Brandon Sanderson is collaborating on his new young adult Skyward series, Riftwake, with Janci Patterson. Previously, they partnered on some Skyward novellas so she is well-versed in the world, characters, and stories. How much of the writing and story is from Mr. Sanderson or from Ms. Patterson is not known. The format of the book is first person accounts alternating between Arturro and Sadie. Sent on a diplomatic expedition, the story has a Star Trek vibe at the beginning, as in: “Where are we? What is going on in this world? And how do we figure this all out without putting the population on alert?” This was extremely effective at getting the reader invested in the story. However, with so many characters, the alternating narrative, or the fact that many of the characters came from the previous Skyward series, the emotional connection to any particular character did not feel especially strong. As the story advanced, pacing picked up to a crazy, no-holds barred pace with extended action scenes. The wrap up was a little abrupt, but not before the curtain was drawn back on a big twist that clearly will be explored in the next two books. Lovers of Sci-Fi will enjoy this read.
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy Provided by the Publisher
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 28 mild obscenities; 2 anatomical terms.
Violence/Gore: References to injuries, battles, wars, conquests, and other events from prior books; character has lost a partial limb in battle and this is referred to; extended spaceship battle scene with ships firing upon each other, some ships are destroyed resulting in the deaths of team members; ships crash-land and characters go in to see status of survivors, several are dead, some detailed description and mention of blood (~ 1 paragraph); capture of creatures by humans using a net; some creatures are observed to have limbs cut or removed; corpses of creatures observed; extended gladiator scene of humans fighting creatures with swords, electrocuting devices, and other weapons, resulting in some injuries and deaths; characters ambushed and constrained with whip; destruction of property, no injuries or casualties; cut on a character’s neck bleeds; character fights a creature briefly; extended battle scene with spaceships shooting at one another, inflicting damage and crashing, and boots on the ground fighting with shooting, injuries (mention of blood), some alien deaths; extended battle scene involving shooting of aliens, firing by drones/ships at human population resulting in deaths, gladiator fighting in the arena, starships firing at each other, fire exchanged between humans and aliens; characters observe humans in biostasis; amassing of a fighting force; character immobilized by electricity; parties are torturing a species to force them to work for them; characters are being put into biostasis against their will, mention of blood; characters learn about mass deaths of a population; vaporization by destructor fire of a facility resulting in deaths of aliens and humans.
Sex/Nudity: Female notices that a male is shirtless and sweaty and she thinks him attractive; male is interested in a female romantically and thinks about her often, wondering if she would be interested in him; awkward exchange where a male doesn’t know how to ask a team member to be less pretty; female often thinks about a male she is attracted to; female is referred to as “the hottest”; a world’s culture is observed to have male, female, and non-gendered pronouns; male and female in tense situation hold hands (partly for assurance and comfort); male thinks a female looks “hot” holding a sword; brief conversations among characters when one asks another about gender in their culture and they reply that there are 3 (male, female, agendered) and that a lot of people shift from one to another as they grow up; conversation about holding hands/kissing and the romantic implications; someone is asked if they are “into” someone else romantically; discussion about cross-species romantic relationships; character wants to kiss another; characters kiss; characters decide to date.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death, interspecies dating, war, enslavement, gladiator-style arena fighting, ethics of cruelty to alien creatures, cultural norms around gender.
Alcohol/Drug Use:
Scene in a bar/tavern with people drinking; characters are told not to drink anything alcoholic; characters are drugged.
