Yeg's Reviews > Cytonic

I like Cytonic, the third Skyward novel, but didn't love it. The book does what it does well, but I expect Cytonic to be a divisive book, even more so than Starsight was. In fact, if you didn't like that Starsight didn't have Skyward Flight characters, this book might be even worse for you. It physically pains me to give a Sanderson book a rating this low but I must be honest... this was definitely my least favorite of all the books

“stories say something. About us, and about where we came from. They’re a reminder that we have a past, a history. And a future.”

Considering the previous novel in the series, Starsight, ended on a cliffhanger I’ve been very eager to see what comes next. In a desperate attempt to escape her attackers (who were also overthrowing the current government) launches herself into a strange portal, a portal she’s seen exiles get tossed into.

At the end of Starsight, we see Spensa hop into the mysterious nowhere, and well, that's exactly what we get in this book. It's another Spensa adventure in a new location, where we learn more things about the world and Along her journey Spensa encounters an adventurer pulled straight out of the stories, bands of pirates, Delver possessed enemies, and ultimately the history behind the powers she holds.

And that is the setting for this book. The setting of this book is Definitely one of the best things about this book. we get a lot of lore and mystery we’re delving into what it means to be cytonic and stuff. And we got some answers and they are pretty fantastic.

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In terms of characters, So far it feels its just been a repeat every book: Spensa finds a new group of people which leads into bonding & training with them. we have spensa and m-bot and they both get quite a characters arc here and it’s good in that respect. Spensa did a lot of growing in the past two books, and I’m glad that she finally came clean with the Broadsiders instead of keeping them at arm’s length. Not only did that show some maturity on her part, but it helped them with their own situation, too.

M-Bot has also fixed practically the moment he enters Nowhere. He’s back to normal in barely a blink. Sanderson hinted at this with M-Bot’s next-to-last words in Starsight (“My thoughts… they’re speeding up?”), so our collective worries about him were relieved in early chapters.

The stories about humans are crazy in these books. Like they’re rabid animals, or something. From the stories the Broadsiders’ human, Maksim, told, they really were treated like animals. As strange as Maksim’s life is in the Nowhere, it’s got to be better than having masters who kept him as a pet.

“Sometimes it's too easy to forget the things you should remember — and far too easy to remember the things you really should forget.”

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Oh, do I want Maksim and Quirk to have a conversion. Fingers crossed. And speaking of meet-ups…in honor of all the shippers, I loved the brief interactions Spensa and Jorgen were able to enjoy. Astral projection flirting was cute.They were adorable. And I can’t wait to get these two back together!

of course, we have Winzik, Brade, and the Superiority to deal with. But with new allies, and new skills, anything is possible. Ugh, and If ...I never hear winzik's “my, my” again, I’ll be happy.

That being said, Along the path, Spensa joins another team of characters—PIRATES!—who she is destined to leave behind. The mix of species is rich and shows great imagination when it comes to worldbuilding. and really kind of the main problem with this (even though I absolutely appreciate adventurous plots) Is that we are going to another adventure to another whole different place.

The adventure is pretty good no question. We’re introduced to a bunch of new characters (something Sanderson is really good at) very similarly to starsight did And I don’t know , we did have a cast of characters in skyward , starsight another cats of characters, in this book another cast of characters, I kind of liked this side characters the least to be honest. And really are we going to see this characters later? and with spensa and m-bot being the whole show runner of this book, I find it hard to fallow them.

Along with that, we don't get to see a lot of old cast members. It's essentially the same issue you could have had in Starsight. I love the Skyward Flight crew a lot! The interplay with them and Spensa was fantastic in Skyward, and I did miss them in Starsight, which had a different crew who I liked, but didn't like as much as the old side characters.

but if you do miss the Skyward Flight characters, there's a solution: three Skyward Flight novellas! The first two, Sunreach and ReDawn, are already out, with the third, Evershore, coming out December 28th

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talking about the map. I loved the worldbuilding in this book. We’ve got a little of this, a little of that… There were a lot of fragments of the Somewhere that gave us new landscapes and ecosystems that we haven’t been able to experience yet in the series. I do appreciate the richness of the species and environments Sanderson brought into the Nowhere. It showed a little bit of everything sliced out of the Somewhere universe—though floating platforms and floating cities seem a visual he’s in love with, considering how often he uses them.

There is a world building element that I quite didn’t like which it does quite make sense that it would be this way. but it did make the plot not seem very tense. because in comparison to skyward the tension was quite on point as well as starsight every time they went into this space crafts, I was like ohhh people are going to die and the tension and all.

🛑 SOME SPOILER BELOW 🛑
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For the first time all the interludes were fun to read. Now, what was less of a joy to read was the climax. M-Bot!!!!! For the second time at the end of the book, I’m worried about M-Bot. Curse you, Sanderson. M-Bot’s growth as a character was a highlight of the book for me. I kept thinking, “No…Spensa is not going to leave him there. Not again. She’s got to get him, she’s got to take him home!”. one thing I am concerned about is how Spensa is going to get M-Bot back. Because she HAS TO GET HIM BACK. He’s her sidekick and she needs her sidekick.

This book ends with Spensa, finally, with Jorgen and back on Detirus(God I'm so happy , one thing i absolutely wanted to see here was this and i so appreciate it) Something is going on with the uniform shift and I am looking forward to finding out what that means. Her time in the Nowhere gave her the knowledge to better fight against the Delvers.

I think that Spensa is ready to take on Winzik and Brade and the Superiority. She’s lean and mean and ready to rumble. Not only is she ready, but the rest of Defiant will be ready. I’m a little wobbly on the thing with the uniform change but I think it will work out in the long run.

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highly recommends that readers be familiar with the short story"Defending Elysium" before reading Cytonic: It will impact your appreciation and possible understanding of the book’s climax.

Overall, I liked the journey Sanderson took us on during this book but It feels like a hard thing to complain about, or hold against the story. Cytonic is still very much an engaging tale, but it’s the most noticeable book(with its touch of middle-book syndrome)in the series to feel like it’s just a stepping stone. It doesn’t work as well on its own, sitting apart from the franchise, and it’s setup makes it feel like the bigger story is happening somewhere else entirely.