Spensa (aka "Spin"), a talented pilot in the Detritus Defense Force (DDF), assumes the holographic identity of an alien bound for a space-fleet tryout at Superiority headquarters. Her secret mission is to steal a hyperdrive, technology closely guarded by those who are oppressing humans across the galaxies. As she progresses in the trials and training, she discovers unlikely allies and a treacherous plot. Though Skyward (2018), the first book in this set, also places Spin in an uncomfortable outsider role, Sanderson successfully revamps that plot here by changing the location and details of the experience. It works, however, because no one has more fun writing or is better at describing galactic dogfights. Ironically, the most interesting character here is actually M-Bot, the artificial-intelligence unit that operates Spin's spacecraft, and whose growth is a window into what it means to be human. Read the first one for fun or enjoy the second on its own, as Sanderson skillfully incorporates Spin's backstory early in this sequel.

As if the threat of huge, raging monsters from hyperspace isn't scary enough, hotshot fighter pilot Spensa Nightshade becomes embroiled in an alien empire's politics.On a desperate mission to steal hyperdrive technology from the crablike invading Krell who are threatening to destroy her beleaguered home colony on Detritus, Spensa, who is white, holographically disguises herself as a violet-skinned UrDail and slips into a Krell pilot training program for "lesser species." The discovery that she's being secretly trained not to fight planet-destroying delvers but to exterminate humans, who are (with some justification, having kindled three interstellar wars in past centuries) regarded in certain quarters as an irrationally aggressive species, is just one in a string of revelations as, in between numerous near-death experiences on practice flights, she struggles to understand both her own eerie abilities and the strange multispecies society in which she finds herself. There are so many characters besides Spensa searching for self-identitynotably her comic-relief sidekick AI M-Bot, troubled human friend Jorgen back on Detritus, and Morriumur, member of a species whose color-marked sexes create trial offspringthat even with a plot that defaults to hot action and escalating intrigue the pacing has a stop and start quality. Still, Spensa's habitual over-the-top recklessness adds a rousing spark, and the author folds in plenty of banter as well as a colorful supporting cast.Not quite the wild ride of Skyward (2018) but still great fun. (Science fiction. 12-15) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.