History Literature / Skyward

A sequel, titled ''Literature/{{Starsight}}'', was released November 2019. Please place tropes for the sequel there.

The third book, titled ''Literature/{{Cytonic}}'', was released November 2021.

* DirtyCoward: Exaggerated. The Defiant society treats the concept of cowardice as in insult of the highest order, to the point where Spensa’s father legacy as a coward is enough to stain Spensa’s reputation for most of her life.
The hades contingency

** Second, the Grav-Caps, devices which can [[InertialDampener negate the effects of acceleration]], but only for short bursts.

** Second, the Grav-Caps, devices which can negate the effects of acceleration, but only for short bursts.

* PunchClockVillains: [[spoiler: The supposedly monstrous Krell are actually a bunch of crab-like, brightly-colored jailers who are only keeping humanity imprisoned on the planet because they were sent by an alien coalition who humanity had been at war with.]] Though ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as [[spoiler: the Krell--or at least [[BiggerBad their bosses]]--seem to change their minds and decide to wipe humanity out entirely instead of just keeping them contained.]]

-->'''M-Bot:''' Self-repair: offline. Destructors: offline. [[spoiler: [[OnlyICanMakeItGo Biological component]] engaged. ''[[FasterThanLightTravel Cytonic hyperdrive]]: online.'']]

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on Detritus, a mysterious planet that is constantly attacked by strange alien starfighters. While most huddle in caves, the fighter pilots of the Detritus Defense Force take to the skies to protect what remains of their civillization from utter destruction.

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Wiznik, the leader of the Krell faction that keeps humanity trapped on Detrius. After a bid at weaponizing the delvers fails, he launches a military coup of the Superiority.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Book two involves way more direct interactions with alien species, so we get to see a lot of this. For instance, Hesho is the heir of a monarchy and Spensa notes how archaic a system of government that is--[[{{Irony}} and that Detrius's system of letting proven soldiers and military leaders make all the decisions is the best.]] She also meets the Dione people, who can test out the personalities when the parents temporarily merge. This phase is called a draft, and if the extended family don't like the personality the parents separate and merge again. Then during the book's finale [[spoiler: Spensa finds out why the delvers seem to be a ChaoticEvil, but it turns out that they didn't realize the small creatures telegraphing so much hatred at them were alive. They only felt so much hate because that's what anyone who interacted with them telegraphed at them.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: Doomslug's species is the key to safe hyperspace flight.]]

** We learn about them in book two. [[spoiler: They're called the delvers feel hate because they don't realize that the lifeforms in our universe are truly alive and the people traveling through hyperspace hate them. Since they don't feel emotions the way that lifeforms from our universe do, they simply reflected the strongest emotions back. Once Spensa connects with one and convinces it of how they are alive, it goes away without killing anyone.]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler: Brade, on behalf of Wiznik, offers Spensa and the humans of Detrius the chance to join him as he takes over the Superiority and turns it into a military dictatorship.]]

* CulturalRebel: FM is opposed to the entirety of Defiant culture, and even claims that she is not a Defiant despite being born to Defiant parents and growing up in Defiant society on a planet populated solely by Defiants. After all, has she not been told all her life that [[NoTrueScotsman no true Defiant]] [[ProudWarriorRace would be peaceful]]? Well, she's peaceful, so it follows that she's no true Defiant.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: [[spoiler: It seems the entire alien community believe this is the case. Humans were involved in a wide scale war against a coalition of alien forces, although the humans aboard the Defiant were not directly involved. Humans are considered too dangerous and aggressive to join galactic society so they have decided to keep the survivors of the Defiant on their planet. When Spensa reaches their space station they're obvious as scared of her then she is of them, if not more so. Of course the fact that they have forced humans to constantly fight to survive in order to keep them from advancing means the Krell aren't much better, particularly because the original crew of the Defiant was trying to stay out of the war in the first place.]]
* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace: We are told that there are ''things'' in the cytonic void that aren't happy about [[spoiler: Spensa moving through it,]] and which are seem to be something different from the Krell.

