In before the freeze! I didn’t come close to a Cannonball, but I did my best.
I read the first book in this series this past February, and loved it immensely.
Like everything the last couple months, I had trouble getting into this book. But, it’s Brandon Sanderson, so I stuck with it. And I’m very glad that I did.
I could’ve avoided the difficulty had I just re-read Skyward, but it all worked out in the end, I guess.
To start with, the book was kind of dull. I remembered enjoying the first book in the series, but wasn’t drawn into this one. About a third of the way in (*minor spoilers follow*), Sensa leaves Detritus to infiltrate the Superiority. There, she meets other aliens for the first time and begins to recognize their “humanity”. This changes how she sees the war for Detritus’s survival (and humanities role in its imprisonment), giving her a more complex understanding of her reality.
Also, the delvers are revealed, and prove themselves to nearly Lovecraftian in nature. As a lover of cosmic horror, this was a well-appreciated wrinkle.
Even though this book was just published a few weeks ago, I can’t wait for the third installment.
I say this every time I read a Brandon Sanderson book – but he really is one of the best, most reliable, and most productive writers in the genre. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every book I’ve read, and have heard nothing but positive things about the ones I haven’t. So I really do need to read the Cosmere books.
And I will. That’ll be one of my goals for 2020.