3.5 stars. A fun adventure in this world. I enjoyed it. Nothing profound about it, but no complaints.

Not sure I love this writing overall, with the pair. It was an okay story. It really dived into the Doomslug lore that I didn't know I needed?

3.5

i enjoyed this, and i feel like it added an important part to the skyward series, but overall it wasn't my absolute favourite thing. i liked the characters, and i wonder if i'd benefit more from rereading skyward and starsight and then rereading sunreach, and then continuing with the other novella and then cytonic. overall glad i read it but didn't do much for me.

I <3 slugs

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart
 

Sunreach is the first novella of three Sanderson has planned for his Skyward series and should be read after the second book.  It is different in that he has teamed up with another writer to give us a view point from one of the side characters of the series FM.  She is one of the only cadets that graduated in her flight class and with Spensa in whereabouts unknown, it is up to her and what is left of the team to try and figure out how to get off the prison of a planet they are on.

Skyward and Starsight were told mostly from Spensa's POV which can be limiting in a few ways.  That is why I really liked this novella fleshing out one of the side characters a little better while also exploring the Tanix creatures and how they are possibly the greatest kept secret in the galaxy.  FM has accidently been appointed the health and wellness director of the Tanix.   She is busy trying to keep track of the doomslug creatures who should be slow but seem to be popping up all over the station.  Now if she can only figure out how to get them to help her.

This novella accomplished all the things it set out to do:

1. It fleshed out a side character in the story.


2. It helped explain what the Tanix a.k.a. doomslugs are and what they can do


3. It opened up a little romance that had been hinted at in the other books. Really they were cute.


4. It brought some of the important characters together that were left hanging in Starsight


5. It hinted to where Spensa ended up at the end of Starsight


6. And finally it made me so excited for not only the next novella in the series but also the next book.

Overall, for a novella it was great and moved a few key points along to bring certain players together.  It really will be a must read before getting to the third book of the series.  Plus it is a fun read with just enough action, drama and humor to really captivate the reader with a small sprinkling of romance.

Narration:

Suzy Jackson, I honestly cannot say enough good things about her and her narration of this series.  She is a perfect fit to the story and I love how she brings every character to life.  Her voice really adds to these books and they are better for her performance of them.

Listen to a clip:
https://soundcloud.com/penguin-audio/sunreach-skyward-flight

Really enjoyed it and actually liked it way better than Cytonic which reaffirms what I had been thinking where I missed the group dynamics in Cytonic.