Book Review: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
A bit of a random one this. My friend David Carrington bought me it as a birthday present.
It is AMAZING! Absolutely everything a modern sci-fi novel should be. It has aliens who are alien! Not just because they have pointy ears, but because their cultural values are radically different from humans. And us humans, for once, aren't the founders of a mighty Empire - we're a small, obscure species tentatively trying to gain acceptance.
It holds inclusivity as a core concept. It isn't like Star Trek where it feels tacked on, there is a thread woven through the whole novel about the kindness we owe to other people. No matter how strange they may appear to us, they are valid and valued beings. The sex scenes aren't explicit - but there are a lot of hormones flying around (or whatever aliens have)! Love is a key theme. Not just emotional and sexual - but fraternal and cybernetical.
In terms of plot - it's a fairly standard video-game style mission with a bunch of side-quests. Each location is filled with a vivid depictions of weird and wonderful cultures mashed together. Sure, it covers all the standard sci-fi tropes, but it never once falls into cliché. Instead there's a rich galaxy brimming with possibilities.
Of course, every sci-fi book has to be part of an epic series these days. And this has spawned several sequels. But it is nice that this book has a satisfying ending.
| Verdict |
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| Outstanding |
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ISBN: 9781473619777
Book Review: A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers
Book Review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Book Review: Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey
This has been my favorite fiction book since it came out.
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Ooh. One of my favourites. And the rest are great too. And the titles are pure poetry.
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Stumbled across this one holiday and absolutely loved it and the sequels.
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Love this and the sequels
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Omg, how have I not evangelised these to you before? So much fun.
The sequels are lovely and standalone (though 2 and 4 feature characters we meet in 1) and the standalone she’s already published is also great.
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On the back of a review by Terence Eden (who somehow manages to blog every day about a wide range of interesting things!), I picked up Becky Chambers’ debut novel. I wasn’t sure entirely what to expect of the book, but having read the first one, I’m now well into the third book in the series.
The book is marked as sci-fi, but it’s probably better considered speculative philosophical fiction. Yes, there are your typical space fantasy elements — amazing aliens! fancy technology! space war! — but it seems to me that the book is more interested in exploring the interpersonal dynamics and providing analogies for acceptance of diversity, particularly in relation to gender. In the space fantasy milieu, Chambers has crafted aliens with non-discrete genders — and then just made this a completely normal part of the world for her characters. In other words, she has — at least in this regard! — built a utopian world.
There is some fun sci-fi stuff in the novel, too. I enjoyed the considerations of whether an AGI, being sentient, is therefore alive, and should be apportioned the same rights and freedoms as any other sentient being. (Chambers dives into this a lot more in the sequel).
There are distinct elements of Alan Dean Foster’s worldbuilding, and elements of The Expanse in here too — but this novel does stand on its own merits. It’s not a heavy read, but it’s also not something to just skim over. Worth a read!
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Definitely on my list! Thank you
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These are some of my favourite books, regardless of genre, so good! Definitely re-reading territory too.
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