When I picked up Skyward last year, the twist was probably the best plot twist I have ever read, and I waited until the final book was almost released to finish the rest of the series. This was well worth it in my opinion, and having finished Defiant, I can definitely say this series is my favorite YA science-fiction series. The journey we've taken with Spensa has been amazing, and Brandon Sanderson has not disappointed with Defiant. Definitely one of my top recommendations at my bookstore for YA sci-fi readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for providing the ARC.

Imagine my surprise and joy to see this book available as an ARC! I've been following the Skyward Series for a while now, and I am so excited for the conclusion.

Since I don't want to be to spoilery, I just want to say that I really enjoyed this installment and felt that it was an excellent conclusion to a wonderful series. Spensa has remained an interesting character throughout the series, something that not all YA books can claim, and Brandon Sanderson excels at closing this story arc in the best way. Fully enthusiastic about this ending and I know that fans of the series will devour this one up.

We have made it to the final installment of the Skyward Series and I loved every book within it. Spensa Nightshade has come a long way through a lot of trials and tribulations as well as the growth she has experienced through each installment. M-Bot has always been one of my favorite characters and we still get to see Chet following along from Book #3.
I feel as though Spensa has sacrificed a lot of herself to protect the people she loves, but as we come to this book, we start to see how far she is willing to go to win and to overcome the final obstacles in her way.
I love the diverse way in which Brandon Sanderson writes, He can go from writing YA to high epics to space adventures and creating unique magic systems. I feel this could be a great series for someone who enjoys space fantasy that isn't too "adult" but is a lot of fun.

Spensa and friends must defeat the Superiority if they want to survive. Spensa deals with out of control powers, learning to rely on others, and dealing with the delvers. Will the humans of Detritus and their allies come out on top?

Another exceptional installment to the Skyward series, which just keeps getting better. These characters are so much fun to root for.

Brendon Sanderson can do no wrong. Defiant was an absolute delight. Somehow he writes YA books that are so perfect for young and old alike. The growth seen in all of these characters has been fantastic to read. The way they think about and discuss the morality of war and their place in it is so much deeper than you get in a normal YA book. I’ve been totally engrossed with this series and I’m sad to see it come to an end, but I’m so glad to know that we are going to be getting more from this universe in the future.

Thank you #Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Defiant" is a magnificent wrap-up of this adventurous Sci-Fi series. Spensa's personality is so relatable. She is courageous and extremely loyal. Her stubbornness is an inspiration to her friends. The character building was wonderful. Again, an awesome finale to this series.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Defiant brings Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series to an epic conclusion, bringing back some of the magic of what I loved about the first book, while also bringing it all full-circle with more character growth, especially after the polarizing previous installment.
Spensa remains a compelling protagonist, and I love how much she’s grown throughout her various adventures. I also loved seeing more development to her relationships with some key people in her life, from the ever-faithful M-Bot to Jorgen to Gran-Gran and more.
With the addition of the Skyward Flight novellas as a companion to the third book, filling in the gaps there, I enjoyed that this book somewhat paid homage to that, having chapters from the perspectives of various other characters, including some of those I’ve already mentioned. I did find it a little odd that these chapters did not start until at least halfway through the book, but they were an effective way to continue to utilize the supporting cast, beyond once again relegating them to supporting roles again, especially as there’s a forthcoming spinoff series in the works.
As far as plot, there’s a lot going on, and it truly feels like the ultimate “save the world” book. I was engrossed from page one, from reconnecting with old friends to being thrown into the pulse-pounding action.
This was well worth the wait, and I’d absolutely recommend it to anyone who has loved the series so far. And if you’re looking for a fun, accessible, yet immersive YA sci-fi series, I’d recommend checking this series out!

Defiant is the final book in Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series and while I have enjoyed this series, I haven’t loved it. I think this book is my second favorite after the first book.

As this is the fourth book in the series, it’s hard to say anything without spoiling it but if you didn’t like the direction of the third book, this one gets back more on track of what this series is about. I loved seeing Spensa’s character develop over the course of the series and I really liked the world that has been created but there has always been a sort of disconnect between me and the characters in the book. I don’t know why. I think it may be because I’m used to Sanderson’s adult characters and these ones just don’t feel as fully realized.

I would still recommend this series. Especially to a young adult audience.

Defiant by Brandon Sanderson

This finale starts off focusing on Spensa’s growth and all she has been through. Once the action starts it doesn’t stop and I was here for it! I loved seeing all of our old friends and watching them come together is this epic final book.

There are themes woven throughout about humanity, friendship, and community that I absolutely loved. If you want to make me cry, give me a good coming together and supporting each other scene. I felt like this book had them in spades.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I was a little disappointed we didn’t get more of a certain character’s backstory but since there will be a spin-off series, maybe we’ll get it there 🤞.

Content: war, violence, torture, death

Scud that was incredible! I think this might be my favorite book in the series! There was a scene towards the end that was absolute perfection. Heartbreaking and yet so utterly satisfying….the apex of a thread woven throughout the series that was the culmination of character growth, story arc & a beautifully tied plot thread. My absolute favorite part of this series is the way Brandon Sanderson writes characters who are not human, and yet gives them a humanity that is so undeniably vulnerable, relatable and lovable….M-Bot, Doomslug, Chet, Hesho are so much more than sidekicks!

This is book 4 in the Skyward series. Ya know, I thought it had felt like it had been awhile since book 3 released and I was right. Book 3 came out in 2021. Understandable as Brandon Sanderson was secretly writing 4 other novels but still. This 4th installment is very long awaited in this YA scifi that really shines focus on air combat which is really cool. We have an outcast main character who is maybe not an outcast no longer but we see her story continued here as she learns how to control her extraordinary powers. This conclusion thrilled me!

I'm really giving this 4.5 stars. I finished an ARC of this last book in the Skyward series. The third book was not my favorite. Spensa is not my favorite character. This final book is a great way to bring it all home. My mind can't handle much of the science of nowhere and somewhere and hyperjump but even so, I can appreciate the story, the humanity, growth, and the profound ideas put forth. I didn't take the time to really think about them. I think that needs to wait for a second reading and the final released book. There are some thought cues worth pursuing if you get the chance. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Brandon Sanderson is an auto buy author, and to be able to read Defiant, was just amazing. His way with words paints the full picture for your imagination. You can see everything he is writing, and that's an amazing gift. This book was a great end to the Skyward series, and I can't recommend it enough.

Defiant is a Fitting End to Skyward Series

Brandon Sanderson is the most beloved contemporary fantasy author in the world, a title that may have gone to George R.R. Martin or Patrick Rothfuss, the authors of A Song of Ice and Fire and The Kingkiller Chronicle series respectively, if those two authors were not known for decades-long waits between novels. Sanderson, on the other hand, whose beloved Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series present some of the most highly acclaimed fantasy novels of the millennium, is known for the sheer number of pages he is able to produce, surprising readers periodically with a new, unscheduled 1000 page novel here and there. Unlike other prolific authors, like Stephen King, for example, who has often been accused by readers of publishing unedited, unrefined manuscripts, Sanderson’s novels are precisely winnowed down by the time they make it to publication. Not only does Sanderson finish his own books and series according to reader expectations, but he also finished the Wheel of Time series, which some place behind Lord of the Rings as the second most important fantasy series of all time, following the death of author Robert Jordan. He is credited as co-author on the final three books of the series, The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light.

