Skyward (Skyward #1) by Brandon Sanderson
SERIES: Skyward #1
AUTHOR: Brandon Sanderson
GENRE: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, YA
RELEASE DATE: November 6th 2018
WHERE TO BUY: Amazon
BOOK BLURB:
Spensa's world has been under attack for decades. Now pilots are the heroes of what's left of the human race, and becoming one has always been Spensa's dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring skyward and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father's--a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa's chances of attending flight school at slim to none.
No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, yet fate works in mysterious ways. Flight school might be a long shot, but she is determined to fly. And an accidental discovery in a long-forgotten cavern might just provide her with a way to claim the stars.
THE REHASH
PROCEED WITH CAUTION MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
PROCEED WITH CAUTION MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
- Because of Spensa's father's coward designation, the admiral Judy "Ironsides" Ivans, refuses to let Spensa into Flight school.
- Spensa only realizes this on the day of the exam when they give her a bogus one meant to fail her
- She stays in the classroom assimilating the fact that she won't become a pilot for hours, well into the next morning.
- She picked up a real blank exam and completed that one just to see if she could
- Cobb "Mongrel" (her dad's old wingmate) asks her why she wants to fly (her father had always told her to set your sights on something higher, to Claim the Stars) and ends up giving her a Cadet's pin
- The pin lets her into Alta (the base) but because Ironsides is a pitch, she won't allow Spensa to join the rest of her Flight team in the dorms/mess hall.
- This also means that even if she graduates she won't be flying (because Judy is a pitch)
- Spensa's Flight "Skyward" team:
- Flightleader Jorgen "Jerkface" Weight
- Nedd "Nedder" Strong
- Hudiya "Hurl"
- Rig "Rigmarole"
- Arturo "Amphisbaena
- Kimmalyn "Quirk"
- "Morningtide"
- Bim
- Freyja "F.M."
- Spensa "Spin"
- Because of this she ends up in a cave not too far away so she can attend class easier since the elevators take too long.
- She survives by killing rats and eating mushrooms
- This is the cave where she finds the starship (M-Bot)
- One day after their first class they get called up to a skirmish with the Krell (which is ridiculous but Judy the pitch is basically using the cadets as meat shields.
- Spensa spends the first of many nights sleeping in the cockpit of the beat up starship and finds a yellow-and-blue cave slug that she will later name "Doomslug"
- Doomslug can imitate sounds and I'm assuming teleports.
- Rig, Spensa's BFF, ends up quitting the day after the skirmish (and who can blame the guy?! who the hell sends untrained kids to a damn skirmish)
- Spensa is freaking out a bit but finally understands that Piloting was never really Rig's thing, it was hers
- Training continues...Cobb teaches them mainly flight maneuvers and how to use the light lances instead of shooting, since anyone can press a button
- Up until this point, none of Spensa's flightmates knew that her father was the infamous coward.
- Jerkface (Jorgen, flightleader, rich boy, damn good pilot already), gets pissed at Spensa and lets everyone know about who her dad is.
- Spin's friendship with Hurl suffers because of this
- Spin takes the power matrix from Jorgen's car to try and power up M-Bot (Spoiler: it works)
- M-Bot as it turns out is an AWESOME AI.
- Most of his data is corrupted because of the crash so he doesn't know much about the time before the war with the Krell
- Spin convinces Rig to work on getting M-Bot good enough to fly.
- Rig ends up accepting an internship to the engineering company so he can get parts and such to fix up M-Bot.
- They get called up again to a skirmish; Morningtide and Bim die.We are now down to 7 from the original 10.
- The Interludes are about Judy the pitch and she is all about stopping Spin from flying cause she thinks she is gonna do the same thing her dad did. (which is bs)
- Through this whole time Judy has been ordering her medical team to get readings on Spin's brain to see if she had the same 'defect' as her dad
- They can 'hear' the stars
- After one of Spin's classes she ends up talking with Cobb and finds out that Cobb was the one that chased after her dad and shot him down for being a 'coward'. (Spoiler: He isn't a coward)
- After a hard training session, and a convo with M-Bot through her hacked radio, Spin tries storming off but Jerkface gets in her face about and she finally puts him on the floor!
- Spin decides she needs to turn herself in, as its the right thing to do, only to find Jerkface already at the admiral's office and instead of turning her in, he covers for her. They have a moment. It's cute.
- Mission time again, huge defense platform starts falling from the sky (cause shit is always happening when they are out flying), Krell show up to keep them from salvaging the acclivity rings (needed to make more starships).
- Nedd tries to save his brothers (members of a different Flight), Spin and Nedd barely make it out. Nedd's brothers die. Nedd drops out the next day. And then there were 6
- Spin and Cobb discuss strategy and it comes out that the Krell can kind read people's minds and have a very advance form of comunication (subluminal)
- The girls from the flight team, sneak Spin into their dorm to have a sleepover and bond. Hurl and Spin finally make up.
- After a conversation with Judy the pitch, Spin figures out Judy needs Spin to drop out and confirm to everyone else that she is in fact a coward like her dad. Spin gets her mojo back (because really, so many deaths/drop outs)
- Rig has finally got M-Bot, kinda flying, and its time for a test run! M-Bot is the shit even with no proper boosters.
- Mission time again! Fight happens, Hurl gets shot at and instead of ejecting like any smart person would do, she decides to die a blaze of glory cause she is not a "coward" *rolls eyes*
- Kimmalyn drops out because she thinks if she hadn't missed her shot, Hurl would have lived. And then there were 4
- Spin is devastated
- Spin goes out to the surface and with the help of Jorgen and his fancy car, they find Hurl's remains and give her a Viking's pyre burial.
