Starsight – Brandon Sanderson
I was so amped after finishing Skyward that I immediately jumped right in to the next book in series. Starsight takes place shortly after the events of the big finale and I was eager to see what was going to happen next. The characters that had come so far since the beginning and the story had seemingly infinite possibilities to develop. But, the continuation of the mysterious, action packed adventure I expected was nowhere to be found. Instead I ended up with a sci-fi version of The New Guy. And not in a good way.
Starsight opens with the humans making advances. The military is officially operating off planet, and are making headway against the enemy Krell. So things are looking good? Wrong. The Krell seem to be upping their game. Containment is no longer the objective, and the humans are having a hard time pushing them back. In the meantime, the mysterious plates of protection surrounding the planet are being adapted for use by Spensa and her group. They are discovering how to use the protections and weapons installed by humans of the past. Which seems great. However, travel is the issue. As long as they are stuck at Detritus, they run the risk of being destroyed. They need to figure out how to warp.
Yeah cool. I like where this is headed. Everything is making sense. But how are they going to get a hyper drive? Well just so happens that a literal alien falls out of the sky and tells Spensa how to get to the center of the universe where the Krell are set up. Oh ok, well sure. Good timing. But she can’t just show up as a human? Ah well, M-Bot (remember the ship?) is equipped with superior stealth technology, and can give Spensa a bracelet that will make her appear as the alien that crashed! How convenient… So there she goes. Warping off using her “cytonic” abilities to travel through space instantaneously. I mean ok. I get it. It’s a story, things are supposed to line up. Skyward just set up the humans as being kicked while they’re down. Nothing good happens to them, which as it turns out, is intentional. This setup just seems a little too good to be true.
Suddenly Spensa finds herself in space’s version of New York City, Starsight, which is quite literally described as a city that never sleeps. This is where I really started to get disappointed. Suddenly I’m thrown into a totally new situation. All the characters that I loved and all of the places I’m familiar with are gone. I’m being described a totally alien place in every sense of the word. It was like starting over. Half the book was dedicated to describing the various alien races and how the looked, how they acted, how the city was setup with 17 bathrooms. It was exhausting.
So she joins the fleet in order to infiltrate and steal a hyperdrive, quickly taking it upon herself to train the squadron and befriend some of the other characters. She’s constantly learning about their mannerisms and their hatred for humans. Spensa starts to discover some secrets, but they only create more questions. Side quest after side quest start to pile up. There’s even a passage where Sanderson acknowledges this and literally lists them all out. A little on the nose, but ok. It’s a long series, I can understand injecting some ideas now that might not show up until later. It’s not unheard of, but so many all at once… It’s a lot.
There is some interesting character development here. I can appreciate Sanderson’s ability to write “alien” traits and characteristics that allow Spin to look in at herself and become a better person. Each unique aspect of one race is reflected in how she views herself, or how she views humans as a hole. It’s an interesting way to do it, and I don’t hate it. It allowed me to being to understand the various characters while also growing closer to Spensa at the same time.
Spoilers ahead
Obviously she gets found out. Well technically she gives herself away, which is slightly worse. We’ve all seen it a million times. The main character grows close to the “enemy,” there’s a big “oh shit” moment towards the end where they all realize they’re supposed to hate each other, and then they put their differences aside and work together to save the day. It was pretty disappointing. I don’t know what I expected, but this wasn’t it. It felt so cliché.
The biggest disappointment though was the ending. The whole book has set up the delvers as this terrifying menace. Something that Spensa, our brave hero, cowers before. The entire universe is predicated on not making these guys angry. They are the biggest of the baddest, literally swallowing planets whole. Nothing could possibly defeat them. Instead, you have to avoid provoking them, and when they do show up, running away until they disappear. So what does Spensa do? She flies in, because she’s the best pilot ever, and tells the thing that we’re people, too. The delver says, “Oh, I didn’t realize,” and leaves.
I mean, wtf.
Were my expectations too high? Maybe. But after religiously reading most of Sanderson’s library, how was I supposed to feel? His “worst” works are still miles ahead of the vast majority of sci-fi/fantasy writers. I’ve been Pavlov-ed into expecting greatness. Is the writing exceptional? Yes, once again Sanderson’s story telling proficiency is on display, but the story itself left quite a bit to be desired. All the pieces I liked about the first book were nowhere to be found. It felt like starting over in the middle of a story that wasn’t as good.
Of course, I’m going to read the third book and continue the series. I mean, none of us gave up after A Feast for Crows, right? We all watched Pitch Perfect 3 after the trash that was Pitch Perfect 2. It happens.
★★★☆☆
