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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Content and trigger warnings for murder, death, loss of a loved one, PTSD depiction, grief depiction, blood depiction, and general war themes. Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: 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.

Pei is in a relationship with Ashby, the Human captain from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which they have to keep a secret because Aeluons have a strong taboo against interspecies romance. Pei’s internal struggle between not wanting to keep this secret any longer but also not wanting to damage her career by telling everyone the truth was very similar to the internal struggle I went through when I was in the closet. Not for the first time reading one of Chambers’ books, I felt seen. Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain. Review: This fourth novel concludes the author's Wayfarer series, and it isn't to be expected that Chambers will return to this universe. But I would really prefer if she accordingly either skipped the science bits, or consulted a scientist on them.World building is a strong gift for Chambers and, like many Le Guin novels, this reads like a sociological exploration of a galaxy via a cozy narrative. It is incredibly well constructed and while she throws a multitude of in-world terms at you, she excels at putting them in contexts for you to learn them without having to explain them. By the end of the book what sounds like gibberish to an outsider is perfectly understandable to the reader. It is accomplished without much exposition either, having passages that are “historical texts” or essays that provide context and much of the explaining is done via conversations between regular people in the ways regular people would talk about events. It allows you to experience and learn on the ground level instead of being lectured, and it really works. You feel like you exist in their world, its quite impressive. 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. Locus Awards Winners". Locus. 27 June 2020. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022 . Retrieved 17 July 2022. I understand the desire to move SF from plot-driven narratives to character-driven narratives but you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater if your character-driven narrative doesn't actually contain any characters worth reading about. The wafer thin plot could be summarised as a bunch of super best friends have a whizzo time pootling about the galaxy eating food and learning trite lessons on the importance of diversity with zero tension or conflict. So is this space-opera, or not? Of course it is! But think of it more like distilling and creating anew some of those old favorites, bits and pieces here from Babylon 5, ST:TNG, Red Dwarf, or even a taste of Enterprise. The tropes are familiar, but the tale-crafter, her worlds, and her spacecraft is most certainly not.

The author seems to be trying to emulate the Joss Whedon and associates style of breezy television writing (Firefly, Buffy, Shield etc) which also depicts groups of friends having adventures but what imitators forget is that Whedon created conflict between his characters, he threw massive obstacles in their path, he made them hate each other sometimes, he *scarred* them, he often killed them and so the lessons that they learnt about acceptance and loyalty and diversity and courage etc genuinely resonated with the viewer because they were hard won. This by contrast is tepid, innocuous, and faintly patronising, perfect for a 21st century audience that wants to feel cozy and be spoon fed all the answers. Moreover, there were some nods to the other books and a strong bond with the first that had me laugh in delight (including a serious "d’aw"-moment). :D

But it isn’t all bad. Increasingly, authors are writing “hopepunk” stories (a slightly cringeworthy term inspired by cyberpunk) that weaponise optimism, according to one Vox journalist. What I found, instead, was a heartily tasty meal of perfectly prepared insects aboard the Wayfarer, enjoying wonderful conversations and a surprisingly diverse collection of humans, aliens, and a truly beautiful soul within an AI. 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. Overall though, The Long Way... really isn’t compelling reading. Chamber’s book feels very much like a gentle Young Adult novel about friendship and acceptance, rather than the Space Opera it is billed as. 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.

Her way of depicting emotions and her ability in creating such calm, endearing, empowered and caring characters are truly something that needs to be celebrated and properly highlighted. It’s a great big world. There are all these interesting alien species, with interesting cultures and history which affect their society. If you love well-written settings where the lore isn’t a bunch of facts but is actually a huge factor in the plot, you will like this. If I had to describe this book to anyone I would call it cross between Farscape and Disney fairytale. 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.Upload images (When uploading images ensure correct source and licensing is listed and included in the file description) Asher-Perrin, Emmett (21 May 2022). "Here Are the Winners of the 2021 Nebula Awards!". Tor.com. Archived from the original on 24 June 2022 . Retrieved 9 September 2022.