The arrival of a new Brandon Sanderson novel will be heralded with great joy by his many fans, so much so that the author’s name will be enough to grab this one. But did I like it?

From the publisher: “Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity’s only defense is to take to their ships and fight the enemy in the skies. Pilots have become the heroes of what’s left of the human race.

Spensa has always dreamed of being one of them; of soaring above Earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father’s – a pilot who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, placing Spensa’s chances of attending flight school somewhere between slim and none.

No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is still determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They’ve doubled their fleet, making Spensa’s world twice as dangerous . . . but their desperation to survive might just take her skyward . . .”

So: just to set the record straight: this is a science fiction novel written by Brandon. It’s a story of a young teenager (Spensa) ostracised from those around her because of her father, once one of the elite space pilots but labelled as a coward in a key battle that led to his death, shot down by his friend.

Forced to eke out a meagre existence selling rat-meat with her worn-down mother and blind grandmother, Spensa is determined to right what she sees as wrongs – clear the name of her father and obtain the status given to the elite pilots of the Defiant Defense Force (DDF), whose dangerous job is to defend the Humans against attacks from the alien Krell (named like the aliens in Forbidden Planet, but not the same) on her home planet of Detritus. She wants to show everyone that she is brave, strong and dependable. Most of all, she wants to fly, to travel skyward. Outwardly confident, even aggressively so, Spensa is, in reality, a young and frightened girl who is scared to make a mistake and be denied her chance to fly. The story is as much about her personal growth as that of the exterior science-fictional trappings. Spensa is regarded with suspicion by her fellow cadets, as the daughter of a coward, and with open hostility by the group leader who knew her father.

Her life as a DDF cadet is deliberately made difficult by the flight-leaders, who feel that Spensa may turn out like her father. As a result, Spensa is forbidden to eat and sleep in the cadet’s cavern area, and is forced to live in the neighbouring caves on rats and mushrooms. It is here that by accident she discovers an old damaged spaceship, which she calls Massacre-Bot, or M-Bot for short. M-Bot has a working AI unit and, as she discovers, despite its age seems to be advanced beyond the capabability of the Human space fleet. Along with her pet slug, nicknamed “Doomslug”, Spensa develops a relationship with the AI as she and her friend Rodge (aka Rig) attempt to repair M-Bot in their spare time.

Her initial issues with her classmates soon develop into a burgeoning friendship with her fellow cadets – all with various callsigns to her own of Spin – Hurl, FM, Quirk, Bim, Morningtide and her flightleader, Jerkface. (Clearly they do not get on well together at first.)

The rest of the book is about Spensa’s journey and her progress towards becoming a pilot as well as her clearing her father’s name and reputation.

So far, so traditional. Like many other Young Adult books, we have the story of a socially awkward outsider determined to do her best against all the odds. Even with such a tried and tested trope, there’s a lot to like here. The pace is fast, the characterisation is varied, likeable and credible, if a little cliched. Brandon does well to build this world throughout the novel, creating a realistic situation and environment for the characters to dwell in.

It’s rather like a contemporary version of Robert Heinlein’s juvenile novels, and presumably written with the same intentions – to entertain and reflect a certain set of moral values. I can see a certain similarity with Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, too, though this one seems more personable.

For those who don’t know, Brandon’s stories, whether Fantasy or Science Fiction, mostly fit into his Cosmere universe. I understand that Skyward is not in that universe, but there are elements that seem familiar or similar. The use of light is a key part of this story as it is in many of Brandon’s other stories.

As much as I enjoyed the pace, the characterisation and the relationship between the characters, there were parts that made me groan with frustration. How about the part where Spensa’s group of cadets, having being in spacecraft simulations for one day, are put into active service? (This after being told how few cadets make it through training and how few pilots there are left.)

And then there’s the one where Spensa & Rig manage to reassemble a crashed spaceship from redundant and broken parts, a task seemingly beyond current engineering capabilities and yet eventually wired together to be flown as the most advanced spacecraft ever? It does seem to be a little more than fixing an old jalopy in the garage.

Certainly, there’s a degree of wish-fulfilment here, and as a reader I shouldn’t begrudge the odd liberty with reality for the sake of teenage advancement. But there are moments like this that turn what could be an amazing book into one that is merely good.

That’s not to say that as a reader you’ll be rooting for the underdog and willing Spensa to succeed. The battle scenes are generally well done and very well written – think of X-Wings in the Death Star trench and you’ll get what I mean.

But for every good element there’s another that makes it seem less plausible too. The use of Spensa’s Skyward flight group in using light-lances to swing around (or swing things around!) in combat seems a little like Luke Skywalker using grappling irons on Hoth, but presumably at much faster (and therefore much less realistic) speeds. For me this was both hokey and unrealistic at those speeds, for what worked on ancient sailing ships and snowspeeders seems much less credible when dealing with spacecraft. Imagine the Starship Enterprise having to weigh anchor.

Nevertheless, there’s a lot in Skyward for the undemanding reader to like. I am sure that the rapid pace, the likeable characters, the well written battle scenes and the twists along the way will be enough for many a reader. Personally, I think that it’s nice to see Brandon move away from the limitations of the Cosmere universe a little, and I will read the next book in the series with interest.

But, as much as the book is enjoyable, overall there’s a feeling that there’s one contrivance too many, one coincidence too much for it to be a wholly successful novel for me. Long-time readers of SF will find it similar to other books, perhaps too much so, despite the entertaining ride along the way.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Published by Gollancz November 2018

528 pages

ISBN: 978-1473217850

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