Defiant

Defiant is the final fourth book of Brandon Sanderson's Skyward YA series.

Things I Enjoyed: * brought the series back around full circle to moments from book one * superb Gran-Gran moments * maybe the real friends were the hyperslugs we met along the way

This book was ~ok for me, but the pacing here didn't quite work for me; this is a character-driven series and so the focus on Spensa's emotional journey makes sense, but plot-wise the final book involves an incursion or two by the main squad, some [spoiler] with Spensa, and then we're right at the last[*] battle to wrap up the Superiority and the Delvers all in one. It's all just tied up a little too quickly for a four book series.

If I had to rate the series, the first book was a lot of fun, the second book brought in larger worldbuilding that I enjoyed, the third book went off the rails in a way that didn't work for me, the novellas in the middle here told some stories that wouldn't have fit otherwise, and the fourth book didn't quite bring it all back together with the satisfying closure I wanted.

(Maybe I shouldn't be comparing books to each other in a review, but if I had to recommend one other YA science fiction series that ended this year about the power of friendship and the horrors of space war, I would recommend Charlie Jane Anders' Unstoppable instead on pretty much all fronts.)

[*] I wanted to make a "last and first battle" joke, but book two has some of a Superiority/Detritus fight at the end even if I remember it mostly being about Delvers