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"Sometimes it's too easy to forget the things you should remember - and far too easy to remember the things you really should forget."

I LOVE both previous books of the Skyward series with everything in me, so my excitement for Cytonic and my hopes to give this series a five star rating are understandable. But then I picked up Cytonic and my dreams of the five star rating vanished without a trace.

This book is incredibly disappointing.

I am not sure what had happened, but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring myself to feel the same emotions I have felt while reading the previous two books. The happiness and excitement I have felt vanished and I had trouble focusing on the story. While in the previous books I loved Spensa's character and her interactions with her friends (like M-Bot and Doomslug), in Cytonic it irritated me mercilessly. The attempt of humour put in the book also failed this time. I should be into it. I should be having the best time of my life, because of all the adventures, new places and new species. I mean there were pirates (pilot pirates, but still pirates)! And monsters! But I didn't care and all I could think about were 'when will I finally finish this?' :(

Spensa.

Don't get me wrong. I still love her. But I could not stand her in Cytonic. She was still the same person she was before, but, while all her shanenigans in the previous books were endearing to me, this time she irritated me and make me roll my eyes. I understand why she decided to not come back home (despite the fact that she easily could do so). She needed some answers. We, as the readers, needed some answers, too. But the fact that she ignored M-Bot's feelings (after the events of the previous book) and resolved the situation with a simple 'I'm sorry and I forgive you' (like M-Bot was someone who did something wrong!) and ignored him once again through the book (when he described his worries about himself) to focus on her situation really pissed me off. I know that the circumstances weren't the best for an emotional discussion, but she could've found a time for it and she never did. Not really. All the conflicts between Spensa and M-Bot were resolved pretty quickly like nothing important had happened.

I also didn't like the fact that she acted like she was forced to go into a war in Detritus while it was her choice. She said that she was tired of the constant fighting and worrying about her friends, tired of feeling the pain and fear. While I understand where these feelings came from (all she knew was a fight for survival), I don't understand why she acted like she never had a choice. It was her who fought to become a pilot (while everyone else were against it) and it was her who kept on being a pilot. No one forced her to do anything. Heck, she was hard to convince to do anything, she was always a free spirit who did what she pleased. Maybe I understood her character wrong, who knows. I'm glad that she had so much fun in the story. I wish I felt the same way.

The story and new characters.

If you think you will find all the characters you know and love in Cytonic then you're wrong. You will find a bunch of new people to follow. There are quite interesting characters, but I couldn't bring myself to care about them much, maybe because I didn't spend with them as much time as I should. Spensa's journey to find answers to her questions about her enemies and about herself to be more useful for her people kind of felt flat to me, because of how easily the need to feel useful to her people was put aside. It's not like she didn't felt it, and it's not like she had much of a choice (the place she was locked in had the ability to take away memories), but I felt like she put herself and her needs above the needs of her people. It's nothing wrong with it - not in her situation where she had grown up in a war - but I couldn't stop thinking about all the people she had left behind and that they might be dying at any moment while she had been in a state of euphoria going on adventures and having fun in general. I also didn't care much about the pirates and their problems. But I liked Chet and the way his character was handled. The true heritage of both Chet and M-Bot was a big surprise for me and it's something I need to applause the author for, because there is no way I could predict it. I also didn't predict how much I will tear up because of the enemy's side. I should hate these things because they tried to kill Spensa, my favorite character, and destroy the world I knew and loved (Detritus). But I could feel was a deep sorrow. Poor things. All they had felt were fear of feeling the pain again. It's something I can deeply relate to.

Anyways, despite Cytonic being a big disappointment, I'm glad that I found some answers in this book and I still feel excited about the next one. However, I do not feel the same amount of hope that I have felt before. Hopefully things will be alright and that I will feel happiness and enjoyment again. Do not fail me again, Mr. Sanderson!




Skyward series - my rating:

1. Skyward: ⭐⭐⭐⭐�� (5/5)
2. Starsight: ⭐⭐⭐⭐�� (5/5)
2.1 Sunreach: ⭐⭐⭐⭐�� (5/5)
2.2 ReDawn: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
2.3 Evershore: ⭐⭐⭐⭐�� (5/5)
3. Cytonic: ⭐⭐�� (3/5)
4. Defiant: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)