It’s always funny when you review a book with a very
specific complaint as to why it didn’t perhaps work as well as you thought it
would and then the sequel comes along and you actually get exactly what you’re
asking for. One of my big issues with Skyward
by Brandon Sanderson was that the worldbuilding was incredibly limited for a
series which has an entire universe to explore, but the sequel Starsight
almost immediately expands from the planet Detritus to fill out the universe
and planets. Sanderson has clear delight
in creating several species of aliens, all living under the Superiority, a sort
of evil Federation subjugating the galaxy and expanding their technological and
imperial power. The main thrust of Starsight
is Spensa impersonating an alien emissary to the Superiority using M-Bot’s
hologram technology to disguise herself and her voice. This is especially fascinating since Spensa
is still a teenager and she’s being forced into an intricate political
situation where she knows she is going to be revealed as a liar. The eventual reveal is far more tactical from
Spensa than I would have expected, coming across as a moment of both genius and
desperation due to being cornered by a superior who has clearly been spying on
her.
Sanderson excels at having Spensa make mistakes, the
banter between her and M-Bot still being one of the highlights of Starsight. M-Bot has his own plot philosophically debating
whether he is alive, while Spensa ends up unravelling one of the reasons why his
orders involved looking for mushrooms, something that has almost become a
running joke at this point. Sanderson
implies three parameters for life, even artificial life, as this is a world
where artificial intelligence is essentially advanced enough to pass the Turing
test and be considered alive. M-Bot is
also kind of relegated to an almost background player for much of the middle of
the novel, with this recurring upgrade motif of several clicks indicating almost
changes in his systems. Alanik, the alien
Spensa is masquerading as, is also a fascinating character who deserves way more
scenes than just being a minor supporting character, crashing to Detritus
essentially to kick start the plot of the book.
Sanderson does some excellent worldbuilding here with exploring what it
means to be cytonic and the fact that multiple species have the capacity for
cytonic awareness. The team Spensa has
to integrate herself with is fascinating, if the plot itself feels a bit close
in places to Skyward.
There is this fascinating look at what humanity has become
in the eyes of the rest of the universe, a savage and angry race that cannot be
trusted. There is one human member of
Spensa’s team here and she has been brainwashed into believing that she’s
genetically more aggressive. Sanderson
seems more interested in having a villain who wants power over the galaxy,
essentially pulling what might be a young adult trope than perfectly examining
the discrimination, fear, and bigotry that humans face in this world. It could be an interesting exploration of how
bigotry would evolve in a society with aliens as well as a deconstruction of the
effects of imperialism, however, Sanderson writes this at a younger audience
and doesn’t quite fulfill these themes.
There is also the struggling with romance, Spensa has a love interest in
Jorgen who may also be cytonic, and while he gets a great interlude about having
to learn to relax and live, the relationship honestly just isn’t there.
Overall, Starsight’s significant improvements
on the worldbuilding kick things up a notch, however, there are several
elements that come up here that don’t quite work. There are sections which become a bit too
repetitive, especially if you have just read Skyward and especially
Sanderson’s romance here leaves something to be desired. It’s also just very nice to see Sanderson do
some explicit science fiction once again and the young adult audience is never
dumbed down enough despite some moments that feel tonally limited. 8/10.
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