Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. I have been doing Waiting on Wednesday for a while now, but I have decided to start linking this up with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.

For this week’s Waiting on Wednesday I take a closer look at one of the books that recently featured on my Top Ten Most Anticipated July – December 2019 Releases list, Starsight by Brandon Sanderson.

Starsight is the second book in the young adult science fiction Skyward series from one of the best fantasy/science fiction authors in the world today. I absolutely loved the first book in the series, Skyward, which was one of the top books I read last year, and I have been eagerly waiting for this second book ever since I finished reading Skyward.

In Skyward, Sanderson introduced the reader to a story set far in humanity’s future. Years before, a fleet of human ships fled the mysterious aliens, the Krell, and crash-landed on a desolate planet. Forced to hide beneath the surface for generations to avoid attacks from Krell fighters, the humans were able to eventually fight back using their own space-fighters, resulting in a protracted battle for resources and survival. The first book focused on the character of Spensa Nightshade, a young woman who dreamed of becoming a pilot and fighting back against the Krell, but whose path for success was blocked by her father’s legacy as a deserter. Through determination and ability, Spensa was able to become a successful pilot, joining a crack squad of rookie pilots, finding an advanced sentient spaceship, totally not falling in love with her arrogant squad leader and saving the remnants of humanity from a massive Krell attack. However, while she was able to succeed, Spensa learnt two terrible truths: that her father truly was a traitor and that the planet they are living on is actually an alien prison, and the jailers are considering killing off the inmates.

This was a really cool piece of young adult science fiction, and I feel deeply in love with the captivating plot and well-written story. There are a lot of cool places that this series can now explore, and I am extremely curious to see what plot developments Sanderson comes up with next. A short plot synopsis for Starsight has already been released, although it is a bit thin on details at the moment.

Goodreads Synopsis:

All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she’s a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. The rumors of his cowardice are true–he deserted his flight during battle against the Krell. Worse, though, he turned against his team and attacked them.

But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself–and she’ll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.

There are not a lot of plot hints in this synopsis, but I am sure that Sanderson will do some fantastic things with the new story. I personally hope we’ll find out some more about humanity’s history and the reasons why all the alien races turned against them and attempted to contain them. The note about Spensa travelling to the end of the galaxy is interesting as it implies that the protagonist will head off-planet and attempt to discover some lost secrets or revelations. It also means that Spensa might get a lot of scenes with M-Bot, Spensa’s sentient spaceship, out in space. That sounds pretty good to me, as M-Bot was one of the best characters from the original book, despite spending most of the story trapped in a cave. I am also really hoping for a ton of epic space battles like we saw in the first book, which were just so amazing to read.

Despite the lack of solid plot descriptions, Starsight is pretty much at the top of my list of must-read books for this year, mainly because of how awesome Skyward was. If Sanderson continues with the same form he had for Skyward, and Sanderson is a pretty consistent writer with his series, then Starsight will probably be one of, if not the best young adult book of 2019. I am unsure whether I will get a physical copy of this book or whether I will try to get the audiobook format of Starsight instead. I had a lot of fun listening to Skyward last year, and Sophie Aldred did an excellent job narrating the first book, so I might just go with that again. Bottom line: Starsight has a lot of potential and I am going to have a hard time waiting until late November to get my hands on a copy.