The girl introduces herself as Kimmalyn and they realize they are in the same class. Spensa is puzzled at why so many are needed as she watches a flight of ships take off. Gran-Gran talks about their people, who worked on the engine room of the fleet's flagship. M-Bot's shields are hit a few times, causing him to make more overly blown insults at the Krell, and embarrasses Spensa when she realizes her own dramatic boasts sound similar. Spensa tells him that she has the defect, and then morosely turns to leave, watching another flight take off. Rikolfr informs her that there is a little under five minutes until the bomber reaches Alta, and Ironsides refuses when he asks her if they should evacuate the command center to one of the deeper caverns. Nedd is impressed, and the other cadets are shocked. Suddenly, Spensa's father spots a hole in the debris, expressing awe. Spensa nearly blacks out from g-forces in a rush to save him, only for Kimmalyn to snipe the unshielded Krell ship from far below. He has been honorably discharged with a full pilot's pin, in order for him to go to the lower caverns to supervise cargo flights from other caverns. When Spensa and Nedd return to the flight and later the launchpad, Jorgen angrily asks her why she led Nedd into the shipyard, to which she finally responds that Nedd made the first move, following two members of Nightstorm Flight, and that she had followed him to act as his wingmate. Cobb comes in and orders them to practice tandem maneuvering without bringing up the deaths, causing Spensa to snap at him. They discuss their wishes to become pilots, and review some material they need for the pilot test. Spensa tries not to show her pain and embarrassment as she walks. The recording progresses to the point where the Krell are repelled for the first time, where Chaser was said to break ranks. She walks over to where Ironsides left the tests from the children of First Citizens. While adults in YA books can occasionally feel weak or trivial, in Sanderson’s worlds they are vital. Spensa and Rig are back in the cave, working on M-Bot, applying sealant to the wing and placing metal sheets on it to patch where the broken metal had been. While Spensa is fine, her speargun is broken, and she chastises herself for being impulsive. She tries to stop it by crashing her ship straight into Jorgen's mid-run, ending it before he can claim enough points to beat her. In class, the cadets practice hitting floating pieces of debris using their light-lances in a simulator. From Brandon Sanderson, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, and the internationally bestselling Mistborn series, comes the first book in an epic new series about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world at war for humanity's future. The two exchange a hard look before Spensa grabs her pack and leaves. The adults and the teens we meet in this story read as real, multidimensional people. Skyward is a series of young adult Science Fiction novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson. nurse Ella Majors accepts a temporary position as a caregiver to a five-year old girl who suffers from juvenile diabetes. As they continue going upwards, she realizes that the debris fields are really a series of organized platforms. It will be followed by a sequel, Starsight, in 2019. The ship's systems start up and it greets Spensa, who realizes that it can talk. Spensa suddenly recognizes him as Mongrel, her father's old wingmate. She worries that the other pilots won't be able to get back in time to help. All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Rig and Spensa are back in the cave working on M-Bot, arguing about why the DDF would cover up Spensa's father's betrayal. Spensa excitedly prepares to fly M-Bot. Spensa spends the rest of the recording staring at the projected wreckage of Chaser's ship and ignoring the rest of the battle. Spensa goes to where her mother sells algae wraps to off-shift workers, her mother sees her, and runs over to embrace her. Spensa continues flying around, and realizes she can somehow react to the Krell commands she hears without consciously deciding to make those maneuvers, and feels as though she can feel M-Bot. Dorgo protests, but Spensa insists that someone needs to stop the second group of Krell, and he relents. M-Bot puts his hologram of the cave ceiling back on to hide from the DDF, and Spensa reclines in the cockpit seat to fall asleep, when she begins to hear a dull hum in the back of her mind, a hum she attributes to M-Bot, leading her to believe that he is more alive than she had previously thought. Braid: Let’s first address a recurring criticism of Sanderson’s work: the lack of female-female friendships. Flight Command orders her to leave the wreckage after learning her ship is nonfunctional, but Spensa is stuck in her straps. Rig leans towards revealing the ship, while Spensa advocates keeping it hidden for now and trying to fix it themselves. Among Spensa’s friends, I have a new favorite supporting character. Spensa is shot down by a Krell fighter in their exercise, and exits her mockpit to take a break. As they prepare, Dorgo tells Spensa that while the ship's destructors are functional, the shield system is entirely burned out and the acclivity ring is not working very well. Spensa replies that she hears him, and pulls out with the rest of the cadets. Cobb says that the Krell were coming in overwhelming numbers, that