Sunreach (Skyward, #2.1) (2024)

Fun novella that gives us more info about what we learned in book 2.

With that said, it definitely felt more YA than the rest of the series.

Will read the second one but I don't think the content was worth 200 pages.

Review copy provided by the publisher—Gollancz—in exchange for an honest review.

Sunreach expanded upon the secret of the hyperdrive and the characterizations of FM and Rig.

I read this title in the Skyward Flight omnibus. Sunreach is the first out of three novellas contained in Skyward Flight, and this marked the first time I read anything by Sanderson co-written with another author. As Sanderson's empire of books continues to grow, I predict this kind of collaboration will happen more often. Skyward Flight is written by both Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson, and it takes place after the end of Starsight. After the revelations about the hyperdrive that Spensa discovered, Sunreach seeks to elaborate more upon this revelation. And I think the novella did its job nicely. I had a wonderful time reading about these details.

“But I still wondered: if we didn't matter as individuals, then what were we saving the group for?”

In my opinion, Sanderson and Patterson did a great job in keeping the voice and tone of the narration in tune with Sanderson’s sole writing in Skyward and Starsight. Sunreach never felt like it was written by a different author. I will, however, say Sunreach has the most YA novel voice out of the three titles in Cytoverse that I read so far. Due to my own reading preference, this definitely decreased my reading experience of Sunreach. I liked FM, but her inner thoughts and relationship development with Rig, although adorable, felt too YA for my taste. Generally, I am not a fan of reading a character constantly thinking something like, "Aw... he/she is so cute or beautiful," while dangers are looming. And this, unfortunately, happened quite a lot in Sunreach.

“There was safety in being the one everyone else looked to. I felt everything, but I didn’t want anyone to know it.”

Thankfully, this is only a minor issue. Sunreach was entertaining enough. I imagine readers who missed reading about the crew of the Skyward Flight in Starsight will at least have a good time reading this novella. Honestly, I am slightly reluctant to call this a novella, though. Sunreach has a total word count of almost 60,000 words long. That is the length of a small novel. But anyway, it is marketed as a novella. And more importantly, I undoubtedly enjoyed reading about the slugs. Oh my god. The slugs definitely stole the spotlight of Sunreach, and I cannot get enough of them. I look forward to reading the next title in Skyward Flight: ReDawn.

“I feel like I should tell you... that I now have a slug on each shoulder and three on my lap, all seeming vaguely uncomfortable that I'm touching them. I blame you, FM.”

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The way this was miles better than Starsight and it was just 160 pages of slugs

THESE TAYNIX ARE SO ADORABLE I LOVE THEM SM🥺
this novella was everything omg, the things that happened!!i cant believe this is my 100th book of 2021 sdfsfgs

_______

im obsessed with these covers, how are they so gorgeous??😩

3.5 stars

First, let me start by saying I love the cover, it's gorgeous.

This will be a short review since this is a short book.

At 208 pages, this novella is important to the Skyward world. I believe it's necessary to read the sequel, Cytonic. It's the first of two novellas, the second to be released towards the end of October. We follow FM in the events that develop after Starsight on Detritus while they try to discover how to make the slugs hyperjump and rescue Spensa's friend, Cuna. The second will be about Alanik, an alien we met in Starsight and again in this novella.

Sunreach is a fast-paced novella and I consider it an entertaining read. While I wasn't had a bit of a difficult time liking it at first, Once I passed the 15% I finished it in one sitting. My memory of the events of Starsight is pretty bad. Now that I think of it, I should've looked up a summary to read. Luckily, the more I read, the more I had a better understanding of what's going on even with my vague recollection of the previous book. I believe it was difficult to get into at first because I was trying to remember who's whom and what the heck are the slugs used for.

I highly enjoyed the slug training part and how they tried to discover their abilities. It was very fun to read and the slugs were super cute. Is FM an interesting character? While I like her well enough, she didn't stand out for me. It seems like she was the most interesting secondary character to write about more than the need for her specifically. But she's a quick thinker and proved herself to be useful beyond her skills as a pilot. This novella also gives us more insight into some secondary characters' lives and personalities.

On the other hand, this novella had too much angst and leaned heavily on the "young" part of YA. I'm not sure if I'm going to lower my rating to 3 stars. I didn't feel the romance, it was a bit too cheesy for my taste. At first, it was cute but then, not sure what happened it became too much saccharine. It was too teenage-y. This definitely didn't feel like Sanderson.