If there is a negative to Sanderson’s prolific writing, it is that there are a number of shorter works that are simply overshadowed by the fat fantasy tomes he pumps out regularly. In particular, Sanderson’s young adult and teen novels and novellas deserve more attention. In The Rithmatist, Sanderson presents his very own magic school, where skilled warriors prepare offensive and defensive magic using chalk lines in geometric patterns. The Reckoners is a series of superhero novels set in a post-apocalyptic world where a cosmic event known as Calamity gave a number of people the ability to defy the laws of the universe. People who read these novels swear by them, above and beyond the rest of Sanderson’s bibliography, for their brevity, immersiveness, and relatability, and the Skyward series, which concludes with the forthcoming novel Defiant, is no exception.

Skyward is a science fiction series that focuses on air combat between inhabitants of a skyless planetoid and a hegemony of aliens that sees these humans as a threat to galactic civilization. The protagonist is Spensa “Spin” Nightshade, who, over the series of four novels transforms from an outcast due to her father’s perceived betrayal of his people to the savior of those same people, and likely the entire universe. In Defiant, Spensa struggles to control a number of extraordinary powers, from her cytonic teleportation abilities that are the birthright of her people to her reality manipulation powers that she acquired after bonding with a mysterious cosmic being called a delver, in order to conquer the Superiority forces intent on destroying her people once and for all. The pressure is huge, and when it becomes too much, Spensa suffers from panic attacks that cause objects to disappear and reappear elsewhere, alienating her from the friends who ground her and the man she loves.

The three novels Skyward, Starsight, and Cytonic are technically the only required reading prior to Defiant. However, the first half of the book makes references to characters and events that were never addressed in the prior novels, but who showed up in a series of three novellas co-written by Sanderson and Janci Patterson titled Sunreach, ReDawn, and Evershore. Two of these books (Sunreach and ReDawn) take place during Starsight when Spensa was far away from her people on a Superiority space station, and they follow the adventures of her friends FM and Alanik. The third book Evershore takes place during Cytonic while Spensa is lost in a mysterious dimension known as the Nowhere. The novella stars Spensa’s boyfriend Jorgen as he learns to control his own latent cytonic abilities. Reading Defiant is more pleasurable for readers who treat the Skyward series as a seven-novel series as opposed to a quadrilogy, as the events of these three novellas are anything but skippable.

Sanderson is surprisingly skilled at writing with the voice of a young woman, and some of the coming of age drama in the first novel is absolutely captivating. Spensa is one of the best female leads in science fiction/fantasy, an echo of the spitfire Lyra Belacqua from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. While Defiant is not as immediately welcoming as the previous three novels, feeling aimless at times during the setup for the epic final battle between the inhabitants of the planet Detritus and the Superiority, it is no less powerful. During the second half of the novel, Sanderson tells the story with the voices of Spensa, Jorgen, FM, and a number of characters whose perspectives readers have not yet seen, and this is where the story starts to pay off. To defeat the galactic Superiority, a number of things are required: cleverness, determination, caring, transformation, and, as is so often the case, sacrifice, and all of those are present at the conclusion of the series. However, Sanderson, who is well-known for his love of military history, does not get lost in the strategy and minutia, and uses this battle as a punchline for some overarching themes of love and understanding. It is this emotional hook that makes Defiant a must read. Ultimately, the Skyward series features an intense psychoanalytical symposium about how individuals process their pain during times of overwhelming conflict presented through simple prose that is both incredibly well-researched and casually hilarious.

Fortunately for those devout readers who discovered the Skyward series and have patiently awaited each new installation, the so-called cytoverse will continue after the events of Defiant. Though the Skyward series has completed, a number of characters who survive the events of the final novel are expected to return in another series called Skyward Legacy. Very little has been shared about Skyward Legacy except that it will be written by Janci Patterson, likely without Brandon Sanderson save as a sort of executive producer of the universe, but there’s reason for excitement. The novellas Patterson wrote with Sanderson between the four books were incredibly strong, to the point that they were viscerally connected to the main series as opposed to simple, removable stories that neither make nor break. Moreover, the cytoverse is an interesting setting, promising a number of other quirks that Sanderson did not have time to write about in his four hyper-focused novels.

