Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Published on: November 23, 2021 by Delacorte Press
After a long year of anticipation, I was finally able to read Cytonic. This is the third book of Spensa Nightshade's story. For a little recap: in the previous entry, Spensa learned that the war her people have fought for decades is way bigger in scale than they thought. It turned out that a galactic coalition called the Superiority was the true enemy. They'd been keeping Spensa and her people imprisoned on their planet, called Detritus. At the end of Starsight, the Superiority tried to destroy the planet by harnessing delvers, which are entities from a dimension called the nowhere. Just one delver is so powerful that Spensa barely managed to send it away. She's cytonic, which means she has nowhere-derived dimensional powers.
Due to a surprising betrayal, Spensa was forced to escape from the Superiority. She had no choice but to flee through a nowhere portal. The Superiority takes to using these to banish their enemies, so you'd think it would be bad to go into one. Spensa took her trusty AI, M-Bot, with herself. M-Bot used to run on a top-of-the-line starfighter, but after the Superiority disassembled it, the AI uploaded itself to a small cleaning drone. Together, Spensa and M-Bot emerge into a way more normal-looking place than I expected. It's not long before you realize that the nowhere is anything but normal. And Spensa can't just warp away with her cytonic powers, so she's stuck for the meanwhile.
With how long I'd been waiting to read Cytonic, I'd imagined what the nowhere might be like. I thought the glimpses Spensa saw whenever she warped gave big hints. The actual nowhere happens to be really similar to the somewhere (the real world). It's a smaller place, but still vast and with slightly different laws of physics. I would describe the nowhere like a mini-solar system. Mild spoiler ahead: the nowhere reminded me a lot of the Distortion World from Pokemon Platinum. There are a variety of...environments scattered about. Spensa also finds that while in the nowhere, people don't need to eat or sleep.That's not to mean staying inside this dimension is without toll.
Not soon after wandering through the nowhere, Spensa and M-Bot run into a new character. The guy makes a really dramatic entrance. It left me both wowed and a little nonplussed. This character introduces himself as Chet Starfinder, a galactic adventurer and explorer. The guy is rather lively and enthusiastic. He teaches Spensa about the nuances of the nowhere and the toll it exacts on visitors who linger too long. Luckily, Spensa found herself with a way to counter this issue. She enlists Chet (whose name brings to mind a mustachioed dude with a cowboy hat) on a personal mission to learn more about her cytonic powers. Spensa still doesn't know enough about them. She feels she needs that understanding in order to be a solid asset to her allies.
Cytonic shakes things up for the story again. It is as different from Starsight as the latter was from Skyward. The different setting is compelling enough, but those who prefer the somewhere might get tired of it. And of Detritus's people, only Jorgen makes brief appearances. Spensa keeps in touch with him to update him about her mission. Chet is also not the only new character. They meet a group of aliens from one of the nowhere factions. Some of them are from races that haven't appeared before in this series. One race in particular is the most creative I've read about yet. I won't say much more about the group in this review except that they have way bigger roles than I thought they would. Spensa definitely knows how to make allies despite how terrible she is at judging people. This is a flaw she realizes she has while reminiscing about the events of the previous book.
As this book is set in the nowhere, it reveals more about the nature of delvers. These entities have been intriguing to me since they were hinted at in Skyward. Spensa is confident that there are thousands of them. On the occasions that she's warped through space, Spensa felt their myriad eyes watching her. The delvers seem to greatly dislike beings from the somewhere, especially cytonics. They complain about the "noise" they make. Spensa uses her time in the nowhere on a mission to learn more about the delvers and figure out how to beat them. She must do this fast, as as enemy from Starsight is working on his own nefarious plans. And they involve the delvers.
In my opinion, Cytonic was worth the wait. It didn't top either of the first two books, but it was really close. Part of the reason is that Spensa is yet again far away from her friends. It's been two books now since the last time Skyward Flight made a significant appearance. They barely get a mention, except for Jorgen. And most of the important new characters become another starfighter group for Spensa. They were still compelling additions, particularly Peg. She's the leader of one of the factions and is of a reptilian-esque species called the tenasi. The pacing was moderate, which could be due to how time passes in the nowhere. As for the delvers' true nature, that I didn't see coming. It was not what I expected, even when there were hints that I recall now. And M-Bot's fate! Ooh, Cytonic really got better as it got closer to the ending.
