Title: Defiant
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Science fiction
Published on: November 21, 2023 by Delacorte Press
Spensa made it out of the Nowhere, but what she saw in the space between the stars has changed her forever. She came face to face with the Delvers, and finally got answers to the questions she's had about her own strange Cytonic gifts.
The Superiority didn't stop in it's fight for galactic dominance while she was gone, though. Spensa's team, Skyward Flight, was able to hold Winzik off, and even collect allies to help with the cause, but it's only a matter of time until humanity--and the rest of the galaxy--falls.
Defeating them will require all the knowledge Spensa gathered while in the Nowhere. But being Cytonic is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Now, Spensa must ask herself: how far is she willing to go for victory, if it means losing herself--and her friends--in the process.
The eagerly anticipated conclusion to the Skyward sci-fi series is here at last. This story is set in an unspecified distant future. Its protagonist is Spensa Nightshade, a human girl with cytonic (sort of dimensional warping) powers. She was born on a planet called Detritus, where she and her people had been held captive by an alien species for a long time. This was a while ago now. Humans have control of Detritus and its formidable defenses now. They’ve also allied with two species Spensa came across in the previous books: the kitsen (a small fox-like bipedal race) and the Urdail (a human-like species with purple skin and white hair).
Since book two, the main antagonist group of this series has been the Superiority. It’s a sort of galactic consortium ruled by an alien named Winzik. He’s a varvax, the same crab-like race who’d held humans captive in Detritus. Thanks to Spensa and her flightmate/boyfriend, Jorgen, humans now know the secret to the Superiority’s power. This was revealed back in book two, so I don’t consider a spoiler to cover it here. The Superiority wields the powers of alien slugs with cytonic abilities. Some can warp through space, others can create sort of psionic shields, and others can facilitate interstellar communication. Jorgen recently discovered a huge colony of these slugs in the caverns of Detritus. Spensa’s had one as a pet, nicknamed Doomslug, since Skyward.
As for Spensa, she recently came back from a journey into the nowhere. It’s a dimension where cytonics can warp to, and it’s primarily the home of the delvers. They’re mysterious beings who gain nearly unstoppable power when they come into the somewhere (what they call the normal universe). Spensa happens to be bonded to Chet now, a rogue delver she met. His presence in Spensa’s soul had unexpected consequences. She’s been losing control of her powers, warping objects to random locations. It’s clear that Spensa’s teammates don’t feel this instability is too dangerous, though, as they haven’t sidelined her. In a related note, what happened to M-bot (the AI who resided in Spensa’s highly advanced starship) was incredible. He’s now able to let Spensa know what the delvers are up to, which gives her a pretty good advantage.
Spensa has come a long way since the reader first meets her. Back in the first book, she was an impetuous, headstrong girl full of bravado. Spensa often gave lines such as “We’ll fight so well, the Krell will raise lamentations to the sky like smoke above a pyre, crying in desperation at our advent!” and “The most wonderful sound ever is the lamentations of my enemies, screaming my name toward the heavens…”. They make her look intimidating, like someone full of bloodlust. And you can’t really blame Spensa, considering she grew up being shunned by everyone else due to a misunderstanding that was cleared up at the end of the first book. This gave Spensa a thirst to prove herself and to be the best fighter pilot she can be. Now, she’s one of the highest-ranking members of the Defiant Defense Force despite still being so young. Spensa’s bravado is also a bit more toned-down, and she’s not as intent on proving herself as she used to be. Still, Spensa still does some things that give Jorgen–the new leader of the DDF–quite a hard time.
The true enemy of the series is also revealed halfway through the story. Their identity is quite a shock, so I won’t give it away here. I’ll just say it’s someone much like Spensa. This is a person who’s determined to rule the galaxy. It’s not exactly in a Bond villain type of way; more like the antagonist truly believes they’re entitled to be at the top, partly because of their upbringing. This enemy is also incredibly ruthless; they negotiate with the delvers to destroy Spensa and her allies, and also send their troops into battle haphazardly. The antagonist doesn’t care how many of their fighters or support personnel the DDF destroys as long as they win. This makes for quite a thrilling final battle. The DDF gets to show off in quite an awesome way. And yes, Skyward Flight is back at last. They go on a few missions throughout the book. It was good seeing them back, especially Kimmalyn. She’s a memorable character. Overall, the final installment in the Skyward series was amazing. I really enjoyed reading it.
My rating: ★★★★★
5 stars - Absolutely must-read. It's outstanding!!!
