Skyward Flight — Skyward Book 2.5 Review

Short review, no spoilers
I managed to find the American hardback version of this trio of novellas, and BOY IS IT CHONKY. In truth, Skyward Flight’s chonkiness made it hard to take and read on the train and trams on my way to work, so it took my way longer to finish than it should have, and I also got very distracted by Children of Dune, since my paperback copy of that is much lighter and easier to carry… I should probably get a kindle, right?

Anyway, SKYWARD FLIGHT!

Facts About Skyward Flight

Spoilers for which characters’ POVs are covered in the three novellas

Skyward Flight is a series of novellas set in Brandon Sanderson’s Cytoverse, which is not related to the Cosmere. It is recommended that you read Skyward Flight after book two, Starsight, but before book three, Cytonic. Interestingly, Skyward Flight is not written by Sanderson alone, but co-authored with Janci Patterson, who is a fairly distinguished author herself with plenty of titles under her name.

The style is clearly a little different if you’re a close reader, but since the novellas take the perspective of three different characters from the Cytoverse series, the slight change in style works well to distinguish these perspectives from Spensa’s, and they all certainly still feel like Cytoverse books.

If you’re curious to know which characters are covered, then get excited for FM, Alanik, and Jorgen!

Why I Liked Skyward Flight

After Starsight spent so much time away from our favourite minds on Detritus, I loved getting an intimate look at how their lives were going, and even more so without Spensa’s special way of perceiving everything.

Assuming that you’ve read Starsight, book two, then you’ll assume that Spensa isn’t returning to the Detritus crew anytime soon in book three, and that makes the time spent with these characters in Skyward Flight all the more important. Maybe it won’t be until book four, Defiant, when we really get to see them again from Spensa’s POV.

I also really enjoyed Janci Patterson’s writing, and the novella format was quite refreshing!

Why I Liked Skyward Flight – WITH SPOILERS

Mild spoilers about content

Janci’s writing focuses more on romance, which was a perfect addition for a YA series and—let’s be honest—Brandon’s writing typically veers away from those kinds of moments (Warbreaker excluded).

I won’t say which relationships formed, but I was glad to see the characters struggling together with such an important aspect of being a late teenager. It really felt important to these novellas in a way that the main series fails to capture, though maybe that’s because of Spensa’s character.
Their antics were fun to read without coming across as ‘fanfiction-esque’. It was just the right level of fun to add to the series.

But really, I didn’t care about the romance nearly as much as I cared about the slugs. There were many nights where I’d be rushing to try and squeeze in a few pages of ‘the slug book’ so I could squee over the cute descriptions.

It’s not often that books succeed in being both cute and captivating content-wise. The first novella succeeded bountifully in this way.

Other Thoughts on Skyward Flight

Minor spoilers

I struggled getting through the second novella the most as it features a rather alien perspective that sometimes was difficult to empathise with or get behind. I don’t have much to add to that. It was fine and interesting, but it didn’t reach the heights of the rest of the Cytoverse, and I was glad to switch the final POV.

The final novella was easier for me to understand, but it was also quite slow… at least until the end where everything it had been building to slotted into place for one final Sanderlanche… except this time penned by Patterson? The plotting was definitely on point for a Sanderson book! I really enjoyed seeing behind the curtain on this character’s thoughts and feelings, and I honestly wish I could have spent longer with them.