As if the year of Sanderson wasn’t enough! The Skyward series comes to an end with Defiant, concluding Spensa and Skyward Flight’s four-book, three-novella saga. My feelings have been mixed throughout the series, and that trend continues into the final installment.
Spensa has returned from her adventures in the Nowhere, during which she tried to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding the delvers. She comes back to Detritus—her home planet—with a handful of answers and a cargo hold full of new questions. Her friends, meanwhile, have made progress with the cytonically powered slugs, who can facilitate faster-than-light travel and communication. The threat of the tyrannical (and oxymoronically “non-aggressive”) Superiority looms as the organization attempts to destroy humanity. Spensa, humankind, the Urdail (a purple humanoid species), the kitsen (fox-like gerbil-sized aliens) and a few Superiority defectors join the cause in an attempt to free the galaxy from the government’s despotic chokehold.
Despite its place in a series I’ve generally liked but not loved, Defiant does some good work. The book winds up the series and answers most of the burning questions posed by the previous books and novellas. Core to the narrative is Spensa’s story arch, which culminates in a book-long growth story. Previously content to destroy her enemies with destructor fire and revel in the glory of war, Spensa returns to the Somewhere to find she’s lost her appetite for killing. A new companion (who’s always with her—no spoilers though) exacerbates this problem by amplifying Spensa’s moments of panic with uncontrollable cytonic bursts. She must come to terms with her new outlook and balance it with the toils of war. Can she free her people and her galaxy without senseless killing? Otherwise, how is she any better than the Superiority?
The concept is good, and it gives me a lot of Aang vibes from Avatar: The Last Airbender. My only problem is with the execution. It’s heavy-handed, and there’s a lot of hemming and hawing in Spensa’s internal monologue. I get it; it’s a more YA-leaning series than I’m used to, so I forgive the constant hammering of this point to an extent.
My biggest problem with Skyward as a whole is that it’s fine. I’ve read countless spacefaring series with amazing combat and found family themes. Alex White’s Salvagers series springs to mind. Sanderson does a satisfactory job writing in this space (pun intended), but it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the genre’s standouts. Please, please, please take this with a grain of salt the size of a small dog, because I understand it can sound ridiculous to chide a series for not being a different series. Defiant and its prequels have some interesting and unique sci-fi concepts. They simply didn’t hook me as well as similar stories have.
I would be flabbergasted if this review changed anyone’s mind about the Skyward series. I’m certain anyone who has read 1-3 and the supplemental novellas will have a lot of fun with Defiant. I liked it enough to smile at the end, and sometimes that’s all you need.
-Cole