Nonetheless, I believe Janci Patterson did a good job co-writing this novella. The writing differs from Sanderson's but beyond the issue I mentioned above, I can't but say that it was well-written.

Also, definitely read it before Cytonic, no question about that.

“My father had taken to saying I was skysick, but it was the opposite – the sky terrified me. It was so big and wide I could fall into it and be swallowed up.”

I have so many emotions over this novella that's it's difficult to just be coherent about them. If I could, I would have tabbed the whole book because by the end it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

SunReach had everything I love in a story. An amazing, complex, main character, a straightforward and well-executed plot, a dash of romance, and lots of tension, riddle solving, and awesome fights. All of it condensed into a novella that just stole my heart.

From the very beginning to the very end, there was not a second wasted or where I wasn't obsessed and falling in love with every letter that composes it.

“Before I joined the DDF, I hadn’t understood the mentality that pushed people to fight as one, to keep doing so even as their friends died around them. I’d never felt that violence was the best way to solve problems, though I understood that violence was the only solution that kept us alive when the Krell kept trying to bomb us out of existence […] Now though, I understood the glue that held us together, and it wasn’t stupidity. It was the bond shared by people who faced death together. It was a sense of belonging, of being a piece of something bigger, something important, though I still wasn’t convinced everything about it was good […] But there was something about knowing that without me my friends would be worse off that kept me flying even when it terrified me.”

FM is a character that, much like the rest of Skyward Flight, I liked quite a lot and had a special place in my heart. So, naturally, I was very excited to get to read something from her perspective. However, out of her whole flight, I have to admit that she was the one that I felt the least connected to.

That's why absolutely loving her character now makes me really happy.

It seems like I just needed to take the time to really know her for her to take an even more special place in my heart.

That's just it, really getting into FM's character was a fascinating and surprising experience much in the same way that really getting to know someone with whom you've expended time with but never really interacted with can turn out to be.

She is definitely a girl I can love forever.

“I’m as ready as I am right now, I thought. Maybe in this dangerous existence, that was as close as I was ever going to get.”

Everything about this novella was my absolute favorite.

Mostly because it did what the best novellas do amazingly, expanding on a secondary character, driving the plot further but very subtly, and dousing me in the essences of the series I'm reading. Understated simple things that are complementary and so very pleasing to find.

Sanderson and Patterson balanced every part of the story so carefully and expertly that it was impossible to not be hooked from the first second I rested my eyes on its pages.

It helped me remember enough of the previous books, more strongly the last one, so that I didn't felt lost; it gave me engaging and intriguing teasers of where the story is going to go next; all of it at the same time that it developed and concluded its own story, one that has promises for the further future ringing in my ears like warning bells.

And, above all, it left me beyond hyped for the release of Cytonic.

“And that smile. Stars, I could stand to see that smile every day for a long, long time.”

We need to take a hot second to talk about the romance we were handed, too, because it deserves a bit of talking. It just does.

I didn't expect to find any kind of romance when I started the story. No, but I wouldn't change it for anything else because it was simply adorable and pure and really, really cute.

For one, it's not something born of the moment or that, like, really surprised me because, well, it's been brewing for quite a time at this point but it is always done in such a subtle way, with such a slow burn, that it was beyond satisfying to see and above everything else it was very human and relatable.

Honestly, when first presented with the idea I didn't think it was possible to happen but, well, people are much more complicated and tridimensional than we give them credit for sometimes.

The romance is, as an ever-present current through the whole novella, sure, but I adored that it never overtakes the main plot or becomes overly complicated. It's a simple, sweet affair that remains in the periphery of everything else and adds flavor to the story but it is not the meat of it.

I am quite obsessed with them. Truly.

“For a while we’d been able to reach into the expanse of space – and if out freedom had been measured in kilometers rather than light-years, it had been ours.”

Simply put, I believe that SunReach did everything a novella should do with excellence and it's a worthy, incredibly enjoyable, and perfectly fitting piece of the puzzle.

I fell in love with the very first quote, I didn't need any more to know, and kept falling in love with these characters and this world and this story that it's so close to my heart.

Truly, if you need any more proof of its perfection there's no need to go too far. Just looking at the opening quotes and the closing ones can perfectly exemplify it, as they are in direct correlation to one another. We can see it in the way the story is a complete, neat cycle, a story that comes full-circle and closes itself with a little bow.

