Skyward Review: Pros and Cons of Learning to Fly in Space

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

The Good things

• Hellloooooo amazing, action packed sci-fi!
• Loved this book the first time I read it, loved it just as much on reread.
• I feel like it’s best described as a sci-fi Top Gun (I say as if I’ve actually seen Top Gun and know what it’s about… But I mean, it’s a fighter pilot academy in space so…)
• I love M-Bot! He’s so sassy. Also Doomslug is amazing (we need a movie or show based on this just so we can get Doomslug plushies).
• There’s so much character growth along with fantastic action. I had a lot of feels.
• It’s thrilling! The fight scenes are intense, you’re constantly on the edge of your seat (especially when you’re reading to the background sound of epic sci-fi movie soundtracks).
• I recommended it to my dad and he loved it! 

The Not-So-Good Things

• I can’t really think of much to criticise. I seriously loved this book a lot.
• My only real critique is that a lot of the big twists involving the overarching plot and world lore seemed to occur all at once, right at the end. I probably would have appreciated them more if they were scattered throughout the book.

Skyward was one of my top reads of 2019 and is just as amazing on reread. It might even be my favourite sci-fi. It’s fast, fun, and thrilling with some fantastic characters. After the plot twists at the end, I can’t wait to jump into Starsight and see where it goes next.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars