Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson - Book Review
“The day the delver came, I stood staring up at the stars.”
One fantastic mistake
At the beginning of the 2025, I challenged myself to read 30 books by year’s end. And, allow me a moment to “humble-brag” here, but I absolutely smashed that goal, currently going through number 45! Yep, I’m awesome…
Self-pat on the back aside, apart from choosing a completely random number to devote all my attention to for an entire year, I also, unintentionally, did something that required a bit more brainpower - I made it my mission to go outside of my comfort zone and try out genres and books I normally wouldn’t go for.
Up until this point, this strategy had produced fantastic results - I started my reading journey breaking generational curses on the sun-kissed shores of Ithaca, enjoyed the wild antics of the Discworld denizens not once, but twice, and even watched the Devil throw a party in 1930s Moscow. I had stumbled upon a golden goose strategy that was laying eggs like there’s no tomorrow.
And then I picked up Sunreach. Before I have two stakes hammered into my eye sockets (see what I did there?) by angry Sanderson fans, let me just say this - I LOVED Sunreach. Did you see all those capital letters? Great, now put the whips and let me tell you what I meant by my statement.
You see, reading Sanderson is like going to a Micheline star restaurant. You know you’re likely going to sample some of the best food of your life, but it’s a 7 course menu and you need to taste it in order to enjoy it fully. Same with dear old Brandon - it takes some preparation and research to start any of his series, as he has the habbit of producing a mind-boggling amount of books per year and producing some of the most complex and beautiful world-building in fiction.
What you don’t do is see a random title by one of your favorite authors, buy it on impulse, pick it up without checking anything about it whatsoever, and then just start reading. What kind of sociopath does that, seriously? (Is what my biographer would eventually title my life’s story…)
But this is exactly what I did. I had no idea what Skyward was, no idea who Spensa is, what happened in Starsight… you get the picture, right?
So I can say that I’m probably in the position to provide a very unique review of Sunreach, because I treated it as a stand-alone novella. And now, after this excruiciatingly long intro, and on the off chance you’re still reading - let’s get into my review of Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson!
Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson - Book Review
Sunreach is a novella that takes place during the events of Starsight. Which means absolutely nothing to me, to be honest. I won’t try to pull out info from Google or ChatGPT to simply repeat what every other review will probably tell you much better than I can, when it comes to the entire series and main characters.
As I said earlier, like the confused little butterfly that I am, I decided to just jump into Sunreach without reading Skyward or Starsight first, so I have very little idea what’s going on in the broader universe.
But let me tell you something quite interesting - it actually didn’t ruin the reading experience! Surprising, I know. Don’t get me wrong, within the first 2-3 pages I realized that perhaps I’m missing some context, and I immediately figured out that there’s about 2 books worth of information that I probably should check out to get the full experience from Sunreach. BUT! (there’s always a but, ins’t there?)
But, the novella read surprisingly well on it’s own, and would make a decent stand-alone story.
Sunreach is divided into 3 parts, and gives us 3 different points of view (one for each part, respectively): FM, Jorgen, and Rig.
While Spensa, who through flashback details we quickly understand is a main character from the previous two books, is galavanting through the galaxy doing main hero things, FM, Jorgen, and Rig are left behind on Detritus (a small planet with truly ancient defense systems). Things seem to be going pretty well until a Delver (a creature that can easily destroy most planets) suddenly appears in the sky above Detritus.
Just when everyone starts to panic and count their last minutes, the Delver vanishes as mysteriously as it has appeared. This events sends our trio on their own quest of survival, as they realize that it’s only a matter of time before that Delver comes back and nukes them into oblivion.
Usually, people trying to get off a planet would, you know, try to get off the planet. Not in the case of FM and crew though, who decide that their best is to go full-on mole-mode and burrow deep into the caverns below Detritus looking for a Hail-Mary to help them restart the planet’s defense systems .
What they find is more than they bargained for, though - a group of Taynix (a type of slug-like creature that the Superiority - the overreaching bad guys of the series - use as hyperdrives). This presents a unique opportunity for the trio, if only they could figure out how the Taynix actually work.
A whole bunch of experiments occur to some hilarious and some disastrous results, and it seems like humanity might finally crack hyperdrive technology. But a message comes from the remote outpost of Sunreach, from a politician named Cuna - a distress beacon to anyone who might be listening, warning them of the impending doom coming for Sunreach.
So FM, Jorgen, and Rig must decide if saving the people stranded on Sunreach is worth risking their discovery falling into the wrong hands. Oh, did I mention there is also an alien they find in those tunnels, called Alanik, that they must reawaken if they’re to ever learn the secretes of the Taynix? It’s not like the stakes weren’t already super high for the trio!
As all of this goes down, in typical Sanderson fashion, we have some fantastic subplots going on. For me, the best of these is the development of the romantic relationship between FM and Rig. For such a short novella, it was surprisingly deep and emotional, making me root for these crazy kids to finally admit their feelings for each other before they both get blown up!
Is Sunreach Worth Reading?
Absolutely, yes! I found it surprisingly deep and engaging for such a short novella, and I feel that it worked surprisingly well as a standalone read. Perhaps, this is due to the fact that the purpose of Sunreach is to provide much needed worldbuilding and universe background for the first two books of the series.
I’m usually not a huge sci-fi fan, but between Sunreach and Some Desperate Glory (another sci-fi book which I’ll review later in this series), I’m getting converted!
Needless to say, I can’t wait to explore the entire Sunreach series. In proper order this time. Speaking of which…
When Should You Read Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson?
If you want to read Sunreach in a way that it makes much more sense, here is the proper order of the Skyward universe. I’ll also add links to each book for Amazon (yep, affiliate, because I’m tired of eating SPAM sandwiches…), in case you want to go on a shopping spree.
Final Thoughts on Sunreach and Brandon Sanderson
Honestly, I’ve covered everything I wanted to say about Sunreach, and considering it’s a novella, I think I’ve said quite a lot.
But I wanted to take a moment to appreciate Brandon Sanderson and the speed at which he is getting books out. Between his Cosmere grand-series, running Dragonsteel books, his surprising leap into League of Legends, and the yearly abundance of secret projects, I genuinely have no idea how he’s able to find time to do it all!
All I can say is, well done, Brandon! I hope you continue to grace us with your brilliance for many more years to come!
Okay, fanboy-ing aside, much like anything that comes from Sanderson, Sunreach has been a delightful and engaging read - so go check it out!
Now, having taken a small respite from bigger books with this novella, it’s time to get back to proper-sized books. Join me in our next blog post, where I explore a book that takes us into a much darker universe - “The Luminaries”, by Susan Dennard.
I found Sunreach deep and engaging for such a short novella, and I feel that it worked surprisingly well as a standalone read. But my reading experience was rather unique - check it out!