“As frightened as I’ve been of the stars – feeling like I could fall off the face of the world – I missed them now that they were gone.”

My goodness, I loved every second of this novella.

It was definitely a lot better than I could have expected.

RTC.
______________

I am beyond excited to be able to dive back into the Skyward world and see, after two long years, basically, my precious Skyward Flight again.

FM is such a fun character that I'm sure this whole novella - though I hesitate to call it a novella since it's 200 pages long and that's the length of a book, honestly - is going to be so much fun and political and filled with sass and all the things I love.

I can't wait!

found family vibes :P

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Skyward ★★★★
Starsight ★★★★
Sunreach ★★★3/4

I originally thought that the series will be a trilogy and then find out it is a 4-book series. What I did not know about is that Sanderson will announce three novellas set in the same world and release them this fast (Honestly, does he ever take any breaks?).

The second thing that I did not know is that this novella was very important for the mains series and I think it is a must read. I really did not expect to have so many revelations in a side story and I do not know if the author will explain the main points in the main series. I have mixed feelings about this, on one hand I did read it and it was enjoyable but it kind of puts pressure on readers to read all the novellas and I usually don’t do that in series.

The story follows FM and many of the original crew and it kind of connects book one and two and even three. It was intriguing to see the world through the lens of someone other than Spensa and I think FM is a likable character. The story lacks some of the depth the main books have and I think that is understandable given the length and change of settings. The romance was too YA but cute nonetheless.

Summary: I think it is an important novella and should not be skipped. I am excited for the other novellas now too!

3.5-3.75*

Fun return to this world, bringing much of what I was missing from Starsight and catching us up on what the Skyward Flight scallywags have been up to while Spensa is off doing her thing. FM is such an interesting choice for narrator as she kind of flew under the radar in previous books but has a strength + depth to her that is as yet untapped. Her reasoning for training to be a pilot then deciding stay and fight are so unlike what one might expect, I for one am excited to see her growth & hopeful blossoming as this series continues 🤞🤞

I've wanted a Doomslug since we met them in Skyward and the more Sando expands the Detritus'ites(?) knowledge the more my *grabby-hands* get triggered 🤭

Speaking of hands, lowkey wanted to slap Jeshua...but looking forward to the next novella to continue my knowledge expansion even if I don't wanna leave this crew behind again so soon 🥺
I just love their camaraderie and want ALL the interactions & pew pew pew flight fight scenes #greedy

Sunreach
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Trigger warnings:
Death

Review:
This gave me so much serotonin after accidentally discovering the novel on Instagram, why didn’t I know about this?!

Wow wow wow I loved it so much!! I missed these characters so much, I can’t wait for the other novella to release, and then Cytonic.

The romance was kind of cute, not gonna lie.

This was a great novella, the plot was enjoyable and exciting, and I liked getting to know FM more. The found family dynamic between the characters is something that I love and was notably missing in Starsight, so I'm glad this book was able to further develop their relationships on top of everything.

[shakes empty cup] Spare Skyward, sir??

3.5 out of 5 stars.

It's been

Time to get confused again, because I know I already forgot a lot about the first two books.

Ohhh wow 😱😮

Sunreach es una novela corta que forma parte del Citoverso. Funciona como libro 2.1, es decir que debe leerse después de Estelar y antes de Citonica.

Es muy interesante todo lo que puede pasar en 200 páginas, me lo presentan como novela corta y terminan pasando muchas más cosas que en muchos libros que leí más largos jaja.
Y con "pasando cosas" no me refiero a una sucesión de escenas sino que en este relato vamos a tener preguntas, respuestas, más preguntas, romance, tensión, adrenalina, acción y más.

Es cierto que no hay que desarrollar personajes porque ya los conocemos a todos de los libros anteriores pero aún así me encantó conocer a FM desde su punto de vista y me encantó la participación del resto del escuadrón.

Los personajes van a describir cosas SUPER importantes en este relato que supongo que tendrá relevancia en el libro 3 de la saga. Así que es sumamente importante que lo lean.😎

Y si, puede que parezca que son 200 páginas de 3 adolecentes observado babosas, pero Brandy Sandy puede hacer que hasta eso se vea interesante. 🤩

Súper recomendado!! Léanlo!!

