Defiant
Ratings174
Average rating4.3
I am beginning to tire of Brandon Sanderson.
In hindsight, this is a very successful series. Sanderson is an exceptional science fantasy/space opera author - in fact, other than this one, I'm not sure there's any sci-fi book of his I haven't liked. Starsight remains my favorite book of his for its incredible world building and plot handling. And I am glad his Cosmere series is headed in that direction, because the four fantasy books he released this year were some of his worst. The cringiest aspects of Sanderson's writing came to the fore in all of those novels.
Defiant avoids all those habits. But for all that it continues developing Sanderson's best world to date, it is just not a very well-executed novel. Every twist and plot device seems to arrive two chapters too late. I felt “oh, finally,” or “oh, that happened,” rather than “wow!” or shock or sadness or fear.
The beginning of the book was glacial. I wonder if the YA genre limits Sanderson's ability to establish a rotation between viewpoints the way he does in his adult novels (not that there's really much content difference!) When that rotation shows up at the end to facilitate the avalanche, it was confusing and inconsistent. Some of the viewpoints were from characters we haven't seen in 3 books - it felt like you had to have read the Skyward Flight spinoff novellas to really understand what was going on inside these characters' minds.
There were some really iconic moments in this one, flashes of the best of Sanderson, and the general scope of the plot was predictable but fulfilling. It actually disappoints me a little that the problem was not overindulgence, but a fundamental flaw in the way things worked out at the end.
I love this universe and I hope this is the first of Sanderson's works to be adapted. Despite Defiant's execution not really working, I think the strength of the first two makes this his best series and I'm glad he is letting some other authors play around in it. It seems perfect for that sort of thing.
Pretty solid ending to a mostly fun series. After his reckoner series, I had decided I was done with any non-Cosmere books. However the first one in this series changed my mind and for the most part it's been a fun holiday road trip book series for me. When this one came out I was busy with other books and am only now getting around to it. I don't like it as much as the Cosmere books, but still worth the listen.
This was a fine conclusion to the series that wrapped up Spensa’s relationship to the Delvers. It was just good, but I wasn’t blown away by any of the revelations in the last third of the book. I’m probably used to Brandon’s more adult fantasy that have much more climactic ends.
I never know what to say about Sanderson books anymore. It was good as always. I enjoyed the characters and the story, and loved the universe. It's just all good.
An excellent climax to the series which sees a lot of character growth for all the characters and really makes me want to see more of this universe. I must say that my main take away from this book was that I was really glad that I'd read the novellas. Those novellas are presented as optional but there are so many offhand references, developments in the universe and jumps in character experience that I really can't imagine reading this without first having read those stories (which are great anyway imho).
Very cool ending - I did not see the taynix being the key to solving the delver dilemma - but I had a hard time enjoying this one. Spensa annoyed me more than she normally does (or has it just been a while since I've read the main books?) and I can't help but feel like the childish slapstick tone of the book is incongruous to stuff like murderizing human and alien lives here and there. I will still probably check out skyward legacy but I don't think I'll go for anymore signed or special editions.
Strong-ish finish to the Skyward series. I wasn't a huge fan the direction a lot of this book went with the resolution of everything and it felt more boring than the other books I read in this series, but still overall enjoyed.
DNF'd at 40%. It's such a pity, as I've given 5* to a couple of books in the series. Cytonic really went downhill, and Defiant hasn't grabbed back my interest, sadly. This book is VERY YA and full of YA tropes and language. I've caught myself rolling my eyes and cringing more times that I'm comfortable with, and I am not even halfway into the book. I understand I am not the target audience, being in my forties. I think I may be done with YA literature for good now. Again, sadly, goodbye Spensa.
The Skyward series conclusion is bittersweet. Sweet because it closes to such a wonderful finish and bitter because I'll never be able to finish it for the first time again. Outside of the sequel series, this series comes to a close.
I'll never be able to explain what this series means to me in precise terms, other than a part of my life has bridged together because of this story. Me and my wife have become closer reading this together. My daughter came from this. And each year she grows, I see her more clearly as the girl we imagined. A heroine of her own story.
Claim the stars, Spensa.
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Audio read by: Suzy Jackson
Me gustó, mucho más que Citoníca, pero aún sin sentir lo que me dió el primer Libro de la saga.
Buen cierre, correcto, un poco obvio, aunque no por eso malo.
Lo que más me dejó hype, es lo que se vendrá para la siguiente saga (Escuadrón : Legado), que todo apunta a que será más parecido al primer libro, con un potencial enorme.
Buen libro, buen cierre de saga.
While the story might be lacking something, which I would agree, I think the overall experience I've had in this world with these characters is enough to merit a 5 star.