- Spin ends up taking the boosters from the wreckage to see get M-Bot to properly fly.
- Spin is restless from grieving for Hurl and ends up asking Cobb if she can watch the recordings of her dad's last battle (the Battle for Atla)
- And this is were we start getting some answers! Or more questions...
- During that battle Spin's dad sees a perfect gap to fly through to the stars, with JUDY'S permission he goes off towards the stars (the stars were talking to him). When he comes back down, he starts shooting his own comrades and that's when Cobb gets the order to shoot him down. Not a coward, but a traitor instead.
- Spin finally catches a break when Judy the pitch lifts the restrictions on her so she can use the dorm and the mess hall (Cobb and the Dr. helped make it happen)
- Cobb and Spin get to talking and he explains to Spin that the brain scans are a debate that's been on going about the heredity of cowardice. They think the 'defect' is what turned Spin's dad traitor and why Judy won't let Spin fly.
- They are now only weeks off till graduation and Arturo's parents (also rich) pull him out of school cause it was turning too dangerous. And then there were 3
- Spin and Jorgen have a BIG moment :D
- Rig has finished outfitting those stolen boosters and M-Bot is ready to kick some ass and chew bubble gum! or mushrooms, and not really kick ass since his last set of commands were to lie low, take stock and don't get into any fights.
- Flying M-Bot is glorious. During their mock battle, a simulation of the battle for Alta, Spin finds out that her dad reacts a few seconds earlier before the Krell do. He can hear what the Krell are saying.
- Spin tries to recreate what her dad is seeing and ends up in a dark netherworlds where the pin pricks of lights turn to eyes opening and watching her. She freaks the eff out.
- M-Bot realizes that Spin will eventually ask him to fight so he shuts himself down. I CRI
- Jorgen and Spin have another moment! Jorgen apparently already knew about Spin's dad being a traitor not a coward.
- Spin tells him that she is seeing the same things his dad was before he went traitor
- Jorgen tells her about the mutiny that happened in the ship that led to them landing in that planet (Detritus)
- Jorgen convinces Spin to keep flying
- Spin finally decides to visit her family and has a nice chat with her Gran-Gran, which was the one that taught her to "listen to the stars"
- Gran-Gran tells her that the only reason their ship was able to fly and go in search of other planets was because of their ability to listen to the stars and it was this reason that they ended up in Detritus.
- Gran-Gran tells her spin to not fear the ability but to control it.
- Mission again! There is only F.M, Jorgen and Spin left. So of course shit happens and Spin ends up getting shot, but because she is smart, she ejects, and because Judy is a pitch she gives Spin an honorable discharge cause she didn't go down with the ship *rolls eyes*
- Judy the pitch is getting pressured by the rich people to DO something since they are obviously losing the war. Judy in all her magnificent glory, decides to go all in to salvage another defense platform that's gonna start to fall. Rich people agreed
- Graduation day! and Salvage mission day! OH BOY. Shit of the highest magnitude happens
- The Krell keep all of their crew busy while they dropped a lifebuster bomb on the AA guns off to the side, once the defenses were down, another swarm of Krell start going towards Alta with another lifebuster bomb, and with no AA gun defense, they donzo.
- Kimm, Nedd and Arturo decide to "borrow" Arturo's parents starships to help with the fight. Spin hadn't been planing on flying but with some much shit going on and her teammates would be taking 15mins to be up and flying, she ends up joining with a beat up starship with no shield, no destroyers and a barely functioning acclivity ring.
- Spin goes up against the 15 Krell + lifebuster and keeps them busy trying to buy her team some time.
- Spin uses her cheat sheet of hearing what the Krell are saying to kick some ass (dodge like there is no tomorrow)
- Spin finally gets hit but her teammates are in position now!
- The Krell were gonna finish the job after the crash landing but Cobb and M-Bot come to the rescue!
- Spin finally gets to kick some ass with M-Bot and its awesome
- Spin gets her plan going with her former teammates, Kimm shoots the clamps holding the lifebuster bomb and Spin grabs it and GOES.
- She ends up 'somehow' (let's be honest, it's totally Doomslug) teleporting with it far enough away that it doesn't destroy Alta, nor Igneous.
- Spin sees another gap in the stars and flys up to try and find out what happened to her dad.
- She finds out that the Krell can infact mess with their minds and they had made her dad think he was fighting Krell instead of his comrades.
- M-Bot was able to hack the systems for a few seconds but got plenty of info, they get it back down to Alta.
- On to the answers!
- There was an intergalactic war before. Us against the galaxy
- Humankind lost
- The victors were a coalition of aliens who thought humans were too brutal, uncivilized and aggressive to be part of the intergalactic community
- Since the Defiant considered themselves apart from the conflict, they didn't turn themselves in. The Krell were called in to capture or contain them.
- The Krell cornered them eventually and her great grandma crash landed them on Detritus
- The Krell set up camp to watch them once they landed. They are prison guards
- Some of the aliens are sure humankind will try to conquer the galaxy, so they have no plans on letting them ever get out of Detritus
- The aliens never really wanted to destroy them. There are laws in place to prohibit wiping out a species.
- They are keeping Detritus as a preserve for humankind and simply, keeping them busy with fights.
- But politics are changing within the alien community and they seem to not have a problem with wiping them out now.
- Time to get gone!
Until the next one!
REHASHED BY:
ELLA
1 comments
This book was one I was a little worried about going into it because I hadn’t heard much about it but after finishing I can’t deny that it’s made it’s mark as one of my favorites for the year and I can’t wait to see where we go next.
ReplyDeleteHannah
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