Yo leyendo Sunreach: 🤩😮😎🥺🙃

***4,5 stars***

This novella is a great addition to the series. Set between books 2 and 3, we get to see what happens to some of the other characters, this time from FM's point of view.

At first I wasn't so taken by it, but then only a few chapters in, the slugs became more prominent in the story and I was sold. Those weird little creatures are badass and as weird as it is saying this about slugs, they sound cute af.

A quick read that is very well written and gripping, as one can expect from Brandon Sanderson. Highly recommend to fans of the Skyward Series.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Sunreach is the first novella of three Sanderson has planned for his Skyward series and should be read after the second book. It is different in that he has teamed up with another writer to give us a view point from one of the side characters of the series FM. She is one of the only cadets that graduated in her flight class and with Spensa in whereabouts unknown, it is up to her and what is left of the team to try and figure out how to get off the prison of a planet they are on.

Skyward and Starsight were told mostly from Spensa's POV which can be limiting in a few ways. That is why I really liked this novella fleshing out one of the side characters a little better while also exploring the Tanix creatures and how they are possibly the greatest kept secret in the galaxy. FM has accidently been appointed the health and wellness director of the Tanix. She is busy trying to keep track of the doomslug creatures who should be slow but seem to be popping up all over the station. Now if she can only figure out how to get them to help her.

This novella accomplished all the things it set out to do:

It fleshed out a side character in the story.
It helped explain what the Tanix a.k.a. doomslugs are and what they can do
It opened up a little romance that had been hinted at in the other books. Really they were cute.
It brought some of the important characters together that were left hanging in Starsight
It hinted to where Spensa ended up at the end of Starsight
And finally it made me so excited for not only the next novella in the series but also the next book.

Overall, for a novella it was great and moved a few key points along to bring certain players together. It really will be a must read before getting to the third book of the series. Plus it is a fun read with just enough action, drama and humor to really captivate the reader with a small sprinkling of romance.

Narration:
Suzy Jackson, I honestly cannot say enough good things about her and her narration of this series. She is a perfect fit to the story and I love how she brings every character to life. Her voice really adds to these books and they are better for her performance of them.

Listen to a clip:
https://soundcloud.com/penguin-audio/...

Sunreach is a novella set in the Skyward world. As much as I like it, I have a few complaints.
I wrote in my review of Starsight that the book focused only on Spin and abandoned everyone on Detrius, this book focuses on the events that happened when Spin was away in the Superiority. I wish both books were one book with the characters switching POV, that would have been way better, this book was dry and boring in some places.

However, I love that this book filled that hole and told the readers all that happened when Spin was away.

“A wasteland could feel more comfortable than a paradise, if that was what you were used to.”

The book is written in Freyja Marten I.e FM’s first person POV. The book is fast paced and easy to get through.

Jorgen is my favorite in this book though he has no POV, I love how nerdy he is. Though he is rich and has it all, he is still kind.

I don’t remember much about FM before reading this book, now that I know her better, I like her.

Rig, Arturo, Ned, Cobb and many others are also in this.

The plot focuses on the slugs I.e the hyperdrives, the DDF now know that they are the hyperdrives but have no idea how they work.

3.5 stars.
I think I prefer just Sanderson writing his stories? I’m not sure. One of the characters felt a bit minimised or out of character. And the romance subplot felt rushed. I liked FM but didn’t love the entire story overall, even though I did enjoy pieces of it.

My spoiler thoughts can be found in this video: https://youtu.be/tFKy8hCCJAQ

4,5 Sterne. Hab den FM pov geliebt! 😍 Freu mich so auf Cytonic, hoffe da sehen wir wieder mehr von unserer Skyward Flight Mannschaft. Liebe deren Energy einfach.

Oh no my first Brandon Sanderson I did not love. I found the teenagy angst and romance angle a bit forced in and not something I normally see with this author’s books, even the YA ones.

I did like learning more about the slugs and the hyper drives but ultimately this has made me hesitate to read book 3 due at the end of November.

*** 4.35 ***

Really enjoyed this one! ❤️❤️❤️For all the Slugs 👍😃

It was great to be back in the world of Spensa and the crew, especially because this time we see FM's point of view and her relationship with the slugs, and certain other crew mates... I really enjoyed getting to know FM, and felt getting her perspective really opened up and developed the lesser known members of the flight crew. We've been so invested in Spensa and Doomslug that at times it feels she's everything to this world, and this novella shows that there's still plenty of people back on Detritus who are just as heroic, just as passionate and intelligent who are trying to save the humans just as much.

