What inspired the Skyward series?

Sanderson has described being fascinated by fighter pilot psychology and training, combined with a childhood image of space dragons reimagined as starships. The series grew from research into what it would feel like to be a pilot in desperate aerial combat.

Skyward was published November 6, 2018 by Delacorte Press.

Is this part of the Cosmere?

No. The Skyward series is a standalone universe with no connection to the Cosmere.

How many books are in the Skyward series?

Four main novels (Skyward, Starsight, Cytonic, Defiant) plus three novellas cowritten with Janci Patterson (Sunreach, ReDawn, Evershore) collected in Skyward Flight.

M-Bot is an ancient AI starship found buried in a cavern on Detritus. He has a fully developed personality with curiosity, humor, and an obsessive interest in mushrooms, and his origins become one of the series' central mysteries.

Is Skyward appropriate for adults as well as teens?

Yes — while aimed at young adult readers, Skyward's themes and aerial combat sequences appeal to adult readers of military sci-fi and Sanderson's other work.

Skyward

Science Fiction Young Adult

Pages: 588
Published: 2018
Language: English

Synopsis

On Detritus, a planet of underground caverns perpetually besieged by alien Krell fighters, Spensa Nightshade has grown up under the stigma of her father's supposed cowardice — he was declared a flightclan traitor who fled battle. Spensa refuses to accept that story and fights her way into Poco Squadron's flight school over the objections of every authority figure she encounters.

There she bonds with Jorgen Weight, her demanding flight lead, and discovers an ancient AI starship called M-Bot buried in a cavern, capable of consciousness and equipped with technologies humanity has not built in centuries.

Skyward is a military sci-fi YA that builds on Sanderson's research into fighter pilot training and psychology, delivering fast aerial combat sequences alongside a character study of what fierce determination costs.