Skyward

This was the first Brandon Sanderson book I've ever read and it was fine.

He's an excellent writer and the story was engaging. The ending left me wondering whether or not I'd read the next one.

This is a very "Hero With a Thousand Faces" story. Spensa, a young woman drawn to her destiny to become a pilot, is haunted by the shadow and mystery of her father's actions as a pilot.

As the story unfolds the perspective widens. And then, towards the end, the perspective gets wider than anyone thought possible. That's also where the book lost me: I am uncertain whether I like the world this story was building towards. There's nothing wrong with it, maybe just not my cup of tea.

I greatly enjoy Brandon Sanderson's fantasy novels. His world-building and magic systems always have an interesting logic - balancing a power's advantages against its limitations or disadvantages. I always feel that those rules would translate directly into a well-tuned RPG.

"Skyward" is the first Sanderson science fiction I've read, but it won't be the last. It's a hard sci-fi YA adventure with a teenage girl protagonist who makes mistakes and embarrasses herself but has you cheering her on every step of the way.

The technology and action scenes are convincing, and I enjoyed the way Sanderson went into some detail about how the spacecraft and their weapons worked.

Overall the plot was a little predictable but didn't detract from the fun of the story, and the final revelation was a good surprise and set-up for the sequel.