This was my first ever Brandon Sanderson novel, and I must admit, the writing style saved this novel for me. Normally, I would not pick up a novel about people fighting in space, it is just not for me. After the hype, and seeing this book in my library, I decided to pick it up and I really enjoyed it. I did not love it, but what else could I expect? This is normally not my cup of tea, and liking it this much is already a great accomplishment.
This book feels fast-paced, while I also believe it isn't. While we only see Spensa fighting and training to be the best pilot, and not a lot happens, it is still very entertaining. Don't get me wrong, I did not like Spensa at all in the beginning. Only after she started realizing that there was no need to be this particular way, she started to grow on me. I loved the character arc, and also the character arcs of the other persons we see in this book. While we do not follow their stories and see everything through Spensa, we are still really invested in them and it is nice to see them grow.
Oh, and M-Bot. I loved him so much. I also thought it was a nice addition that he kept repeating that he could not overwrite his programming since that is how it actually works. Often books about AI etcetera don't seem to realize that. Even though M-Bot eventually found a way around his programming. I liked the addition of that repeated phrase.
The only reason why this book did not obtain five out of five stars from me, is the simple fact that this is just not my cup of tea. It won't be any of my favorites, even though I will definitely continue the series, but it will always remain a book I highly enjoyed but did not love.