Starsight (Skyward Book 2)

Many people are concerned with Spensa’s loyalties once they discover she is a cytonic like her father, which led him to betray his kind. Her powers enable her to hear transmissions by the Krell, the race keeping her people on Detritus, the planet on which they are imprisoned. Doing daily training exercises, fighting the Krell pilots when they attack, and trying to find a way to fit their ships with a hyperdrive take up her days until a ship crashes on her planet. In a split decision, she takes the place of the foreign pilot and uses her powers to pretend to be the humanoid woman trying to get a post as a pilot with the Superiority, the group of races keeping the humans prisoner. Spensa will either find a hyperdrive to steal and return home a hero, or die trying.

Sanderson’s sequel to Skyward is just as fast-paced and action-packed as the first. Favorite characters from the first join a new cast to help the humans learn more about their place in space and the reason they were almost wiped out. The focus on friendship and loyalty rather than competition and selfishness makes this middle-grade science fiction novel refreshing and memorable.