Defiant

De: Brandon Sanderson

Narrado por: Suzy Jackson

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes the final book in an epic series about a girl who will travel beyond the stars to save the world she loves from destruction.

Spensa made it out of the Nowhere, but what she saw in the space between the stars has changed her forever. She came face to face with the Delvers, and finally got answers to the questions she’s had about her own strange Cytonic gifts.

The Superiority didn’t stop fighting for galactic dominance while she was gone, though. Spensa’s team, Skyward Flight, was able to hold Winzik off, and even collect allies to help with the cause, but it’s only a matter of time until humanity—and the rest of the galaxy—falls.

Defeating them will require all the knowledge Spensa gathered while in the Nowhere. But being Cytonic is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Now, Spensa must ask herself: how far is she willing to go for victory, if it means losing herself—and her friends—in the process?

The final book in the Skyward series will free humanity, or see it fall forever.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

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Form Skyward Flight!

Skud, this book was good. I blasted through the whole thing in one day with Suzy Jackson’s excellent narration letting me fly through.

The story brings Sanderson’s skill of accessible introspection and deep empathy into a realized universe that feels more and more to be Sanderson’s approach to voltron with each book. Defiant shares that series’ brimming optimism and grand space opera setting despite going to some dark places and only just breaking through into the core of that universe.

While I loved it and Sanderson executes the tropes with flying colors, it does share some of the more optimistic tropes of Voltron (the recent one) and similar Saturday morning reimaginings. Some may be put off by it, but I still encourage newcomers to try the series and ANYONE who made it this far to strap and enjoy this conclusion to the Skyward Series. His unique take on this style of world and its hallmarks had me silently cheering, blubbering, and double taking at the different points.

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The story was a delight and delivered on so many of the promises that the previous books made, offering a union of the two sides to the Skyward series thus far: The Girl and Her Companion Adventures, and the Crew of Friends Against the Galaxy. I loved the way these merged, continued, and were realized.

The narration is wonderful, and I love seeing Suzy execute on so many accents, styles, and viewpoints. She brings a life to this world that I’d miss on the page. I’m so pleased with how much she’s brought to this series.

I highly recommend the whole series—and do NOT skip the Skyward Flight Novelas. They add a LOT.

A better ending than expected

But that is because this series has been quite a letdown for me compared to Sandersons other works. Aside from the first and a little bit of the second it is soooo drawn out and most things are introduced with very minimal payoff as the pieces that come back are frequently instantly overwritten by another specific but uncannily correct plans by Braid.
There are some unexpected moments which I enjoyed and about halfway through the book we get multiple POV which is nice but still not done with the craftsmanship of an ensemble that Sanderson is capable of. This don’t really rise above entry level as a series for me but if you want to explore it it is very unique setting with a mish mash of tropes that never really congeal into something good or great.

Amazing narrator, and great series!

I love all of the voices that the narrator does, this really adds to the story. I’m so sad this series has come to an end, but I absolutely loved every second of it. Highly recommend!

The Sanderlanch was Awesome!

I had a hard time getting into this book. Up until the 8/10 chapter mark I felt there was too much internal thought exposition that pulled my attention away from the story. After that, however, it picked up steam and was really good.

Awesome

I was a little upset that Kimalin was gay, but I guess that’s just how things are.