The only way she can discover what she really is, though, is to leave behind all she knows and enter the Nowhere. And maybe, if she’s able to figure out what she is, she could be more than just another pilot in this unfolding war. She faced down a Delver and saw something eerily familiar about it. Spensa knows that no matter how many pilots the DDF has, there is no defeating this predator.Įxcept that Spensa is Cytonic. Ancient, mysterious alien forces that can wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant. And Spensa has seen the weapons they plan to use to end it: the Delvers. Now, the Superiority-the governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life-has started a galaxy-wide war. What’s more, she traveled light-years from home as an undercover spy to infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her small, desolate planet home. She proved herself one of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus and she saved her people from extermination at the hands of the Krell-the enigmatic alien species that has been holding them captive for decades. That said, if you know the terminology of the novellas in question, you’ll find your answer in chapter seventeen.Spensa’s life as a Defiant Defense Force pilot has been far from ordinary. But do be warned that if you haven’t read my science fiction novellas, and you hate spoilers, you might want to wait until after Skyward to read them. It’s not the type of spoiler that will ruin a story–I do think some readers would enjoy watching how I lace them together. Meaning if you know the novella this is tied to you’ll know a moderately large plot point in the book.

So, here’s the thing–it’s a pretty big spoiler.

It was something that did not work with Cosmere technology though, so it was a natural fit to port Spensa over to this other universe instead. When I started to work on Skyward as my next YA project, I decided I wanted to use a certain technological aspect from a story I’d previously worked on–something I touched on in a novella, but which was still very interesting to me all these years later. When Spensa started life in my brain, she was a Cosmere pilot character, from around Mistborn Era Four.

Skyward sanderson