Skyward
Summary:
Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
When I was trying to collect my thoughts about this, I saw someone call this a YA version of “Top Gun” meets “Ender’s Game” and honestly, I think that’s such a succinct and accurate description that I had to share. On first pass Spensa came across felt a bit angsty yet as time goes much of it comes together to make more sense as we learn more. She certainly has a Maverick personality towards impulse control, yet for the best intentions.
As we follow Spensa, we also learn more about what happened in the past both personally and for humankind. A few twists were predictable at times, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, or the set up for the next in the series. Also, can I just say that M-Bot and Doomslug steal the show a bit? Give this one a go and let me know which one is your favorite! With the benefit of having read the full series now, I strongly recommend this for any YA fans.
Warning: Contains bullying, repeated violence and war themes.
Rating: 5 stars!
Who should read it? Folks looking to start a science fiction series, because it’ll be hard to leave this one just at one. New to science fiction friendly.
Want to read the whole series?
Defending Elysium (Skyward #0.5)
Starsight (Skyward #2)
Sunreach (Skyward #2.1)
ReDawn (Skyward #2.2)
Cytonic (Skyward #3)
Evershore (Skyward #3.1)
Defiant (Skyward #4)