The new cast of characters were so fun to get to know (though I will say that I missed Jerkface and Quirk). Also, Spensa learned so much about her internal biases and WE LOVE AN ANTIRACIST MESSAGE! Whoop whoop!

M-bot continues to be such a funny character, and the themes of consciousness and self determinism were so interesting to explore through his lens. I also love Doomslug, she’s such a good slug, and am excited to spend more time with her in the next books.

This series is so bingeable, and I will definitely be reading the novellas asap. I’m not sure what exactly kept this from being a dove star book for me, but it didn’t have ~the vibe~ so it gets a solid 4.5 stars.

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giulianalb99's review against another edition

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adventurous informative 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

3.75

Me ha gustado el libro, como todos los que Sanderson escribe, pero creo que este es el que menos me ha gustado de todos. Es bueno, eso sí, pero sólo se centra en la protagonista, dejando a los demás personajes del primer libro apareciendo como mucho en 50 páginas y me hubiera gustado saber más de ellos mientras Spensa estaba fuera. En algunos momentos se me ha hecho un poco pesado y me he tardado más de lo normal en terminar este libro, pero aún así, me ha gustado mucho todas las dudas que se han resuelto del primer libro aunque este te deja con ganas de querer leer el tercero por el inmenso cliffhanger del final. M-Bot, como siempre, es mi personaje favorito y le da un toque de humor a toda la trama, y la verdad es que Babosa Letal me ha sorprendido para bien, la amo y quiero una de mascota.
Creo que Sanderson a estas alturas es incapaz de decepcionarme y por ello es uno de mis escritores favoritos, y aunque tenía expectativas bastante altas con este libro, es el que menos he disfrutado (pero sigue siendo muy bueno).

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minzzi's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I flew throw this book in the speed of light. Could not put it down.
All the worldbuilding details that I asked for after reading book 1 are here and I loved all of it. From the Supremacy and their political schemes to the Delvers and the gigantic treat they represent.
Learning about the new characters, their different alien biology and cultures was also super cool and I loved all of them. But Brade was still the most interesting to me. The way this alien governament turned her against her own species is insane.
My only real complaint is that we spend so much time with Spensa and this new alien characters, we barely see the human characters we already know. I really wanted to learn more about them, but all we got was a few small chapters from Jorgens perspective. So I really hope we get more from these characters in the next book.
Also - I noticed this in the first book, but in this one is way more prominent - the writing was kinda wonky in some places. Repeating the same descriptions in different fight scenes like they were copy pasted, using the same adjectives over and over again, puting two words that mean the same thing right next to each other. In not taking away any star for this, because I'm hopping its a problem with the translation, so I'm going to get book 3 in english to see how the original writing is.

The only two things that bothered me in the narrative were a) Ironsides simply desapered. She was a huge part of book 1 and there is no explanation of were she went and b) Jorgen being a citonic. I'm not mad that he is one, but the way the author introduced that fact in the story was so boring. Like it was nothing important. We don't even get to see Jorgen struggle with the fact he has powers.

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

While I didn’t love Starsight as much as Skyward, it was still a great and well-crafted novel. Characters get more depth, and the world of the series is greatly expanded upon.

After the events of the first book, Spensa and her squad are struggling more than ever to fight off the Krell. By chance, she suddenly gets the opportunity to go to Starsight, the place many alien species live, including the Krell. All those different new species were so interesting and Starsight was just fascinating and vividly described. Because of this shifting focus, the political conflict between the different species is introduced which was so great. Just like this conflict, the fighting scenes with the star ships are still so dynamic and just amazing.

Towards the end, there were many reveals that just left me shocked, like

the reveal that the snails are used to hyperjump or that Cuna is on Spensa’s side. It was kinda sad how Cuna accepted Spensa, even though she was a human, but Brade couldn’t, forcing Spensa to flee and leave M-Bot behind

. The ending itself was so amazing as well:

The Delver arrives but Spensa is able redirect him to Starsight where way more aliens live that would be hurt by it. Of course, she first thinks she failed but then she’s able to save Starsight. I especially loved the fake epilogue where everything seems well but then another chapter is behind it – and everything is not well

There are two reasons though why I couldn’t give this book five stars like I gave <i>Skyward</i>: Firstly, this book felt too disconnected from the first one. Many characters from there only have few lines of dialogues and we don’t see any of the old settings. Secondly, some things didn’t make too much sense to me, like how no one would notice that Spensa talks to M-Bot, and some things were a bit predictable, like

Spensa’s first plan failing

Looking at the characters, there are so many that I absolutely love. I really like our main fighting squad, even though they’re not much in the focus here. Thus, it was nice to get some Jorgen POV chapters in between. I even love the non-human characters, like M-Bot or the snail. It was also interesting to see how much Spensa changed because she spends some time with the aliens.

With this mean ending, I need to know how the series will continue after Starsight – luckily, the third book and the novella collection are on their way to me right now.

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