My favorite moment was when Spensa asked: "Who?" and Doomslug totally corrected her grammar to "whom". I LOLed even though it was about 2 am and totally scared my cat.

I loved it as mutch as Skyward tbh. SPOILER ALERT! The only part i didnt like was M-Bot trying to be alive and reprogram its self. My My, so agressive.

unpopular opinion: i liked Starsight more than Skyward, since the world is more expanded and the stakes are higher... i adore M-Bot and DoomSlug... i have so many questions...

Personally I prefer Starsight. I feel like, the stakes are sooo high in that one and MAN, I love where he took the world building here. I might be biased because I get giant Mass Effect vibes from it and Mass Effect is one of my favorite games lol. Also I'm not big on school settings so I like that book 2 didn't focus on that as much as book 1. Altho I wish he didn't set us up with one in book 2 in the first place l Also personally, I care way more about all the aliens than most of the human characters except ofc Spensa, Hobs, who's never fighting, Jorgen and Kimmalyn. So I didn't feel like a lot of that character driven story telling was missing, I still had most of my favs represented (thank you Jorgen POV) plus a lot of new ones to love. Having them fight each other also made my heart hurt ughhh. The Romance - I will have to disagree, they definitely went past the "guess he's okay" stage in book 1. We already see hints of romantic tension and they end on such a high level of mutual trust and respect, and considering the danger Spensa is putting herself in going to a different planet, not knowing if she'll come back, personally to me it made a lot of sense that this tension would explode. I wish they would have been more relevant in this book because I adore them, but to me personally it made sense and man, to see Jorgen put so much trust in her and disregard chain of command for her sake. Ugh. I love it lol.

I loved it but I missed all her friends left behind especially Kimalyn. I like the enemy to ally story arc. I want a Doomslug pillow assuming I can’t get a real one anywhere.

I disagree strongly. One of the things I loved about this book was that it took such an unexpected turn and that the story that resulted was such a wonderful treat. I was thrilled to see Spensa going on this impromptu adventure. Imagine if you were expecting a fun albeit predictable spring break at home, going hiking and hot tubbing with friends and reading by the pool, but suddenly another friend calls you out of nowhere saying, “I got plane tickets to Italy if you want to come, but we have to leave tomorrow.” That’s exactly how I felt reading this book. I’d also argue that the characters and character growth were absolutely one of this book’s strengths. Spensa changed A LOT, arguably more than she did in book one. We see her grow from a cocky, Krell-hating warmonger who takes pleasure in killing faceless aliens, to a mature hero with a much more nuanced view of the universe, understanding the true nature of war and her enemies, and being the first to extend a hand of peace to the aliens she used to delight in destroying, and ultimately risking her life to save her enemies. And I loved her realization that the creepy vibes she got from Cuna were purely based in a cultural misunderstanding of facial expression. M-bot’s character development was also on point. Yeah the romance was glossed over, but if not satisfying, at least it was realistic. It’s been months since we left these characters, and it was clear something was going to happen between them, so it’s unsurprising that they’ve already gotten together. Still, I get that from the reader’s standpoint, yes, it’s disappointing. I’m personally not that into romance, so that didn’t bother me at all, and felt like a natural progression of their relationship. It sounded like a lot of your criticisms were colored by your disappointment with the turn the story took. Because I found the character development as strong as it had ever been in Skyward, and this book delighted me so much, it might even beat out Elantris as my favorite Sanderson novel.

I too missed those great character moments between the DDF pilots. Skyward definitely handled that better. But I did love the new characters introduced and think the plot and world building were better in this one. As the second part of a quadrilogy I think this book had a lot of setup to do which I why we don't get as much time with the DDF characters.

Funny - I liked Starsight just as much as Skyward. :-) Both were 5 star reads for me.

I just finished Starsight and came here immediately :) I loved it so much, and I didn't expect any of what happened but now I'm dying for the next installment. Only one and a half years to go ;)

I was anticipating this, Elliot! The most memorable thing for me was this: "Spenca," Mbot said softly. "Don't leave me." It encompassed the theme of this book in such a human way. He was struggling with loneliness when Spenca was off training, and now he feared abandonment. Would you doubt that he was alive after that? I certainly didn't. The skip ahead in Spenca and Jorgen's relationship was disappointing to me too. I still enjoyed the book despite it being so different. I really love Spenca's voice. Plucky princess types are usually annoying, but imo Spenca has her reasons and no one can tell me otherwise :P Thanks for the review!

