Saturday, August 5, 2023

Review: DEFIANT by Brandon Sanderson

 

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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. 

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