My one negative is s personal one. I don't know about other people, but for me I quite often check out during action scenes and skim over the text. It's as though my brain can't quite connect the movements in my brain and as a result I just can't engage with high action scenes. Sunreach opens on one such scene and I really struggled to get immersed in the story as a result, especially given the length of time that had passed since reading Starsight meaning I had forgotten what was going on. Happily I found myself enjoying this again as soon as the flight crew come back down to solid ground, especially all the slug scenes. I just love them all.

Essential novella in the series that provides context and backstory to some side characters I really felt we missed out on in Starsight. If you're a fan of the series, don't skip this one.

4.5 stars. If you’ve enjoyed Skyward (book 1) and Starsight (book 2) you definitely need to read this novella told in FM‘s viewpoint. Though she won’t become my favorite character anytime soon and her infatuation with Rig was a little too YA for me, it was an entertaining, captivating read, moving the plot along quite satisfyingly while also showing us the characters from Skyward Flight I dearly missed in book 2. And lots of cute taynix!

It starts us off with the delver attack from Starsight and shows our flight crew (and Rig) trying to figure out hyperdrive technology. There is plenty of action towards the end, sci-fi style, and the ending itself is perfect.

Definitely worth the read even if this series is not my favorite by Sanderson. (Cosmere girl here all the way.)

FM AND RIG ARE ICONIC AND NO ONE CAN TELL ME OTHERWISEthe fact that she noticed jorgen DROOLING over spensa every two seconds

AND HOW FM LOVES MUSIC?? MARRY ME

I want a pet slug.

7/10

*** I have a YouTube channel now! Check it out here. ***

3.5 stars
**Although this is a spoiler free review (spoilers are hidden), there may be spoilers for previous books in series (scroll down)**

“I smothered a snicker. 'So Spensa talks to the stars, and you talk to…slugs.'"

You guys have no idea how much fun I had reading this. Did we delve as deeply as we could have with the characterisation of FM and Rig? No. Did the plot advance as much as I would have hoped it would in 200 pages? Also no. But that is ok, because this made me smile so much. More than I have in a while because of a book.

There really is something about this series that makes my heart light up. Fun part of it all is, now we get to experience it through FM. In Skyward, she is a much more political figure, and while this is touched up on briefly, I was left a bit disappointed because I thought this had the potential to really bring out that side of her so we could learn her backstory. Other than that, though, she did deliver some unique perspectives about the attitudes of the DDF that I thought brought another layer to the theme of idolisation of the military that is prevalent in the series. Here is a quote that I think really showcases this:

“What did it change when any of us were gone? The DDF still churned out more cadets. If they ran out, they’d lower the age to take the pilot’s test and bring them in younger and younger. We’d keep sending groups on missions like this, never knowing if they’d come back, because our survival as a group mattered more than the individuals. I didn’t disagree with that; I saw the logic to it.
But I still wondered: if we didn’t matter as individuals, then what were we saving the group for?”

Plot-wise, I do acknowledge that this was a novella and the focus was moreso on the expansion of the taynix lore and use. Goals in this regard is achieved, but I do not think that this was done as well as it could have been, especially since I know that this duo can do a bit better.

All in all, reading a book in this series felt fantastic again. I can't wait for Cytonic.

--------------------------

2.4/5

Mediocre. Mediocre story, mediocre characters, sh*tty politics where an alien REEEs at the cast in the middle of a space battle from which they are saving her them because they call

I've had this creeping suspicion for a few years now that, given Sanderson's prodigious output, he'd sooner or later become 'Brandon Sanderson's' instead of Brandon Sanderson, like 'Tom Clancy's', and with this book we see the beginning of that dynamic start to play out.

Sanderson's prose is never that good but his worldbuilding, magic systems, and reveals are superb, and because Miss ('Ms') Janci Patterson isn't the brain of Sanderson, she can't give us what she doesn't have: deeper and thicker building of the world or fictional history of the Defending Elysium/Defiant Fleet universe.

Disappointing cash grab to release a couple of novellas under your name each month before a release to build anticipation.

5 Stars

This was ADORABLE

NOW I WANT A SLUGGGGG FOR MYSELF!!!

this book was so much funnn!!