Brandon Sanderson is at it again.  How he manages to be so prolific and fresh is beyond understanding.  Skyward is a solid young adult sci-fi story with a flawed female protagonist.  (Sometimes Spensa aka Spin just doesn’t know when to stop talking.)  The action is constant with starship battles and dogfights sprinkled with radio chatter.  Again, Sanderson is a master at character banter.  The characters are full-fleshed, complex, likeable, dislike-able, unique, real, and often quite funny.

Underlying the relentless battles is the quest for personal understanding and some mysteries to solve.  Often science fiction is great–until the last few pages when it goes off-course and the reader is left scratching their head.  This narrative manages to hang together without getting too weird.  Quite a satisfying read–even worthy of a little sleep deprivation.  Skyward is book 1 in a 2-book series.  The sequel, Starsight, is already published.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  9 mild obscenities; 1 derogatory name; 3 anatomical terms.

Violence/Gore:  Report of a starship battle and deaths; spearing and skinning rat(s) for food; grandparent tells story of Beowulf, mention holding Grendel’s arm and shoulder as grisly trophy; character has a habit of making over-the-top statements about drinking blood of enemies, etc. (somewhat comically because of hyperbole); falling objects inflict minor injury; scene of starfighters fighting, shooting and being shot; sarcastic remark that someone can have his gun if they promise to shoot themself; extended, multi-page spaceship battle resulting in destruction of property and in deaths; recounting of a past battle that resulted in deaths; many scenes of training where battle is simulated by computers, etc. in a classroom; young woman hits and punches a young man in a physical altercation; character remembers giving another a black eye and breaking their arm in a fight when she was young; extended, multi-page spaceship battle scene with destruction of property and deaths; image of some alien remains; extended multi-page spaceship battle scene with destruction of property and death; characters find a body of a friend, who is dead (a sentence of description about body) and they burn in a funeral pyre; viewing of a hologram of an old battle with deaths; damaged fighters come in and an unconscious pilot pulled from wreckage; extended spaceship battle scene with destruction of property and deaths; extended scene where characters are listening to a battle live and hearing casualty reports; extended, multi-page spaceship battle scene resulting in destruction of property and deaths.  (Note:  Battle scenes are not gory; deaths are from shooting down of ships or crashes.)

Sex/Nudity:  Girl thinks another looks good in his flight suit; girl realizes a guy is trying to flirt with her; guy thinks a girl is cute; guy has an arm around a girl and they obviously like each other; character hugs another in comfort.

Mature Subject Matter:

War, death (general, family, friends), social and economic inequality, treason, ethics, stealing.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None