Wayfarers Series 4 Books Collection Set by Becky Chambers (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, Record of a Spaceborn Few & To Be Taught, If Fortunate)

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In the world of Wayfarers, humans effectively destroy Earth and take to the stars in massive ark ships. Some live on the ships permanently, content to be space dwellers with their fellow humans. Others seek new pastures, venturing into the galaxy’s melting pot of planets. The galaxy is populated with countless species and cultures, each well defined by their own customs, behaviors, appearances, and attitudes. Shortlist Announced". The Arthur C. Clarke Award. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018 . Retrieved 12 July 2022. I suppose the easy thing to say is that this book is about a crew, traveling through space on the Wayfarer, exploring the galaxy and taking on new adventures. And a new crewmember has just arrived, not knowing what to expect. Roveg - Roveg is a Quelin, an species which has ostracised themselves from the rest of the GC, who is exile and is very much the glue who holds this fledgeling group together (Pei and Speaker have very strong perosnalities and Roveg is the perfect balance to this). Keeping his own secrets and anxieties about the situation is character arc is very interesting to watch unfold throughout the novel. I also love how respectful and interested he is in other cultures and how fundamentally tied to his character this is.

The truth is, Rosemary, that you are capable of anything. Good or bad. You always have been, and you always will be. Given the right push, you, too, could do horrible things. That darkness exists within all of us.” Tupo was still so soft, so babylike in temperament, but had finally crossed the threshold from small and cute to big and dumb."Already now, it´s predictable that many will choose a digital avatar with splendid deep, self learning algorithms, instead of nothing or bad bleedable alternatives, even without the body. A faithful, motivating, loving, and unreal partner instead of harsh relationship reality or d**** and b******. That all is of course just relevant for women who think about others and emotions, men's´ decisions are quite predestined. I mean, ahem, of course, we would choose real partners instead of immediately changeable, never aging, perfect cyborgs, clones, and VR simulations. Sorry, nature made us that way, it´s not our fault, it´s even important for human survival. What a cheap excuse. This book captures the simultaneous close-encounter-with and detachment-from the here-now that we experience during a crisis really well, while also incorporating several other themes like a refugee crisis, speciesism, ableism, war, social taboos, motherhood, the unbridgeable gap between us and the other and the extra kindness that our interactions therefore demand. And relief of all reliefs: there isn't a single heteronormative, white, human male character here. Actually, there isn't any sort of human character if you don't count mere mentions.

Everyone in the book had to make choices, to share their secrets, to make choices for others so they wouldn't die even if they didn't want that choice made, thoughts and feelings toward other crew members, AI love, people trying to hide their love for things that just finally had to come out. Doing things for each other even if you don't really like each other because you are crew mates and you are family. These aliens and people have been together for years and years.Again, a commonly seen sci-fi trope is described from a new, fascinating perspective of which no other author had the ingenuity to see the potential. Another wonderful addition to the Wayfarers series. Although I don’t think any of them have topped A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I’ve enjoyed continuing nonetheless. Windup book for the series, which was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Series. An award that I never knew existed, until now. The story is slow and consists of these characters bonding and widening their mindsets. Explorations of serious and potentially topical issues, such as reproductive rights, are approached with simplicity ("Because I didn't want to. And when it comes to a person's body, that is all the reason there ever needs to be,"). Similarly, the whole Pei/Speaker confrontation results in both making 'valid' points.

This book is a sequel to ‘The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’. However, it was written as a standalone novel and can be read as such. Ouloo - Ouloo is the owner of the one stop five hop, a sort of resort for travellers to take a rest on their way to where they are going next, whilst waiting for their turn in the wormhole gate crew. Ouloo is mother to Tupo and is very passionate about making her guests feel welcome and accepted. I did have some fun with it but around 60% of this book amount of sweetness and cheeseness become overwhelming. Character driven sci-fi should have proper characters and character development, not Care bears in alien costumes.This book is just too naive, everyone is so nice, polite, warm and excepting and bad characters are just stereotypicaly bad .There is no room for drama and character growth. Most of the scenes included in the narrative seemed to try hard to be cute or sweet or heartwarming but I found them unbearably cheesy. And on the topic of cheese, that whole discussion about how weird cheese is was so necessary, the same goes for that discussion on shoes (they are like clothes for feet, ahah, so funny). Given that they have all interacted with or have knowledge of other species it seemed weird that they would go on about cheese and shoes as if these are flabbergasting concepts. The future of social Sci-Fi, the evolution of emotion in space, a completely different, fresh, and astonishing approach towards the common Sci-Fi tropes, an immediate, instant modern masterpiece, possibly even a kind of new subgenre changing the landscape of Sci-Fi like Octavia E Butler.Chambers’ other work is equally revered by critics and fans alike. She’s become one of the genre’s staples, releasing quality work at a steady clip. I rely on Chambers’ books for a healthy dose of uplifting and hopeful sci-fi each year. Should her success continue to grow (and I think it will), Hollywood might just take notice and pounce at the opportunity to adapt Chambers’ remarkable work. For now, happily, we have the books, and if you haven’t read them…now is the time. But what keeps having me stumble is the fact that on a hard science basis, it fails really badly. One recurring theme in this series is that the ships are powered by algae fuel (what energy grows the algae? Starlight, even in the most far out reaches of the gallery? Why would that power source suffice to power interstellar travel? And if it did, why would you run it through algae first, not use starlight directly? Are you telling me they are burning wet algae?), or are perpetual energy machines (seriously, every book, and explained literally! How are editors not catching this? You cannot harvest energy from your own movement sourced from exclusively your own energy. That is just not how it works.), and that "turning off gravity" (?!?) somehow also cancels momentum (those children can yell "falling" all they like, gravity or no, after hitting terminal velocity, they will still hit the ground or ceiling with a splat). The superluminal travel makes no sense as presented. The economic system makes no sense. Locus Awards Winners". Locus. 27 June 2020. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022 . Retrieved 17 July 2022.

I wish I would remember more of what I´ve read, and of course have generally read more, sci-fi to get all the hidden easter eggs and innuendos, because I have a kind of intuitive, subjective feeling that Chambers is the kind of person that likes to put extra hidden inside jokes besides all the underlying social criticism. Or I´m just projecting too much into it because I´m fanboying and glorifying too much, who knows. Chambers has lived in Iceland and Scotland before returning to California, where she currently resides with her wife, Berglaug Asmundardottir, [1] [13] in Humboldt County. [2] Awards [ edit ] Work For the men and women on this voyage, there is so much more on the line than just a little adventure, especially for one Martian woman who is hoping to leave everything behind.a b "2022 Locus Awards Winners". Locus. 25 June 2022. Archived from the original on 17 July 2022 . Retrieved 11 August 2022.