Starsight by Brandon Sanderson

As usual Brandon Sanderson creates a detailed and colorful world full of nuance.

Spensa's journey to joining the space flight and fighting for her home world has progressed and we ender her espionage arc.

M-Bot is still a top tier character with his AI quips and insights. We get a few more moments with everyone's favorite doom slug. However, we get very little growth for existing friendships and instead turn towards a new cast of unlikely allies. 

This story picks up 6 months after the end of book 1, so there feels like some missing history between some characters. I've discovered there is a novella that covers that time period, so I'll have to go back and get caught up.

I love that Sanderson doesn't shy away from killing off characters or heavily damaging them.  It gives the battles a sense of urgency and peril that is lacking when an author plays it too safe.

Spensa has grown so much as a character throughout this book and her journey feels very real. I love seeing her face new obstacles that require her to adapt and grow beyond her standard impulsive reactions.

The romantic in me wanted more time with Jergen, either through more of his own POV or just more fleshing out of the budding romance. But, I'm aware that this is not a romantasy, and romance was never going to be the driving force behind the story.

Very enjoyable read all around. Can't wait to read book 3 after that ending!