Spensa's father panicked and started shouting about how they couldn't hope to survive after they fended off the first attack, and that after Chaser broke ranks and fled, he shot him down on his flightleader's orders. The flight is shown their bunks, but Spensa is not given one, and is told by Cobb that Ironsides has forbidden her access to a bunk or the mess hall, and that she must take the elevator to get between Igneous Cavern and Flight School every day. The other cadets are stunned into silence. Spensa heads down the elevator to Igneous, and when she exits, the people there part, letting her through, some soldiers even saluting her. Lastly, trying to be as vague as I can, but I will say that the creatures in this particular world were one of my favorite things about it. Spensa comments that her medical leave is frustrating and she doesn't know what to do with the time, to which Cobb agrees. M-Bot tells her that they are also using normal communications that he can decipher. After a little more waiting, Spensa spots a Krell ship heading towards Alta Base at 11 o'clock, two hundred feet down. Suddenly, Spensa is hit by something, and realizes that the Krell are trying to overwrite her vision. The sequel to the New York Times bestseller Skyward! After a day of sleeping, her period of leave is over and she reports to the classroom at 0630. Spensa inadvertently does Gran-Gran's exercise, and is startled and unnerved by the star-eyes and the unnatural things seeing her. Spensa and Hurl start working better as a team, with Spensa flying in close to the Krell to activate her IMP and Hurl hanging back to pick off the Krell once its shield goes down. The medic says the acclivity rings are unsalvageable, and tells Spensa the in-seat GravCaps prevented her spine from crushing itself. They have a confrontation on it, before Cobb orders everyone to get back to their exercises. Ironsides is irritated, and has orders sent to Drs. She has gone around two hours from Alta when a hovercar approaches and Jorgen stops to ask if she is really going to walk all the way there considering how dangerous it is outside. He tells her that even though he admitted her, it won't be easy on her. Spensa notes that Arturo's ship is badly damaged. As Spensa is about to pick another one off, another Defiant beats her to it, her father. A lot of Krell ships peel off from the main group and give chase. Spensa light-lances part of the ceiling to cave in, and then rises into the air with M-Bot for the first time. In Skyward, however, I thought he nailed it. A nurse gives her a paper telling her that she and the rest of her flight were given a week of medical leave by Dr. Thior. Just like in real life. She sees that Cobb is watching a hologram of yesterday's battle, and watching it brings back feelings of anticipation and a little fear. Jorgen balks, and then leads her over to where Nightstorm Flight has left their Sigo-class starfighters. Some time later, in the middle of the night, Spensa manages to reach Rig's apartment, and wakes him to show him the ship. Skyward Flight returns to base, short two members. She looks around for a while, before finding the right case. Then, she sees a short man in glasses pointing her out to the admiral, who frowns at her, and Mrs. Vmeer in the corner shaking her head in seeming disappointment, and her hopes drop again. She uses her light-line to make her way down a cliff and into another cavern with kurdi mushrooms, which attract rats. Jorgen calls the AA-gun battery to keep them from being shot at as they pass, and they soon locate Hurl's wreck afterwards. The man tells her he knows, and she spots the glint of medals and a pilot's pin on the chest of his silhouette. Nedd teases her over it, and when Spensa tries to stop him, he tells her that she needs to be teased a bit to help her deal with the anxiety over being the worse pilot in the class. Spensa is calm and feels as though she is part of the ship's processors. It is mentioned that all the flights will be engaged, even the reservists. Ironsides watches the battle hologram as Spensa continues evading and surviving the fifteen Krell ships' attacks. As they practice landing their ships, Cobb emphasizes ejecting in the case of an emergency, though Spensa doesn't take it to heart because she feels that she will get kicked out of Flight School if she ejects as a cadet, and can worry about it after becoming a full pilot. Spensa comes to a check-in point where two ground soldiers make her wait for verification and authorization to enter, even though they know each other. She says she's fine and asks about the ship. Spensa is uncomfortable with this revelation, but gets back into the simulation anyway. A girl behind her expresses similar sentiments, wondering if this is real, before telling her that they can handle it. Jorgen hangs back and observes Eventually, it comes down to Spensa, who has finished her third run with ten points, realizing that Jorgen, currently with eight points, will win if he completes the third run he is starting. Spensa enjoys a third basket of fries, before leaving the restaurant to find out once and for all what really went down at the Battle of Alta. After a few hours of talking, Kimmalyn and FM go to the bathroom, and Hurl tells Spensa that she's sorry that she compared Spensa to her father, and the two make a pact to be brave and to never back down. This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Skyward. While