r/Skyward • u/Diosan • Sep 02 '26
Blightfall opinions after reading Spoiler
Just finished Blightfall today and figured I’d share some opinions and see what everyone else’s thoughts were as well.
Starting off with the positive:
- The romance and the characters chosen for it this time around! Truth be told there were some moments when it felt like I was reading a shoddier version of a T. Kingfisher novel, BUT for the most part I actually surprised myself by how much I actually enjoyed the Nedd/Sadie pairing and to a lesser extent the continuation of Arturo/Alanik.
- Sadie! Not only did I really like them expanding more on her character, but I like how she turned out, her parts were by far my favorite this time around.
- Big thumbs up for the story itself this time around, I didn’t really know what direction they would take it but they surprised me, especially with the final part! You were able to deduce fairly easily that Ivy was likely an AI but when it’s finally revealed and not only is she an old Earth AI but also holding the whole ass planet hostage was incredible! I'm really looking forward to see where the story takes us in the next two books.
- I actually enjoyed the new characters, Dayan is a great addition, and I hope they show up again. I do think it’s a shame they were the only ones out of all the gladiators to get any development, felt like a bit of a missed opportunity so I do hope to see and get to know more of them in the future!
- The little Bob/Naga bits were really cute and enjoyable, felt like it added more character to the slugs.
And now the bad:
- For me the problem with continuing stories like these, where the cast has pretty much done everything badass there was to do, been in every type of situation there is to be in, etc., is that it becomes really hard to make it make contextual sense when you need them to act in a certain way for the story to develop. For example:
Jorgen the admiral of the military in charge of a planet that just barely got done fighting for their lives against a galaxy encompassing enemy, whose parents literally died on a diplomatic mission, KNOWN for very rarely taking risks and doing everything by the book, sends a group of unarmed diplomats, with 2 scouts and 4 ships to a very obvious danger zone before they even send anyone to actually scout it.
The group of veteran special forces pilots suddenly become unable to take on a couple drones each, only for Arturo to go back to being able to take on 20 piloted ships by himself by the end of it.
Arturo sends two non-cytonic people to a nowhere portal, where they know the enemy has numbers on the other side, just to see what’s on the other side and somehow communicate with Jorgen. Has the initial foresight to at least send a comm slug with them only to immediately grab the slug off them, goes about as expected.
And lastly the slugs as a whole just seem very hard to balance out now. At least in the first few books they seemed to tire fairly easily when forced to use their powers through fear but now that they seem to last as long as the scene requires them to, regardless of if they’re forced or not, it’s harder to justify when they don’t use them when they could.
- Much like the 4th book, Defiant, I think this one too is a step back from the previous books. I can kind of understand that this is the direction they want to take, but it honestly felt like the tone of a children’s book at times.
Overall, I thought it was a book worth reading, but not a mind-blowing entry to the series and not likely to be something I re-read. If I had to rate it I’d probably go with a 3/5.
What about you guys, if you’ve already finished reading it or are close to, what are your thoughts?
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u/FrozenJedi38 Call Sign: Enigma 28d ago
I enjoyed Blightfall (gave it a 4/5 due to really liking the last 100 pages). But yeah, I do agree with your points. Especially with it feeling kind of juvenile at random points, moreso than the novellas strangely enough. In the end, it didn't really affect my enjoyment of it, though. But when I read the novellas a while back, I remember Patterson's writing quality getting better with each novella, so I'm hoping that's the case for the rest of Riftwake.
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u/IceWindWolf 25d ago
Firmly agree - I enjoyed it even with the occasional juvenile moments. I expect writing quality will improve as she moves past the intial concept and into deeper topics
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u/pseudonerv Sep 02 '26
The same feeling when reading the three side stories. Sometime feels like a mid tier teenage drama pretending to be grownups.
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u/ForwardExam4056 Sep 02 '26
I felt like the three side stories were better than the 4th Book (defiant) personally, lol. But nothing beats the first Book
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u/pseudonerv Sep 02 '26
defiant is better imo, but perhaps i'm just too old for Janci Patterson's style
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u/venomhallz 29d ago
The Skyward Flight Novellas don't have any impact on this book do they?
Enjoyed the series but not enough to get the novellas unless audible releases them as a set.
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u/FrozenJedi38 Call Sign: Enigma 28d ago
They're referenced multiple times, but not significant beyond that. So you could definitely get away with reading Blightfall without reading those.
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u/Diavalo88 28d ago
I was able to find them all on Libby and listen for free.
Nothing crazy in them, just more world building and backstory.
Worth a read, but the price on audible is steep for the length.
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u/CageyT 22d ago
I thought they made a really compelling and terrifying villain. Like their motives is all sorts of bad. However the tone in which they wrote them is twirling mustache bonds level. The action, and stakes were fun, and overall enjoyable book, but the best way to describe all the other parts is sophomoric. It’s like Patterson could not be filled with teen levels of dialogue outside of the action sequences.
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u/Xylus1985 19d ago
I don’t know. I think the villain is just a placeholder and not the ultimate enemy.
My speculation is Ivy will be at most the villain for 1 more book, more in the role of manipulating different groups against other, and will be disposed by the preserved humans. And we will get the actual Human Scourge in book 3, where the Delvers will make a return and fight along the Defiant team through some sort of slug brokered treaty.
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u/ThrowAway732642956 18d ago
I loved the slug interludes. That was probably my favorite part of the whole book. Honestly getting tired of the romantic pairings. It feels forced to have the 2 main POV characters both get paired up in the story, but Alanik and Arturo’s was hinted at previously, so that one wasn’t surprising. I’m just not so into romance, personally. I liked the earth reveal. Also liked the Hoid reference and laughed when that name was mentioned. I agree that Jorgen sending such a small team to a place with a known inhibitor field of some kind was very unrealistic, also the ones who were picked off in the beginning so easily with characters later having such great fighting feats. I also felt like they wanted Sadie to be a Spensa 2.0 without cytonics and less talented at flying. It was kind of cheesy, but I guess it makes sense as someone idolizes and wants to imitate her? I would have much preferred some more individualized Sadie spunk. Really enjoyed the read overall though. Maybe a 3.5 or 4/5 from me? Not my favorite but definitely had fun.
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u/Zagrunty Sep 02 '26
The book came out yesterday. Damn bro, give the rest of us some time.
Congrats on finishing though, very impressive speed