Starsight book review

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
Series: Skyward #2
Published by Delacorte Press on November 26, 2019
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 468
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, the Mistborn trilogy, and the Stormlight Archive comes the second book in an epic series about a girl with a secret in a dangerous world at war for humanity's future.
All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she's a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. The rumors of his cowardice are true--he deserted his flight during battle against the Krell. Worse, though, he turned against his team and attacked them.
Spensa is sure there's more to the story. And she's sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars--and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie.
But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself--and she'll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.

I decided after loving Skyward so much that I would dive right into the sequel and it didn’t disappoint. I am a huge fan of politics and seeing how other countries and in Starsight’s case worlds work and run. The overriding theme running through Starsight is definitely the pros and cons of aggression or completely peaceful beings and exploring what the connotations of both are. As a whole I didn’t hate Spin quite so much in this one, maybe because she wasn’t screaming her way into battle for most of this one and she had to be a little more stealthy but either way I wasn’t upset with the way she acted in this one. I do think this one fell a little short in comparison to the first one, the ending for one wasn’t as impactful and I feel as though there was a lot of lost potential throughout this one.

For me, the characters in Starsight was what let this book down. We follow Spin on a whole new mission that sees her leave her friends behind and head to a new world with new people and challenges. My issues with this one were that it felt as though it was almost the same storyline as the first one with just a different flight team involved. Which would have been fine but the friendships in this one weren’t as great and I just didn’t feel as connected to them as I had the others. I desperately wanted to connect with one of the new species but they weren’t particularly fleshed out and they seemed to be lacking purpose as a whole. I was glad that M-Bot didn’t lose his sass because he, for the most part, made me laugh and I enjoyed his interactions with Spin and the world around him, and his crisis about life made him oh-so relatable. However, for the most part, I felt a little let down by the characters in this one and felt as though they were almost secondary to everything else.

The best bits of Starsight was definitely learning about all the different species and how they worked. I really loved the idea of a “draft” as a person and being able to test out different personalities before committing. The world itself was really fun to learn about and as mentioned I really enjoyed the politic element that runs all the way through this one. It was hilarious to see Spin completely out of her element and be going with the flow and hoping for the best with no support.

The worst bit for me was just how underdeveloped this book felt in places, it is definitely a stepping stone book but I wish there had been more time spent on the secondary characters and there had been more of a chance to get to know them.

Yes! I would still recommend this series, I’m excited to see what Sanderson does next and where they end up going with the characters and the stories.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!