Cytonic

"Cytonic" is the third in the series of four YA science fiction books about Spensa, a young starship fighter pilot by Brandon Sanderson. Like the first two, I listened to the Audible version read by Sophie Aldred (Ace in Doctor Who). She is very convincing as the teenage protagonist and a wide range of other characters. My only minor criticism was that M-Bot's accent wandered a little, which was strange as he has been a constant character in all three books.

The plot was fun, and the battles and other set scenes exciting, but the changes in Spensa's character failed to convince. Sanderson built the earlier books around the way her confidence grew and the mistakes she made along the way. In this book, the transition to self-confidence and ordering everyone else about, including the ex-monarch of an alien race, seemed too abrupt.

Finally, the epilogue felt tacked on by the publisher in readiness for the final book in the series and just a bit clichéd. I enjoyed this book, but I'm in two minds about whether I will want to buy "Defiant" when it comes out later in 2023.

DNF.

I was just completely bored with this story right from the start. It's incredible since I was really into the first two in the series and I even pre-ordered this with the expectations of wrapping up a really good series. The choice to take the action into the Nowhere and thus decoupled from the realities of the settings so far erased my connection to those settings. The nonsensical nature of these fragments and the way they shuttled past one after another made me uninterested in developing any connections to what was going on. The new character in that setting was likewise swept up in the wave of irrelevance. I don't think I made it even 25% of the way into the book before I realized I had no idea what was going on because I'd stopped paying attention.

This is the first utter failure of a Sanderson book I've run into since Elantris. I hope it's a one-off.