But that’s not all you also have the threat of a debris fall from the rubble belt. Like I said before, Skyward introduces a world where the last humans are literally stuck on an alien planet, under near-constant attack from the Krell. Speaking of world building – let’s talk about Detritus itself because man, I was 110% on-board. What I’m getting at here is please don’t let science fiction as a genre put you off what is an inspiring coming-of-age story. The plot is plausible and the science is pretty grounded in reality. Also, there are no ray guns, lightsabers, evil robots or alien abductions. Sanderson gives us the chance to explore Detritus with the characters, peeling back the layers piece by piece and essentially creating this air of mystery. Trust me when I say there’s no way you’ll be bored. The fight scenes are fast paced, well researched and gripping. You know, when the writer basically thrusts a whole ton of dense backstory or world building at the reader in one hit. And if you think that space battles are boring? Well, prepare to be blown away.įirst thing’s first, let’s clear up any misconceptions…Ī bad habit that both science fiction and fantasy tend to fall into is the info dump. If you think fighter pilots are cool just wait till you’re hurtling through the Danger Zone that is Detritus, dogfighting hordes of Krell. Survival seems pretty darn bleak.Įnter a badass protagonist and you’ve got the makings of a high speed, action packed space epic.īasically Top Gun in space, Skyward is an edge-of-your-seat adventure which literally blasts us off to flight school to study aerial combat. Above, a mysterious race known as the Krell wage a war in the skies. Detritus plays home to the last pockets of human civilization who live in caverns beneath the surface after crash landing generations prior. Underneath a canopy of debris lies a barren planet known as Detritus. Welcome to the final frontier of humanity. They’ve doubled their fleet, making Spensa’s world twice as dangerous… but their desperation to survive might just take her skyward…

And the Krell just made that a possibility. No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is still determined to fly.

But her fate is intertwined with her father’s – a pilot who was killed years ago when her abruptly deserted his team, placing Spensa’s chances of attending flight school somewhere between slim to none. Spensa has always dreamed of being one of them of soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. Pilots have become the heroes of what’s left of the human race. Humanity’s only defense is to take to their ships and flight the enemy in the skies. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years.

Skyward by brandon sanderson