The story continues in the style of the previous books. Alcatraz had broken the talents, seemingly dooming the Smedries and the world to the will of the librarians. Bastille helps the big fight, which includes out-punning a Yak, breaking gravity, flying sharks and an army of kittens battling librarians. Librarians now have Smedry talents, and Bastille gets her longtime desire of being able to battle against talents. The final destruction of the "villain" seems almost too simple. Almost everything ends nicely.
I read the second and third Skyward books before reading Evershore. This helped a lot in understanding what was going on. This novella is told from the point of view of Jorgen. The earth people go to the planet of the Kitsen (small rodent-like creatures.) They Kitsen are not too fond of humans and challenge them to a duel. But, luckily for the humans, the Kitsen get bogged down in bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the Superiority comes to attack the Kitsen planet. Suddenly a league with the humans is not all that baad. They do a lot to realize the strength of the cytonic powers to finally come to a conclusion. The novella moves at a quick pace with plenty of action, filling in some of the gaaps in the Skyward novels. It felt like something that could easily fit in a Star Wars movie.
Alanik is a member of a species from the ReDawn planet. She has some special abilities and belongs to a group that does not like the Superiority. However, others are caving to them and she uses some of her powers to escape and recruit some humans for help. There are plenty of interesting "cross cultural" relationships between her and the humans. Some special slugs also have great powers, but simple emotions and communication abilities, leading to another type of cross cultural challenges. The ragtag group of humans sneaks away to help Alanik. However, the opposition has power to make people appear as somebody else making their quest even more challenging. There are just enough events from other books to tie it all together, while presenting a totally different story.
Sunreach is a novella tells of events in the Skyward universe from a different point of view. We hear of the impact of Spensa, but she doesn't play much of a direct role in the book. Instead, the characters are battling through some of their own existential struggles. There is a fight without coms that leads to the death of a friend. There are also important beings that help the humans, as well as monsters that confuse space ships for food.