Starsight
2019
- nyt:young-adult-hardcover=2019-12-15
- young adult fiction, science fiction, general
- young adult fiction, dystopian
- young adult fiction, action & adventure, survival stories
- series:skyward
The story
**ALL HER LIFE, SPENSA'S DREAMED** of becoming a pilot. Of proving she's a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. The rumors of his cowardice are true--he deserted his flight during battle against the Krell. Worse, though, he turned against his team and attacked them. Spensa is sure that there's more to the story. And she's sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars--and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie. But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself--and she'll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to. This description comes from the publisher. *Starsight* is the second book in the Skyward series, the first of which is *Skyward*.
What it’s like
Sharp, restless space-opera prose that moves fast and stays close to one young pilot's head, with cockpit-level immediacy: the roar of engines, the jolt of dogfights, and then the strange, eerie quiet of open space where the stars seem to speak. The mood is dusty frontier grit crossed with cosmic wonder, a hard-edged lonely yearning for home that gradually opens into awe. Scenes of aerial combat are brisk and kinetic, with clear spatial geography and bright bursts of action, and there is some peril, betrayal and grief along the way, but nothing lingers in gore; the violence is wartime and mostly off-page or quickly passed. Best for long-haul flights, a weekend read with headphones, or anyone who loves a plucky, determined heroine reckoning with a shaky family legacy and a much larger universe. Suited to readers who want momentum, sci-fi wonder and a coming-of-age arc about courage and self-discovery.
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