Me too I just finished the book yesterday and it was perfection I love it so much

OMG I just finished it, less than 5 minutes ago. I'm so shaken and I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

I can definitely understand your criticisms, I came from the angle though of rather than 'I wouldn't do that in that scenario', instead 'would Spensa do that in that scenario', and that made most of those more frustrating aspects fall into place. Would I be so laser focused on the mission as to seemingly forget about the person of interest on the different planet? Probably not, would Spensa? totally. Would I be so emotionally stunted as to kiss a person I wasn't 100% sure how I felt about them 2 minutes ago? No, but would Spensa? yes. Would I still be struggling with the concept of a group of beings who had a different perspective/worldview on gender (or, let's face it, literally anything) after they explained it to me 5 times already? No, would Spensa? definitely. Does it make great writing? I think so. Does it make good reading? eh, like I said I can understand the complaint.

I love starsight so far. A bit more than halfway through. There is a lot I like that kinda branched away from Skyward. And a lot I didn't expect. Its been fun so far, cant wait to see how it goes.

I loved it i wonder when the next one is coming out

I don't wanna be spoiled by the comments & the review but i was just dropping a like & showing you support on this Elliot. Looks like you enjoyed starsight for the most part. So once i get caught on everything in this series; ill let you know what i think. Have a lovely happy reading day 😊👍💜

I loved the aliens and the world building. I loved that it want just focused on the human characters. the relationships spensa built with morimmur, hesho, vapour etc was amazing and compelling and so much different because of the race implications and such. That’s something you’d never get wasting time focusing on jorgen

What happens to Spends, M-Bot & doomslug? Next please. Great read.

I had the same issues with Starsight as you did, from the character development to the romance. I read it as a buddy read with a friend and she ended up way more ahead of me cause she kept trying to get to the part where they are all back together again and is we know now that didn't happen till the end of the book. This turned out to be a blessing for me. Now I was warned that what I had been wanting was just not gonna happen through most of it and I was able to just relax and enjoy the ride. With that said though, the romance really irked me. It was brushed aside as a done deal when it could be been so much better. Felt robbed. The world building though was incredible as always and I'm so excited for the next books cause I know it's gonna get crazy and I'm here for it!

I just finished this book, and I totally agree with the romance. I wish it was more relevant to the story or didn’t exist at all! I liked the book overall, and I’m excited for the next one.

I completely agree. The worldbuilding was incredible and very necessary, but it slowed down the pace A LOT. I really enjoyed Spensa's Character Development, as well as M-Bot's(an unexpected turn of events). It was SO good at what it did, but definitely lacked a bit and I liked Skyward better. Definitely still excited for the rest of the series though!

I loved the book! It totally wasn’t what I was expecting though, I agree with you, it took me a while to get past that in this book. But after that, I thought it was a ride just as thrilling as Skyward. I disagree about the romance, Jorgen barely ever hated Spensa, he was mostly just frustrated by her all the time, and she stopped hating him pretty quickly. Their romantic tension imo was pretty well established in book 1, and it made sense to me they kissed when she was going away not knowing if she’d come back. And it also made sense she didn’t have time to think about it too much after that. She was away for only two weeks, and in that time she was thrown into the middle of alien politics, dealing with a bunch of races she’d never heard of before, trying to maintain a cover while also trying to accomplish her mission. I wish there has been more romance, but it made sense to me the way things played out. One thing that bugged me a lot though was m-bot obsession with wanting to be alive, and Spensa’s complete lack of alarm about it when it’s clearly dangerous. I really hope Sanderson is planning on taking this somewhere, because I as a reader was left baffled by this whole part of the plot. Lastly, I can’t believe I’ll have to wait until 2021 for book 3 😭 and will there really be 4 books? I thought it was a trilogy.

I liked how different Starsight and Skyward were. It felt a lot like Mistborn and Well of Ascension since they also have very different tones and feels. I loved all of the world and culture building we got to see. And I loved Mbot’s character development so much! I did miss getting to spend more time with some of the characters from Skyward and I felt that the transition from book 2 will be like book 1 only more to never mind we’re going to take this some place totally different was a bit abrupt. But overall, I loved it! But now I have no idea where Sanderson is going to go for the next book.

I agree about the romance. I think it should've taken more time to develop. The fact that we fast forward to 6 months later leaves a big gap for us cause we don't see how their relationship progresses throughout that time period. Even though I was excited to see them finally accepting their feeling I'd love that to happen a little later in the story with more development.