Spensa's mother isn't home, her grandmother, Gran-Gran, is. She walks out, deep in thought about how much she owes Cobb and where she is going to watch the battle recording. Spensa shares the information M-Bot discovered about the Krell. However, the current culture does seem to fit the hardships of their reality. Scrambling, Spensa takes cover in another small cavern. Skyward is a book set in a world where a fleet of human spacecraft crash land on a large uninhabited planet with a primitive defense system orbiting it. I’m excited to see more of them. Suddenly, a group of Krell fighters break through the debris and turn towards the flight. M-Bot tells Spensa that he has lost his master and original purpose, as well as the fact since his last set of orders were to lie low, Spensa cannot be allowed to reveal the ship to the DDF. Blue: This is such an interesting concept to me, and there are a few ways I’ve seen it done. She thinks to herself for a moment before asking Jorgen for help moving the booster. The history, the culture, the geography—everything was pieced together so perfectly. "—Booklist Praise for Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners series: #1 New York Times Bestselling Series "Another win for Sanderson. As she climbs, she imagines the features in her surroundings as crushed enemies. Spensa starts arguing with Cobb after he calls Hurl an idiot, and at one point calls him a coward. As they prepare the rats, Gran-Gran starts telling a story about Beowulf. Spensa asks M-Bot what he got from the Krell computer, and he tells her that while he didn't retrieve too much data, what he did get is rather helpful. She tries to flirt back when Jorgen reveals to everyone that Spensa is Chaser's daughter. Whilst performing a series of dogfighting maneuvers with Nedd and the Krell ship, Jorgen pulls off a near-perfect twin-S dodge. It is revealed that, after humanity failed to conquer the galaxy, the other intelligent races deemed it too dangerous for mankind to possess FTL travel technology. This page was last edited on 5 October 2020, at 16:21. Skyward arrives November 6th from Delacorte Press. Halbeth and Iglom to refute Dr. Thior's claims. Not many girls they can talk to in their respective stories. Spensa tells him that Jorgen and FM are flying a mission, then follows Nedd. She braces herself and hopes that the Defiants can rebuild after Alta Base is destroyed. Spensa thinks that he might be disappointed with her for running from the test, then thinks about whether being told she would be rejected anyway was part of the test to see if she's a coward. Rig informs Spensa that M-Bot is equipped with a cleansing pod, a luxury only the rich in the lower cavers have. The rest of Skyward Flight and her are going on another training routine. These engines are only found on DDF starships, which would require Spensa to commit treason. The door opens, and two more cadets enter, Bim, a short Yeongian boy with dark blue hair, and Hudiya, a blonde, athletic-looking girl from Igneous. Spensa turns on her radio, and M-Bot tells her he doesn't know whether or not he's a Krell, but Spensa doesn't believe he is anymore. Checking in from Beta Flight to provide a non-spoiler review and discussion are Darci Cole, callsign: Blue, and Deana Whitney, callsign: Braid. Spensa then hooks up her light-line's power matrix to the ship, but then realizes that it is too weak to make the ship's functions run. Spensa answers, and the aide asks her if she has a complaint, to which Spensa responds yes, and is given the information that Admiral Ironsides is in Building C. As Spensa is heading over, M-Bot plays Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony over the radio and Spensa is overcome with awe and amazement, as the only music on Detritus consists of trios of musicians, however, the Symphony must have taken hundreds of performers who had spent thousands of hours perfecting each of their instruments, hours humans on Detritus only used to survive. Arturo calls in, announcing that they are coming. Ironsides notes that salvage crews reported that most of the acclivity rings are too damaged to use, and thinks to herself that her indecisiveness and unwillingness to commit were what led to them being unable to take the rings. They are all present in case the Krell come to prevent the humans from obtaining more acclivity rings. A Krell bomber escort ship flies over, firing at Spensa's wreckage. Seven-year-old Spensa is surprised but happy when her father, a pilot, finally lets her follow him to the surface after constant begging. Spensa goes to her old apartment and sees her Gran-Gran, near blind, sorting beads by color. He says that he might be able to get the knowledge of how to repair the ship from an engineering internship, though Spensa will have to scavenge for spare parts to use. Spensa feels herself entering a place of nothingness, and sees a field of stars or eyes that suddenly focus on her. Spensa notes that Dia doesn't seem to care if she believes her, unlike her usual taunts. Spensa and Hurl then shoot down a stray Krell ship using the IMPing maneuver Cobb taught them. She retains her cadet's badge and is told she will be put on a roll if the DDF needs emergency pilots in the future. Cobb pushes the cadets hard in their training. Multiple characters in Skyward experience their own journeys of change and discovery. Him and Cobb make a phenomenal team, with Chaser possessing