Starsight Book Review

Major Spoilers are included in this book review. Please read with caution.

On August 24, 2020, I started reading Starsight—the sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward—and finished on August 28. While the first book focused on main protagonist Spensa’s transformation from angry teen to competent flight leader, the second book forced her to evolve further when she is confronted with the stuff she fears most.

The story picks up several months after the events of Skyward, showing us how much had changed with the characters from the first book—Jorgen (Jerkface) is a good example of excellent character development—and the increased danger up in the stars. About 70ish pages into the novel though, Spensa embarks on a last-minute stealth mission toward Starsight—an alien planet—with her trusted AI ship M-Bot and Doomslug.

For most of the novel—the exciting middle part—Spensa finds herself conflicted when confronted with a social hierarchy determined to put “lesser species”—like humans—under government control.

Exploring the social hierarchy is a common trope in all Sanderson writing, where he loves to discuss an authoritative government, their complicated politics, and the social classes that develop from such oppression. As a result, Starsight was an intense ride due to the thought-provoking questions, great action, and emotional resonance it had with the audience.

The sequel does not disappoint. Starsight brought back what I loved about Skyward and adds more world-building for the planet Starsight and the countless alien species that occupy the vast galaxy. Since there were only two other third-person POVs—Jorgen and genderless Morriumurin—this novel was incredibly character-driven with plenty of character action and political strife.

Although I will admit that the information regarding the new species, their rules, and how they function as a society got overwhelming at times; the adventure was still fun. Another negative is the lessened screen time with characters from the first book like Jorgen, Quirk, Cobb, Gran-Gran, etc. but hopefully the third and fourth books—coming in 2021 and 2022 respectively—will make up for the lost time.

Thanks for reading my book review, everyone! I’ll see you all next time. In the meantime, chase your dreams and claim the stars that seem too impossible to reach. It’s always worth a try, even if you fail a hundred times. Let’s keep it reading!