At the end of a book review, a reviewer will typically make a recommendation to potential readers about whether or not the book in question is worth reading, but this is not a typical review. In this instance, it is not about whether or not the reader should read Defiant; it is about whether readers should read the book themselves or listen to the audio book instead. Suzy Jackson is the American reader for the Skyward series, and her audiobook performances in the first three novels perfectly captured the voice of Spensa Nightshade, to the point that reading the review copy of Defiant felt a bit lonely by comparison. It is true, as mentioned before, that Sanderson is surprisingly skilled at telling a compelling story from the perspective of a young adult woman, but Jackson is that woman. Sanderson works hard for his readers, and purchasing or pre-ordering a physical copy of any of his books is a great way for readers to help him forecast interest, but the audiobook of Defiant is guaranteed to be the best experience for readers who are able to listen without distraction for long periods of time. That said, it is worth reading Defiant in any form, just as it is worth reading three novels in preparation and three novellas to make the experience all the more rich. If you are not already a Brandon Sanderson fan for life, this is a good time to start.

5/5 STARS!

OH MY HECK.

I'm screaming. This book, was SO hard for me to put down. I burned through it.

And excellent conclusion for the Skyward Series, and a hint at a series to come in the Cytoverse! So exciting.

I love all of these characters so much, and can't really say anything negative about this story. The only thing that felt random, was one of the main female characters dropping she has a girlfriend. It caught me off guard, because, I'm pretty sure no one knew that, and it felt so random to be mentioning it in such a short way.

Overall. Amazing!

Brandon Sanderson never disappoints. They are so talented as they world build in a way that feels effortless. Everything is so vivid and immersive. The characters are so well rounded and evolve with the story. 480 pages flew by like it was nothing because I just couldn't get enough.

“Transitions were hard. Navigating this would be tough. But at least I had a home to come back to, and friends who still wanted me. This was what I’d been fighting for all along. And maybe … maybe there was a place for me here. Or at least room to cut out a place where I could fit.”

DAMN okay what an amazing end to the series!! I can’t believe it’s over (for now hehe)! This was a gorgeous book full of compassion, empathy, strength, and DEFIANCE. Spensa has some great character growth and we see so much of the amazing side characters in this end to the series. I loved the resolution and the final battle was so engaging and descriptive. I was literally on the edge of my seat and couldn’t put the book down!!

This is honestly one of the best scifi series I have ever read - the scope of the series is fantastic and the way the world and universe is explored is so cool. Brandon Sanderson just keeps getting better… and better… and better!! Off to reread the Stormlight Archives now :)

Thank you so much to Netgalley for the eARC! This one will be out November 21, 2023.

🌈 Queer rep: genderless alien race (they/them pronouns)

SPOILER ALERT! This review contains spoilers for earlier books in the Skyward series but is spoiler-free for the events in Defiant.

I really enjoyed that this book had the same feel as the first two books in the series. The third book had a completely different feel than the others, and I loved that it felt like it was back to being more connected to the rest of the series. It also brought together all of the characters that were introduced throughout the earlier books in the series. The first three books all had distinct sets of characters, and I loved seeing their stories collide. But it did start adding perspectives towards the end of the book. It was a little jarring that the last 25% of the final book suddenly was told from perspectives that never told the story until that point. Also, the book had a lot of action, but the plot didn't have the same drive as the first three books, which made it harder for me to stay invested in the story. The main antagonist wasn't entirely evil, and while I don't mind a morally grey villain, they weren't morally grey either. They just didn't seem like as much of a threat as the mysterious villains in the first three books. Overall, I enjoyed this series and will likely pick up the spinoff series that is set up by the end of the book, but it was a little disappointing end to the series.

Thank you to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The plot excellently balances Spensa’s and others’ wrestling with conflicting impulses and weighing moral imperatives with more than enough large- and small-scale action set pieces to please space-opera fans. A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization.