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A review by annettebooksofhopeanddreams
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson
5.0
I love sci-fi, but for some reason I always feel the need to explain that I don't love the kind of sci-fi that's mostly about people going to war with spaceships. I guess that's one of the reasons this book has been on my shelves so long. If someone's life long dream is to fly a ship and fight attackers it comes dangerously close to going to war with spaceships. However, I did get more and more curious and this morning I decided to just dive in.
Yes, this book is very much about people going to war with spaceships. There are quite a few chapters where our characters are in the air, fighting for their lives. Just like there are quite a few chapters where our characters learn to fly those spaceships in battle simulations. I guess I just discovered that the way all this is written might make a huge difference. Because in this case I couldn't hate one second of the book. I loved and devoured it.
And that's because the focus is on the emotions. All the time. We're not seeing how heroic those people are. How they are basking in attention and glory. How they are enjoying being a savior. We mostly see how broken all those people are. How hard they have to fight to even be allowed to fly. How hard it is to lose people or to almost lose your own life. How only certain people have an urge to fight far bigger than their fear and sadness.
I also really loved the heroine of this story. And that's also weird coming from me, because she's everything I don't like my heroine's to be. She's focussed on fighting and aggression. She's hitting and kicking first before asking questions. She's ruled by adrenaline and instinct. But we also see her cry and scream and break during this story. We see that she is not strong because of all that aggression. She's strong because she capable of standing up when everyone is trying to get her down.
My next book budget is without a doubt gonna be spent on getting the sequels.
Yes, this book is very much about people going to war with spaceships. There are quite a few chapters where our characters are in the air, fighting for their lives. Just like there are quite a few chapters where our characters learn to fly those spaceships in battle simulations. I guess I just discovered that the way all this is written might make a huge difference. Because in this case I couldn't hate one second of the book. I loved and devoured it.
And that's because the focus is on the emotions. All the time. We're not seeing how heroic those people are. How they are basking in attention and glory. How they are enjoying being a savior. We mostly see how broken all those people are. How hard they have to fight to even be allowed to fly. How hard it is to lose people or to almost lose your own life. How only certain people have an urge to fight far bigger than their fear and sadness.
I also really loved the heroine of this story. And that's also weird coming from me, because she's everything I don't like my heroine's to be. She's focussed on fighting and aggression. She's hitting and kicking first before asking questions. She's ruled by adrenaline and instinct. But we also see her cry and scream and break during this story. We see that she is not strong because of all that aggression. She's strong because she capable of standing up when everyone is trying to get her down.
My next book budget is without a doubt gonna be spent on getting the sequels.