November 5, 2021
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
The basics
Title: Starsight
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Series: Skyward #2
- Skyward (2018) - Starsight (2019) - Cytonic (2021) - Defiant (2023)
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she's a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. Spensa is sure there's more to the story. And she's sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars--and it was terrifying. Everything Spensa has been taught about her world is a lie. But Spensa also discovered a few other things about herself--and she'll travel to the end of the galaxy to save humankind if she needs to.
Here’s our recap of what happened in Starsight by Brandon Sanderson. Read on for a full plot summary of Starsight to refresh your memory!
what happened in Starsight?
- Spensa is flying around in M Bot, trying to lure the Krell in. She disables their shields and destroys them. Then she falls into a weird trance, only to be woken out of it by M-Bot when he spots a new ship.
- Two battleships arrive and the group starts to get worried. They return to Platform Prime to discuss what they saw.
- Jorgen gives Spensa a lecture on how important her cytonic powers are.
- A video shows a delver looking intimidating over the planet. It seems to take over the planet. It then forms the shape of Spensa, except no one else can really see that. Spensa freaks out, of course.
- Cobb and Spensa worry about the battleships. Cobb wants Spensa to spy on the Superiority space station to gain info.
- Spensa goes to check out a ship that has been hovering about. It’s not acting like a Krell ship would. Spensa senses that the ship – or whoever is on it – is panicking. All the ships land on the planet, and Spensa sees a woman in the cockpit.
- The alien (Alanik) tells Spensa that their people used to be allies. She warns Spensa against trusting Starsight.
- Spensa enters Alanik’s ship and heads to the space station for infiltration reasons. Spensa is able to use Alanik’s tec to pretend to speak the alien language. She tells the ship that she’s Alanik of UrDail and she’s there to be a pilot for the Superiority.
- Spensa boards the space station. Someone called Cuna comes along and shows Spensa around. Cuna says that Spensa could potentially win citizenship for her people if she becomes a successful pilot.
- Cuna reveals that they think the delvers are watching the Superiority, so they need more pilots to defend themselves and the space station.
- There’s a human-looking woman called Winzik, who works for Protective Services. Spensa is sus about the whole thing.
- M-Bot deactivates all the surveillance in Spensa’s quarters. He starts looking for clues and info on what’s going on. He tells her a bit about how the government here works and what the politics are like.
- Spensa and M-Bot take part in the first tryout in an asteroid field. She is to survive for thirty minutes. It goes… well. Some people die. People are fired.
- Morriumur and Spensa eat together and talk about the Superiority. No one seems to have known about the delvers.
- Spensa hears Brade’s cytonics nearby and heads towards the humming. She sees Brade speaking with some officials, including Winzik.
- Brade can sense Spensa back so she freaks out. Spensa wonders if she can steal Brade away to their side.
- Spensa and Hesho will be flying together with Brade and Vapor and Morriumur.
- Alanik’s people contact her (or Spensa, really) and Spensa starts communicating with them in code.
- M-Bot starts telling Spensa things about Earth that he is learning from the ship.
- Cobb takes Jorgen to meet Spensa’s Gran-Gran.
- Cuna talks to Spensa about humans and their history, and Cuna tells Spensa that humans aren’t a real threat. Cuna wants Spensa to spy on Protective Services.
- People start to protest the tryouts because they’re dangerous.
- Flight Fifteen gather together. Spensa tries to sneak off from the group and gets caught by a soldier. She returns to the group.
- Something is screaming. Spensa enters the nowhere and sees the eyes staring at the screamer.
- The flight crew need to head to coordinates so they can then enter a delver maze. Vapor and Spensa work together well for the most part.
- Vapor and Spensa enter the maze and reach a chamber with lots of writing. The writing is the same as some writing on her planet.
- Vapor and Spensa start sharing info to figure out what’s going on. Spensa sees a shadow and they don’t think they’re alone. Flight Command admits they don’t know how this maze or chamber work.
- Spensa and Brade practice together. Afterwards, when Spensa is alone, she can sense her Gran-Gran trying to speak to her. Spensa is unable to communicate.
- Spensa asks the Flight Command if they sent her a hallucination. They apparently didn’t.
- The Weights and Measures enters the nowhere. An eye stares at Spensa. The group docks on Starsight once again.
- M-Bot makes an espionage drone.
- Morriumur and Spensa head to the park and chat. Morriumur doesn’t like taynix.
- Videos of dogfights get leaked. Once the Superiority finds out who did it, they will exile that person. All the news stations are talking about it.
- Gran-Gran tells Jorgen the story of Stanislav who disobeyed orders and was remembered as a hero.
- Spensa releases the drone.
- Brade and Spensa enter the delver membrane and Brade says she no longer wishes to train in the same repeating rooms. Brade successfully tests the superweapon. Spensa finds out where the Detritus is.
- Apparently the plan is to set the delvers on the humans.
- The drone releases the trigger and causes a distraction.
- Vapor tells Spensa she has been following her and that she can trust Cuna. Cuna tells Spensa that the Superiority has been losing control of the hyperdrives. Gul’zah is led into the room and gets sucked into the orb.
- Spensa deactivates her hologram and explains the tech to Cuna. Cuna is fascinated by humans.
- Winzik briefs the team on the attack, saying he needs them to wipe out the human spy drones on Starsight and the fleet on Detritus. Spensa tells Brade not to do it, and deactivates her hologram. Brade tells the others that Alanik is a human.
- Spensa flies off.
- Spensa lands on Platform Prime. She fills Kimmalyn in on the taynix hyperdrive situation.
- Winzik makes Brade summon a delver to attack Detritus.
- Spensa goes off to fight. She communicates with Hesho and Vapor. They move in on Brade. They chase her and try to disarm her. Brade shoots off ones of Vapor’s wings.
- Spensa and Brade fight. Brade successfully summons a delver. Spensa points it towards Starsight.
- Hesho dies in battle.
- Gran-Gran tells Spensa to save Starsight and prove that humans aren’t awful.
- Brade tries to get to the delver’s heart so she can send it back to Detritus. Spensa and Vapor follow. Spensa is dropped into the membrane.
- Spensa sees herself in a white room. It’s actually the delver. Spensa touches it and communicates with its mind. She shows the delver children from Starsight and the other people there. The delver realises that things on Starsight are alive. The delver collapses and disappears. Spensa is now floating about in empty space.
- Jorgen and co. find taynix deep in the caves.
- Spensa is in hospital on the Superiority. Cuna tells Spensa that Winzik lied about what happened, and he was saying that humans summoned the delver.
- Soldiers break into the hospital. Spensa and Cuna run away. Brade tries to convince Spensa to help her with the coup.
- Spensa goes to find M-Bot and comes across him with a broken hull. M-Bot is now in the drone instead.
- Winzik tells everyone that the humans have taken out everyone on Starsight, including Cuna.
- Spensa escapes into the nowhere with M-Bot and Doomslug.
This is a full plot summary of what happened in Starsight by Brandon Sanderson. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!