I can't wait for the third book.

My copy got lost somehow in the mail. 😭 I have to see if I can order a new one

I pretty much had the exact same thoughts. I didn't catch the mistborn thing though, but OATHBRINGER SPOILER Brandon defently reused his "i'm now friends with the enemy and now my friends are killing eachother and I don't know what to do" plot line from Kal in OB. I think it really works in both and I get why he used it, but it was exactly the same in both books - with a big battel where the old friends and the new friends fight, and realising the enemy isn't some faceles evil thing but just people with feelings and families. Which is obviusly a good thing to think about, just as long as he doesn't use it a third time.

Thank u for the review!!

I liked Starsight. Here she is with a new group of people who don't judge her by her past, like the humans do. She learns that these alien beings are more trustworthy than someone of her own kind (Brade). She makes friends with these aliens, some funny bits when they were trying to come up with call signs, lengthy call signs, like the whole concept was lost to them. I was devastated when she decided not to go back for MBot and Doomslug. Now, I can't wait for the third book.

Morriumer is such a sweet individual

Oh my god...I gotta be honest. I thought your channel was called Elliot BOOKS. Like, oh that's cool she has her own independent book store or something and likes reading and stuff. Can't wait to read Starsight I was unexpectedly blown away by Skyward.

I liked it personally. Wanted to see more of Skyward Flight though (FM was like mentioned in less than 2 sentences!) especially my fave Kimmalyn. The Jorgen thing was fine since I knew since he was first introduced that he would be 'the guy'. Question though: I watched the review Shardcast made about the book, and they were really divided on the book. One of their issues was about the delvers and the twist in the ending. For you, did you ever felt that the delvers were the big bad? Did you expect the political twist at the end?

SPOILERS . . . Firstly. Little hamster foxes 🤣 But, more seriously, I didn't mind how things skipped ahead in multiple ways in this one (time and relationship wise). I feel like the relationship progression with Jorgen (Sanderson strikes again with the J's, the audiobook narrator says Yergen - the audiobook is amazing by the way) was really believable. Spensa is a very impulsive person and so jumping from hate to like in that way seemed authentic to me. With Jorgen I got the impression, even in the first book, that he's always liked her. Also, they're young, I feel like emotions move faster at that age but maybe I'm wrong. I was definitely surprised by the directions this one went in and, actually, I really liked that about it and I enjoyed what he did with the alien characters in terms of diversity. For example, it was so genuine when Spensa was confused and not entirely accepting of Morriamor's culture - but not in a negative way just in a 'this is different, I wonder how that works, let me consider what I think about this' kind of way. Also, I'm going to really miss MBot as a spaceship. Finally DOOMSLUG!! 😄

On my tbr together with Part 1. Arrived yesterday. Should I blind buy Stormlight Archives part 2 and 3?

I definitely liked the book a lot, but I do admit, the whole Spensa/Jorgen thing could have been a bit different, because it felt so rush and random

What was the similar Mistborn scene? It’s been so long since I read Mistborn, I totally missed it!

I really liked both books, but Skyward is more self contained. I suspect my opinion on Starsight will be very effected by book 3 and 4 as it ended with quite the cliffhanger. I did miss the cast from Skyward, but I'll willing to accept them being absent in this one as long as I get to see them again in future books. I would love to see them bring the new characters from Starsight into the fold, so to speak, and see some intergalactic friendships form.

I always think of the voice of KITT in knightrider when I think of M bot :P, to me by far the best character in the book,

At last someone who feels that same way about this series!!! I feel because its NEW Brandon Sanderson you have to be careful what you say. Yeah book two didn't go where I wanted it to go and hopefully the rest are better. This one so far is my least favorite of the series so far and his YA Books as well. 😊 This comment is Little ranty....😁

*sigh* I've had books waiting for about five years for me to read them. And now I've added more to the TBR pile. What's another year, eh, haha?

Why doesn't she were her light Lance on her other wrist?

I agree with comments and the video, but mostly, I love that doomslug had meaning. I dont like that she bearly thought about Jerkface or Mbot, like MBOT I would die for you! I AM COMMING TO GET YOU! That was my feeling atleast. No ship or deathsentence would value something like world ending stuff more then friends, friends before world ending threats, anyday. Mbot, I would not have left you! You are alive!