** [[spoiler:The Krell's constantly hunt down large groups of humans to keep them from advancing enough to escape their prison. As a result they develop a warrior culture focused entirely on fighting the Krell and advancing their spacefaring technologies, ensuring that will eventually break free of their prison and almost certainly be hostile to any aliens they encounter after that point]].

* MoreDakka: Destructors have unlimited ammo, so there's little strategy to using them besides holding down the trigger and trying not to hit your wingmates. Cobb is dismissive of them for this reason, saying that any idiot can use the destructors, so he'll train them on the more difficult weapons.

* OldSchoolDogfight: The humans often fight with the Krell this way, trading destructor lasers and dodging each other. Cobb, however, is extremely dismissive of this manner of fighting; Krell ships are faster, have stronger shields, and stronger destructors. He prefers to teach his cadets how to use the light-lances instead, which are basically energy grappling hooks.

* OnlyICanMakeItGo: Spensa's Gran-Gran mentions that ''her'' mother was not only the ''Defiant's'' engineer, but the only one who could make the engines work. [[spoiler: Later explained more fully: It's cytonics like Spensa's line who actually travel faster-than-light, all the mechanical apparatus just focuses and assists their efforts]].
* OutrunTheFireball: Tends to happen whenever a lifebuster gets dropped or shot down. Pilots who don't get out of the blast zone in time are killed.

* PunchClockVillains: [[spoiler: The supposedly monstrous Krell are actually a bunch of crab-like, brightly-colored jailers who are only keeping humanity imprisoned on the planet because they were sent by an alien coalition who humanity had been at war with.]] Though ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as [[spoiler: the Krell - or at least [[BiggerBad their bosses]] seem to change their minds and decide to wipe humanity out entirely instead of just keeping them on one planet.]]

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Ironsides is correct in [[spoiler: that the Krell can influence the minds of people who have "the defect," but it's actually a mutation ''required'' for proper control of faster than light travel. This did not get Spensa's father to betray mankind, however. It allowed the Krell to cast an illusion over what he was seeing to convince him that his allies were Krell.]] At the end of the book, [[spoiler:after Spensa reveals everything that she saw in her flight outside of the atmosphere]] she begrudgingly admits that [[spoiler: she has to pardon Spensa's father.]]
* SoapBoxSadie: FM is a good-natured example. She isn't particularly strident, but she is upfront about the fact that she's against pretty much every single part of Defiant society and government. She's so committed to being contrary, in fact, that when the flight goes out to dinner she reflexively orders a different-coloured drink than everyone else.

* StealthSequel: While not in the Cosmere, ''Skyward'' takes place in the same universe as Sanderson's short story/novella [[spoiler:''Defending Elysium'']].

* {{Unobtanium}}: The humans have no ability to make the acclivity stone that allows their ships to levitate, so it is immensely valuable. They have to salvage it from debris that falls from the broken defense fields orbiting the planet. The Krell of course are aware of this, and destroy acclivity rings in debris whenever they see a chance.
* WeHaveReserves: While pilots are valuable, they are less rare than ships, so pilots are taught to attempt to save their ships no matter what. If a cadet ejects, they are automatically expelled from the school. Cobb finds this policy ludicrous and tries to pound into his class to eject when in danger. [[spoiler:Hurl refuses to, and dies. Spin does, and is thrown out of the school. Spin is in a similar situation again later, the difference being that ejecting would doom Alta--she doesn't eject. She still doesn't save Alta with the maneuver, but she's proud she did the right thing anyway]].

** [[spoiler: Expanded on in the sequel: the Krell pilots are implied to be the pilots for all of the fighter drones in the galaxy, and they have a pretty high burn out rate due to how aggressive they have to be. In essence, they face the opposite problem the DDF faces: they have a lot of material to make ships, but not as many pilots to fly them.]]

A sequel, titled ''Starsight'', is set to be released November 2019.

-->'''M-Bot:''' Self-repair: offline. Destructors: offline. [[spoiler: [[OnlyICanMakeItGo Biological component]] engaged. ''[[FasterThanLightTravel Cytonic overdrive]]: online.'']]