Cytonic

1 

I dropped out of a wall.

Like, I emerged straight from the stone. I flopped forward in a heap of tangled clothing and limbs. M-Bot made a grunting noise as his drone body fell out beside me, but there was no sign of Doomslug.

I scrambled to my feet, orienting myself, looking around to see . . . a jungle? Like, a real jungle. I d seen pictures in school of Old Earth, and this place reminded me of those. Imperious moss-covered trees. Branches like broken arms, twisted and draped with thick vines like power lines. It smelled like the algae vats, only more . . . dirty? Earthy?

Scud. It truly was a jungle--like where Tarzan of the Apes had lived in Gran-Gran s stories. Were there apes here? I d always thought I d make a good queen of the apes.

M-Bot hovered up, turning around to take it in. The wall we d fallen out of was behind us. A flat stone freestanding in the jungle, like a monolith. It was overgrown with weeds and vines, and I recognized the carvings in it. I d seen similar carvings on a wall in the tunnels on Detritus.

I knew from the delver s impressions that this was the nowhere. That felt right to me, for reasons I couldn t explain. Somehow I had to find answers in this place. Which seemed a whole lot more daunting to me now than it had moments ago. I . . . scud, I had barely escaped the Superiority with my life. Now I thought I could find answers about the delvers, one of the universe s greatest cosmic mysteries?

Not merely about the delvers, I thought. About myself. Because in those moments when I touched the nowhere, and the beings that resided in it, I felt something that terrified me. I felt kinship.

I took a deep breath. First order of business was an inventory. M-Bot looked fine, and I still had my stolen energy rifle. I felt a ton more safe holding it. I wore what I d escaped in: a standard Superiority pilot s jumpsuit, a flight jacket, and a pair of combat boots. M-Bot

Brandon Sanderson is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Reckoners series: Steelheart, Firefight, and Calamity, and the e-original Mitosis; the New York Times bestsellers Skyward and its sequel Starsight; the internationally bestselling Mistborn trilogy; and the Stormlight Archive. He was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, an adaptation of which is coming to Amazon Prime Video in November 2021. His books have been published in more than thirty-five languages and have sold 22 million copies worldwide. Brandon lives and writes in Utah. To learn more about him and his books, visit him at brandonsanderson.com or follow @BrandSanderson on Twitter and Instagram.

Praise for Skyward
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

"Startling revelations and stakes-raising implications . . . Sanderson plainly had a ball with this nonstop, highflying opener, and readers will too." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"With this action-packed trilogy opener, Sanderson offers up a resourceful, fearless heroine and a memorable cast . . . [and] as the pulse-pounding story intensifies and reveals its secrets, a cliffhanger ending sets things up for the next installment." Publishers Weekly, starred review

"It is impossible to turn the pages fast enough." Booklist

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Praise for Starsight, the sequel to Skyward
An Instant New York Times Bestseller

No one has more fun writing or is better at describing galactic dogfights. . . . Read the first one for fun or enjoy the second on its own. Booklist