SPOILERS I enjoyed it for its world building, which the first one was lacking a bit of. That being said its SOO much slower where Skyward was a very fast paced book, that and you barely get to see the rest of Skyward flight. The new group are all great characters too but i was missing quirk, Rig and jerkface. I wish Hesho hadnt died as i would have LOVED for book 3 to have Hesho, Vapor, Moremir all join Skyward flight. We still have some of the kitsmen but not Hesho(Spell check on all of them, i listen to the audio books). Lastly has anyone else thought of this aspect of Book 3: Spensa was able to hide herself from the Krell's mind altering technology(what they used on her father) not because of Mbot himself but because of the technology on his ship.... His ship is gone. I doubt they'll get it back the ship or its stealth technology. How is she going to combat that going forward?

why he writes books faster then I can read them

The romance in this book was such a tiny part (0.01%) of the whole plot, it wasn't annoying even if you hate romance. I liked this book more than the first one because in the first one, the protagonist had to find out who she is (which is a pretty old trope) and survive by her superior reaction time as an interceptor pilot fighting a never ending repetitive onslaught of hostile interceptors, while in the second book the protagonist was "a fish out of water" / "a stranger in a strange place" and had to use her intelligence, her empathy, adapt to various unknown situations and use her ability to grow her personality to survive and be successful. Also, the world building and philosophy and politics aspects were very good.

You finally reviewed this book. My My! you are a bit late My My

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed Starsight. However, and it genuinely pains me to have to say this since I absolutely adore Brandon, I think that the climax at the end where Spensa faces the delver was without a doubt the worst ending climax Brandon has ever written. For the first book and all of Starsight, Brandon was carefully cultivating the image that the Eyes were these malevolent, Cthulhu-tier eldritch abominations that exist beyond space and time and view physical life as nothing but insects to be crushed and which have obliterated countless worlds. And indeed, multiple times throughout Starsight, we get to see the delvers’ perspective, and that was exactly what we saw. So you spend the whole book wondering just how on earth they are going to fight something like that. But then what happens at the end when Spensa “meets” the delver? To paraphrase the exchange, it basically goes: “Wait, you... you’re alive?! My god, we had no idea! What have we done!?!?” *Delver leaves in horror at its actions* Like, come on! It basically takes what had been a brilliant cosmic horror subplot that Lovecraft himself would have praised and turned it into a textbook example of “Aliens are complete morons”, albeit where the ‘aliens’ are Cthulhu-tier deities who are explicitly shown to effectively have a Shard-like perspective and are able to read minds and emotions. I have no problem at all with reversals of expectation, and usually Brandon is brilliant at using that technique. But in this particular case, it’s just complete facepalm in my opinion. There is no realistic way that beings with seemingly Shard-like mental capacity and perception should ever make that kind of mistake, and Brandon should have realized that. It is legitimately the biggest plot hole I have ever seen in one of his books by a huge margin.

Yes! I felt the same way as you did. I still enjoyed this book and it was a fun quick ride with great world building but I missed the character dynamics from the first book. SPOILERS>> About the "I can do this" repeat scene: I think it was supposed to be some character resolution for Morriumur because they felt so useless as an pilot before and wanted to reset their personality. But I don't think the repetition gave the scene more gravity, totally get your frustration. And man, the kissing scene... Honestly just felt like that got chucked in at the end because someone went "But Brandon! Spensa's and Jorgen's relationship is stagnating!" so just let's make them kiss, development right? And I sooo enjoyed their build up in book one!

I think Brandon is falling into using certain tropes and writing the same thing over and over again. I still love his books, I know they will be consistently good if not spectacular, but when Mistborn came out it was so fresh and interesting. Brandon is starting to feel a bit stale though, and I think he should shake things up a bit.

Who else added Hoid to this story just because you could? #SkywardisCosmere

I know this is a year old video review but I've just got around to reading Starsight and the use of gender neutral pronouns was a sore point for me as a reader. This has nothing to do with whether or not they should be use but simply that it jars my reading flow when so many of them are being thrown around. Does Sanderson use these pronouns in the new Stormlight Archive books as well?

Why are all her books the wrong way around?

Spoilers I didn't like that most of the characters we know are barely in the book. (Actually we know more about "Alanik's" friends than Spensa's) I didn't like the fate of M-bot. We still don't know why AI's are hated. We still don't know what happened to the cytonic gerbils. The whole pronoun game is confusing and annoying. Spensa just suddenly knew how to use her powers and that seemed vague. She definitely didn't need to give the bracelet to Cuna. I liked skyward but reading this book had me clickclkclkclkclk if u know what I mean.

so who else hates brade