📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @delacortepress for an early copy of Defiant by @brandonsanderson. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Release date: November 21st, 2023

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43606308-defiant?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=kO8KNLiMKS&rank=2

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

No words can describe how much I absolutely loved this epic and breathtaking conclusion to the Skyward series. Phew. It was a wild ride! Defiant ended the series with lots of twists and turns, new discoveries, character arcs and growth. Each character had immense character growth, with Spensa, Jorgen, M-Bot, Chet, the delvers, and the rest of the Skyward flight, and I feel like a mama proud of her children.

The book was still heavily centered on Spensa with majority of it dwelling on her struggles to make sense of her new ability as she merged with the delver Chet. She was still the same Spensa from the previous books, daring, impulsive, seemingly immortal with not much care about her well-being and just goes for what she feels right and charges at the enemy without a second thought, but given her new powers and what panic and worry about others can do to her and her surroundings, we see more of her human side now more than ever. With her trying to isolate herself as much as possible from everyone on Detritus, it made about 60% of the book’s pacing slower and quite depressing than I would like it to be, but I found it essential for her character to go through it all.

I found it refreshing though with having chapters with the other characters’ POVs with their most epic battle with the Superiority yet. We get to see Jorgen’s, Kimmalyn’s, Gran-Gran’s and omg M-Bot’s (I may have missed other characters oops) perspectives.

Overall, I really enjoyed Defiant that I’m adding this to my top reads for this year. Brandon Sanderson never fails to be brilliant! This was a perfect and the most epic ending for the series, and yes, it ended with hints of lots more to come – a sequel series, the Skyward Legacy.

This is the final book in the series. Spensa is home, but she is Cytonic and this is what could change everything. Massive space battles right along side sentient crystals and empathic slugs.
I appreciate the character growth we see in Spensa over the course of these books. And I am a sucker for a happy ending!

I’ve really enjoyed the Skyward series so far, and Defiant did not disappoint. I remember when I read the first book I found Spensa to be a little annoying. Throughout the series her character has come a long way and her growth was evident in Defiant. This book brings back the Skyward flight favorites along with many of the friends made along the way for the culminating battle. I do not want to give anything away, but you will learn more about the delvers and get the help needed to defeat them from an unexpected source. I highly recommend this series for teens and adults alike. I am pretty sure Sanderson plans to continue the series and I can’t wait to see what he has planned next for this unique world.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an arc to review.

The epic conclusion to the Skyward saga is here!

In classic Sanderson fashion, this novel is filled with twists and turns with the plot. Characters continue to grow up to the end of the story, and everything is wrapped up with a nice, neat little bow (mostly; authors always have to leave some questions).

I really enjoyed this ending to Spensa's story. Everything fell into place really well, and the ending felt satisfying. I think the craziest part was Spensa's character arc. There were times she would say stuff and it would remind me of her in book one and I'd realize just how far she had come in her own development and growth. She shows a lot of humanity in this book and really shows the struggles of war and destruction, which I think paired well with her book one attitude of Soldierdom.

This book remains very YA-feeling. It hits in places, but it's not horribly painful like some of Sanderson's adult novels. The character suffer, but it still feels very toned down, which I think fits for this world and the general tone of the series--which has remained consistent throughout all the books. For anyone interested in Sci Fi who doesn't want to delve too much into Adult Sci Fi yet, this felt like a great bridge book, with more science and worldbuilding than some of the other YA Sci Fis I've read without being overwhelming.

I loved this series, and this ending did it such justice.

I thought this was an okay ending to the series. I loved seeing Spensa coming back home and us getting to catch up on the characters from book one. I do think it was a bit choppy and there was a disconnect with her not really fitting in anymore, but I’m not entirely mad on how it ended.

Brandon Sanderson concludes his Skyward series with Defiant, the fourth book and the installment that brings Spensa back to her home, family, and friends for the first time since book one.

After traveling to another planet in book two and to another dimension in book three, Spensa returns to her home world and to her friends who have been quite busy in her absence. Feeling left out of recent events and a bit alien because of the delver sharing her body, Spensa responds with her typical emotional immaturity and distances herself further, pulling away from her allies and into herself.

It was good to see the species alliances form and all of the characters meet in different ways, but it was a bit disappointing to have Spensa separated from everything after her physical separation over the last two books. Her emotions have been a bit of a barrier in past books, but there they were contrasted by M-Bot discovering his. In Defiant, Spensa has Hesho as an emotional guide, but the benefit of their interactions doesn't outweigh the greater connection readers might have with Spensa and the story had she felt more connected.

There are some fantastic moments in Defiant with Gran-Gran and the slugs and delivers, but the story didn't feel as tightly woven as a lot of Sanderson's other books. Sanderson's plotting is normally masterful, but there were some aspects of the last two books that didn't make a return appearance in this one. While the ending was intentionally left open for a spinoff series, it could have felt more naturally complete.

Overall, while Defiant brings all the characters together, it is also the book where Spensa feels the most apart, and for a final book it was really hard to connect with and feel satisfied by.