the ability to constantly dodge and confuse the Krell to get close enough to IMP their shields, which allows Cobb to easily pick them off. Sanderson’s aerial dogfights are so masterful. FM says that while she is still willing to fight and defend their people against the Krell, she is unhappy with the way fighting is overglorified in Defiant culture, feeling that peaceful and nurturing tendencies are being stamped out or neglected. After arguing for a little while longer, Spensa realizes that none of the cadets in the Flight School know her personally, therefore, none of them know who her father is, meaning she has a clean slate and can start anew with this group. Cobb, now the DDF admiral, is worried that humans will lose unless they manage to steal a Krell hyperdrive, as the Superiority is sending increasing numbers of warships into battle. Spensa then talks about how her father told her to claim the stars, and that she will fight defiantly until she joins Bim and Morningtide in the stars. Cobb instructs the flight to flee the fight, only for Spensa to get tailed on the way out. She stashes some of her supplies in a obscure maintenance locker. Jorgen orders everyone to confirm their status, and everyone other than Morningtide and Bim responds, before they fall into formation. Spensa tells her that since her own ship's destructors are broken, only Kimmalyn can handle the shot. Jorgen asks her if she knows about the mutiny aboard the Defiant. The two start to go back to the car, when Spensa looks over the wreck again and sees how Hurl managed to keep some parts of the ship intact, the booster included. He leaves, and she decides that with her half-day off, she needs to visit her family in Igneous Cavern. The back of the book mentions an “accidental discovery.” I think readers will delight in the results of this discovery. Spensa's view of Jorgen changes here, as she realizes although he may be rude sometimes, he is a good leader, always putting the flight before himself. She goes to confront Mrs. Vmeer on the topic. Ironsides watches the Krell ships draw closer to Alta in the command center, realizing that the shipyard battle was a ploy to leave Alta Base exposed. Enraged and humiliated at being lied to about being able to get in, Spensa storms out of the room. Spensa tries to gain enough altitude, but fails and crashes. While writing the book, certain plot elements compelled Sanderson to move the story outside of the Cosmere and into another reality from his collection. They then notices Kimmalyn, who has frozen up with Morningtide's death and doesn't have a wingmate. After waiting for a while, Cobb radios in again, telling them that the scouts spotted a squadron of eight Krell ships trying to sneak past the main battle, and that they need to engage and find out if there's a bomber. She turns to leave, but is stopped by Cobb, who asks her if she is simply going to give up, and also informs her that the DDF are trying to claim the shipyard she spotted earlier. As she turns to leave, Cobb tells her that sometimes the answers one needs don't match the questions she's asking and that a coward can make fools of wiser men, before dismissing her. Jorgen chastises her, saying that she'd be dead if it were a real battle, and she retorts that she accomplished her objective. Spensa and Rig are back in the cave, ready to take M-Bot on another test run. Spensa tells her she is scared and confused and doesn't want to hear any more stories, and she asks her Gran-Gran if any of the people in the stories she tells Spensa are real. Spensa goes after the one, while Jorgen and FM go after the three. Spensa spends a day sleeping in M-Bot's cockpit, trying to process what her father did, while Rig continues to work on M-Bot. Spensa settles into the cockpit of her Poco-class starfighter for the first time since Bim and Morningtide died. Rig tosses her a spare pencil, and she silently thanks him. Kimmalyn messes up another run, and Spensa thinks about how they're wasting her potential while practicing fundamentals. An argument ensues over whether or not it is acceptable to eject from a starfighter, an argument Cobb ends by informing the cadets that a life is just as valuable as an acclivity ring. Spensa asks everyone to make a V-formation with her at the point, explaining that the Krell tend to target flightleaders when possible. A force of 75 Krell fighters have breached the debris field, three quarters of their maximum flight capacity. Cobb comes in, lets her finish her letter, then confronts her about sending out improperly trained or underage pilots and getting them killed. As she heads back to class, Spensa notices some small vehicle hangars, one of which has Jorgen's blue hovercar in it. An aide comes in and tells her to leave, but Spensa doesn't listen. Spensa protests, but Gran-Gran tells her it is her own story, and Spensa stops, intrigued, as she's never heard a story about Gran-Gran before. She again thinks of her father's words, "Set your sights on something higher." Each of the cadets take off, and only Jorgen, Nedd, Arturo, and Freyja don't crash. The door to the cockpit opens, and Spensa climbs in, noting that the controls are similar to others that she's seen. He tells her to keep reaching upwards and "claim the stars". Kimmalyn congratulates her on winning the game. He puts the test down with something on top of it, then starts walking away. 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