io9 has revealed the cover for Skyward, Brandon Sanderson’s new YA science fiction novel that turns the “a boy and his dragon” trope into “a girl and her starfighter” in a future where humanity is at war with aliens.
From the catalog copy:
Spensa’s world has been under attack for hundreds of years. An alien race called the Krell leads onslaught after onslaught from the sky in a never-ending campaign to destroy humankind. Humanity’s only defense is to take to their ships and combat the Krell. Pilots are the heroes of what’s left of the human race.
Becoming a pilot has always been Spensa’s dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring above the earth and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with that of her father—a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving Spensa’s chances of attending Flight School at slim to none.
No one will let Spensa forget what her father did, but she is determined to fly. And the Krell just made that a possibility. They’ve doubled their fleet, which will make Spensa’s world twice as deadly . . . but just might take her skyward.
Here is the full cover, illustrated by Charlie Bowater and designed by Regina Flath:
Buy the Book
Skyward
Check out the book announcement trailer and prologue at io9.
Skyward will be available November 6, 2018 from Delacorte Press.
Fantastic. Consider it bought.
My favorite author taking a stab at my favorite genre? Sign me right up!
Man oh man, yup this is on my tbr list!
Yes! More new stuff from my favorite author! Can’t wait!!
Anyone else wonder when he sleeps??
Why, TOR? What did we ever do to you? November is still seven months away, you heartless slime!
@5 Perhaps you would prefer waiting for GRRM’s next ASoIaF novel? Or Rothfus’s next novel.
@@.-@: around 4 am to 10 am. He’s an insomniac at night.
And his assistant Peter helps do a number of things authors normally do for themselves. So Brandon can focus on just writing new things and polish edits.
The cover is beautiful!
I wonder if he’ll tour any in support of this one?
@7 I was rather excited when I learned he was a fellow night owl at a convention where he described his schedule :)
I love this cover (although I am very partial to purple) – and I also love that the part of the girl’s hair is not quite straight. I’ve never been able to manage that myself…
The space-jockey genre isn’t my favorite but I trust Sanderson will do something interesting with it and the character, especially given the background provided :)
I hate the cover.
But I’m so looking forward to the book!
@9 Haha, my thoughts exactly!
I keep getting this error when trying to read the excerpt from my mobile device:
”Website crashes: A problem repeatedly occurred on https://io9.gizmodo.com/a-girl-dreams-of-battling-aliens-in-this-exclusive-exce-1825882267“
Someone didn’t warn io9 about the Sanderson Fandom, I think.
@11 I get the same error. All I wanted was to read some new Sanderson on my lunch break :(
And will she discover along the way that her father was not a deserter after all?? Signs point to yes! (*)
(*) Well, normally I’d put money on it, but occasionally Sanderson makes a point of exploiting then dashing reader expectations.
Girl power!!! My pre-order list at Amazon just got longer. :-)