A fantastic ending to the Skyward series! Spensa’s character development was equally as compelling as the action packed plot. The first half of the book was a bit slower-paced, setting the scene but the last half was full of twists… resulting in a magnificent “sanderlanche.”

Defiant by Brandon Sanderson, Sanderson delivers yet again. Spensa is at it again with a different perspective on what is going on in her universe.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Childrens, Delacorte Press, and most especially Brandon Sanderson for this eARC of Defiant.

While I enjoyed Defiant was psyched to learn more about Cytonics, Spensa, and the fate of the whole crew, this finale suffered much of the same 'meh' as Lux - the Reckoners spinoff. It's an engaging, fun book but with so much planned in spinoffs and murky sequels, a great deal of what felt promised was not delivered in terms of closure.

Is it a worthwhile read? Yes, absolutely! Did it leave me feeling like I was left wanting? Also yes.

I love Sanderson, and this was a great wrap up to the story. Intrigue, drama, and everything that comes from a Sanderson story. The Skyward series isn't my favorite of his, but I really enjoyed this book

Brandon Sanderson can do no wrong in my opinion. He is an automatic buy for our institution and we have a hard time keeping his books on the shelf

I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a chance to finish up the quartet.

When I started reading this series, I felt that I responded to the tone of books 1 & 2. When the third book came out, it felt different and detached from the previous two. Now with this book about to come out, I have to say that detached feeling is still there.

I wish I could put my finger on it. So lets talk about the things I had an issue with:

There is no real ending, since the story will continue on with other characters in a spin-off series. So because of this, the character development or use of the characters is mainly as a tool to move the plot along and Spensa is not really bonding with them as you hoped.

Brade ended up being a meh villain. Her fate is ambiguous, and this probably too will get fleshed out in the spin-off series.

The previous book and this book had Spensa away from friends / family, and the story was too fast for her to feel like any character development really took place besides what the plot expected of her.

I expected to understand and get more of a depth of the universe and the past / history of the original people of Earth. Again, not really discussed any further than what you got in the series and another thing I feel will be talked about in the spin-off.

I feel like the gaming community when Star Wars: Battlefront came out and you felt cheated due to loot boxes. I wanted a full story wrapped up or more than what we got, but instead I have to buy more books to get that feeling when I shouldn't. What I got was good, but could be better.

I was extremely excited to read Defiant as it was one of my most anticipated books of this year. It both did and did not live up to the hype for me. Let me explain.

Defiant is much darker than previous installments. It’s not as lighthearted and funny. I know Spensa has grown and evolved as a character over the past three books, but that also means her personality has become more somber and she no longer is full of bravado and anger like she was in the beginning books. This book is also primarily about Spensa, and there are hardly any scenes involving M-Bot or Doomslug, my two favorite characters and the source of the majority of the comic relief. So needless to say, this book just felt different. The last twenty percent was actually quite violent, too, which felt a little out of place considering how Spensa has changed during this book.

I did enjoy the book as a whole, though, and Defiant was still a satisfying series conclusion full of unexpected twists that we’ve all come to love from Brandon’s books, but it also just felt like it was missing something. I can’t really put my finger on what exactly, and I wasn’t necessarily disappointed by the book, but I also wanted something more.

I think that, overall, fans will enjoy this book and enjoy the conclusion to the Skyward series. We do get tiny cameos from many characters we’ve come to know throughout the whole series, including some new POVs besides Spensa’s. This series is the first true science fiction series I’ve read since space-based sci-fi isn’t my preferred genre, but I did still enjoy the series and I enjoy Brandon’s storytelling and characters. I’m excited to see what the future holds in the Skyward Legacy series coming out sometime next year.

I have been waiting to re-enter this world and get back with all of the amazing characters for so long. I think this is a very satisfying ending to this series. A lot of the loose ends are tied up in a way that feels “right”and in line with the rest of the series. I will say, I missed some of the humor that was present in the other installments. M-Bot and Doomslug definitely lightened things up in the other books and they definitely took a back seat in this conclusion. That being said, this installment definitely feels a little darker than the other installments. Spensa underwent significant character development while in the nowhere and that shows in how she acts. She starts questioning this idea of “we must kill everyone” and the implications that come from those thoughts. We see her struggle to make certain decisions because she is able to take other points of view. I think this is why the book has a bit of a darker tone. Plus, we get more action-packed scenes in this book, showing the population of Detritus fighting against the Superiority and the extreme lengths the Superiority will go to to bring them down. We definitely get the plot twists and turns that this series does so well and it ultimately wraps the story up in a nice, satisfying way. I am excited that we will be getting more books in this world through Skyward Legacy! Ultimately, a solid ending to a series and 4.5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s/Delacorte Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Brandon Sanderson book, and I was a little lost, I should have read the others but my goodness it as amazing! I'm definitely going to go back and reread all the books and read this one again. Either way Brandon does a great job allowing the reader to follow the story even though I was a little lost.

Another great Sanderson book, perfect for middle school and ya readers alike. Will be recommending this to library patrons.

A thrilling final installment to the first skyward series, wrapping up plot points and it did not disappoint.