Due to a surprising betrayal, Spensa was forced to escape from the Superiority. She had no choice but to flee through a nowhere portal. The Superiority takes to using these to banish their enemies, so you'd think it would be bad to go into one. Spensa took her trusty AI, M-Bot, with herself. M-Bot used to run on a top-of-the-line starfighter, but after the Superiority disassembled it, the AI uploaded itself to a small cleaning drone. Together, Spensa and M-Bot emerge into a way more normal-looking place than I expected. It's not long before you realize that the nowhere is anything but normal. And Spensa can't just warp away with her cytonic powers, so she's stuck for the meanwhile.
With how long I'd been waiting to read Cytonic, I'd imagined what the nowhere might be like. I thought the glimpses Spensa saw whenever she warped gave big hints. The actual nowhere happens to be really similar to the somewhere (the real world). It's a smaller place, but still vast and with slightly different laws of physics. I would describe the nowhere like a mini-solar system. Mild spoiler ahead: the nowhere reminded me a lot of the Distortion World from Pokemon Platinum. There are a variety of...environments scattered about. Spensa also finds that while in the nowhere, people don't need to eat or sleep.That's not to mean staying inside this dimension is without toll.
Not soon after wandering through the nowhere, Spensa and M-Bot run into a new character. The guy makes a really dramatic entrance. It left me both wowed and a little nonplussed. This character introduces himself as Chet Starfinder, a galactic adventurer and explorer. The guy is rather lively and enthusiastic. He teaches Spensa about the nuances of the nowhere and the toll it exacts on visitors who linger too long. Luckily, Spensa found herself with a way to counter this issue. She enlists Chet (whose name brings to mind a mustachioed dude with a cowboy hat) on a personal mission to learn more about her cytonic powers. Spensa still doesn't know enough about them. She feels she needs that understanding in order to be a solid asset to her allies.
Cytonic shakes things up for the story again. It is as different from Starsight as the latter was from Skyward. The different setting is compelling enough, but those who prefer the somewhere might get tired of it. And of Detritus's people, only Jorgen makes brief appearances. Spensa keeps in touch with him to update him about her mission. Chet is also not the only new character. They meet a group of aliens from one of the nowhere factions. Some of them are from races that haven't appeared before in this series. One race in particular is the most creative I've read about yet. I won't say much more about the group in this review except that they have way bigger roles than I thought they would. Spensa definitely knows how to make allies despite how terrible she is at judging people. This is a flaw she realizes she has while reminiscing about the events of the previous book.
As this book is set in the nowhere, it reveals more about the nature of delvers. These entities have been intriguing to me since they were hinted at in Skyward. Spensa is confident that there are thousands of them. On the occasions that she's warped through space, Spensa felt their myriad eyes watching her. The delvers seem to greatly dislike beings from the somewhere, especially cytonics. They complain about the "noise" they make. Spensa uses her time in the nowhere on a mission to learn more about the delvers and figure out how to beat them. She must do this fast, as as enemy from Starsight is working on his own nefarious plans. And they involve the delvers.
In my opinion, Cytonic was worth the wait. It didn't top either of the first two books, but it was really close. Part of the reason is that Spensa is yet again far away from her friends. It's been two books now since the last time Skyward Flight made a significant appearance. They barely get a mention, except for Jorgen. And most of the important new characters become another starfighter group for Spensa. They were still compelling additions, particularly Peg. She's the leader of one of the factions and is of a reptilian-esque species called the tenasi. The pacing was moderate, which could be due to how time passes in the nowhere. As for the delvers' true nature, that I didn't see coming. It was not what I expected, even when there were hints that I recall now. And M-Bot's fate! Ooh, Cytonic really got better as it got closer to the ending.
My rating: ★★★★ 1/2
4.5 stars - A fantastic page-turner!
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