A review by pencilknot
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

5.0

A bunch of sorry, desperate fools on both sides, just trying to stay alive. That's the part that those stories you love to leave out, isn't it?

5 stars

Once again, this series leaves me in awe of the worldbuilding. Starsight takes it to a whole new level, and I was fascinated by the depiction of a world where aggression is strongly discouraged, where political manipulation becomes the ultimate weapon. It's a system so fragile and unprepared that it teeters the the moment someone chooses to embrace violence. This tension underscores all events that occur in this book, and truly transformed the Krell (and thus the Superiority) from a flat unknown evil force to a compelling study of the nature of power.

Initially, I was conflicted about leaving the crew, but I felt like it was the right choice realize the importance of personalizing the other, alien side of the war. I didn't find the new crew as interesting as the first book, but I enjoyed reading about their unique cultures. It was fascinating to learn about the rest of the Superiority's perspective of humans in stark contrast to the fear of them from the humans that permeated the first book.

I was constantly gasping over how perfectly each piece of the story fit together, including hints dropped early on in the first book. It's truly a mark of a well-planned story, so I'm excited to see how it progresses.