084 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K
Skyward
Forge your own
fl i g h t p a t h
Release Out now
Writer Brandon Sanderson
Publisher Gollancz
Price £18.99
Throughout Skyward, the latest novel
from the versatile and prolifi c author Brandon
Sanderson and the start of his latest series,
everyone is very concerned about the idea of the
correct way to behave and the right way to be.
Young Spensa has always known that she
wanted to be a pilot, to fl y with honour and bravery
and to strike terror into the hearts of the alien Krell
before blowing their ships to pieces. She will not
waver in her mission, she will not back down and
she will not let anyone stand in her way.
But there’s a problem. Spensa’s father was a pilot
but he was also a coward, shot down while running
away from the enemy during one of the biggest
battles the planet of Detritus had ever seen. Her
family has lived with the shame of his actions ever
since and everyone believes that she’ll do exactly
the same thing when the chips are down. As a
result, Spensa has been forged into a single-minded
force of nature with a bloodthirsty prophecy for
every situation, two things that will serve her well
in training. However, the further she gets, the more
she begins to realise that everyone is fi ghting their
own personal battles. What’s more, she may not
have been told the whole truth about her father.
Sanderson uses familiar story elements, such as
the school where the loner hero isn’t wanted, the
dead parent with a secret and the gruff but kindly
mentor, but there’s more than enough vivid detail
and world-building to make Skyborn feel fresh.
Thanks to Spensa’s relatively blinkered fi rst person
narration, the bigger picture comes into focus at a
carefully measured pace and the same is true for
her fl ight mates, who become more interesting and
well-rounded the more time we spend with them.
It’s also superbly judged in terms of tone. While
no one’s going to be surprised by a YA novel with
a body count and complex moral dilemmas, the
deaths do pack a punch. However, Sanderson
never lingers too long on the darkness. There’s a
genuinely affecting budding friendship between
Spensa and her classmates, the sheer thrill of fl ight
as she embarks on dangerous missions, and there’s
even a morally superior but slightly unhinged
mushroom-fi xated spaceship who provides a good
chunk of the book’s comic relief.
While there are plenty of exciting action
sequences and characters scrambling for their
crafts, Sanderson keeps the mysteries of who
the enemy are exactly, how the human race
arrived on this planet and why they haven’t been
completely wiped out yet hidden for much of
the story. Instead, he allows these questions to
bubble up slowly, sowing seeds of anxiety and
distrust amongst the characters, which brings us
back to one of Sk y wa rd’s biggest strengths: ratherthan just tell a story about a character stepping
out from the shadow of their parents’ actions,
Sanderson presents a character who begins to
learn that humanity is more important than glory,
questioning her most rigidly held beliefs, and
learning to let go of what other people think of
her and forging a path that is truly her own. We’re
excited to see this series develop.
Jonathan Hatfull ^
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Skyward