Defiant – Skyward Book 4 Review

Major spoilers throughout the review.

The slugs are back with a final attack! It’s time to discover if Spensa can reconcile two novels-worth of interstellar growth with ‘home’ in the Skyward series finale.

Spensa’s Final Arc

Defiant is the final act in Spensa’s journey and deals with her building PTSD from living in a constant state of war. This is a story that isn’t often told, and in some ways the whole book feels like a bit of an epilogue. It’s what happens after grand success.

Spensa’s struggle to reconnect with her friends after an epic journey is something that everyone can relate to, though few with such spectacular history. In a mundane world, it’s when you go to a new school and try to reconnect with old friends, and the conversation just doesn’t quite flow how it once did.

Spensa’s reintegration is hard, but she is well supported by her friends. Perhaps it could have been a different story otherwise.

The main message of the Skyward series is definitely one of acceptance, and that goes both ways. To accept yourself but also to accept others. To practice both individuality and community. Sometimes, this goal requires negotiation to be achieved, as is shown through Jorgen and Spensa’s struggles.

Spensa can’t have what she wants all the time, but to give into everyone else’s wishes all the time would mean losing her sense of self. For Spensa, her sense of self is very important to her, and she is easily distressed if she can’t follow her own needs. This is at war with her love for her comrades, and it something she has been learning to balance throughout the series.

By the end, I think it’s safe to say that Spensa is finally at ease with her sense of community and her own needs, and I enjoyed the journey in getting there.

Slugs to the Rescue

Doomslug wasn’t super present in Cytonic, so I was happy to see her taking center stage in the finale. She is a joy to read about, and I especially enjoyed learning that she’s actually quite shy! Just when I thought that she couldn’t get any cuter.

The series has slowly developed the slugs from companion mascots to a serious galactic force, and I’m here for it.

In the end, it’s the love of slugs that wins the day. Though, not all the slugs make it to the end, they will never be forgotten (by me).

In particular, I enjoyed how the narration told us that the slugs pictured other friendly cytonics as bigger slugs, which even extended to the delvers, who in turn picture the slugs as mini delvers.

Happy Ending

I enjoyed the ending a lot, but I feel like I’m done with the Skyward universe now. In a lot of ways, the series reminded me of the anime Gurren Lagann, which starts with humans living in caves, afraid of alien overlords, and ends with an intergalactic space war which largely relies on the power of love to overcome evil.

Of course, not all is totally happy. The loss of Rebecca Nightshade (Gran Gran) hit hard, and not every slug survived the final confrontation.

I didn’t feel totally satisfied by the ending, however. I was curious to know how Cobb and Cuna were getting on at the end, but this isn’t covered in Defiant. M-bot and Chet get a fairly happy ending though, and its nice to imagine them continuing with our heroes into chapters we will never read.

Villain Deaths

I found the deaths of the series’ main villains, Winzik and Brade, very cathartic. It’s been promised for a long time, and both were told in interesting ways that I wouldn’t necessarily have predicted, and which told us something important about the lessons Spensa has learned on her journey.

In Winzik’s death, we see that Spensa’s intelligence and empathy outlasts her desires for revenge. In Brade’s, it’s the same, but that she has also finally learned to lean on her comrades even in dangerous moments. She has finally rewritten her own instincts.

YA Romance

Finally, there’s the brief romance between Jorgen and Spensa. It’s sweet, but not the focus, which was the perfect amount for me.

I’m just glad that they got a relatively happy, unproblematic ending–which is more than most YA dystopian female protagonists get! I could name a few, including some of Sanderson’s own books, but that would be spoilers for many endings!

I could do with more YA romances where the female lead gets a happy ending! Maybe drop your recommendations in the comments below?

When Is Skyward Book 5?

This series is over, but Brandon Sanderson promises that this universe has more stories to tell. In the mean time, there are plenty other science fiction books for you to dip into!

You could also check out my reviews of the other Skyward books!