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. Kizzy - A technician on the Wayfarer. Never, have I ever, read a character that I felt I was personally more like than Kizzy Shao. From her being so talkative, to always trying to be cheerful and positive, to her playing dating sims and loving all food, especially all things spicy, to her loving so unconditionally. I will never answer another bookish question of “what character are you most like” with bits and pieces from other books, because I truly see all of myself in Kizzy. Oh, and her being Asian warms my damn heart, too. 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.” This book also emphasizes the importance of respect; respecting peoples’ pronouns, peoples’ bodies, and peoples’ feelings. And the representation in this book is honestly unparalleled. From different species, to different races, to different genders, to different sexualities, to different mental health issues, to different bodies types, to different upbringings, to different cultures, to different traditions, to different religions, to different social settings, to so much more.

A good book, but not a gripping one. At the moment, I'm giving it a 3.5 star rating, and wobbling between rounding up or down. Not her best work, and I wouldn't start here -- though it is a standalone. Another of her trademark "found family" stories, this one recycles old stories of travelers stranded in a temporary refuge, while a natural disaster is sorted out. As you will see, there is a large range of reactions to the book. But the average rating for all readers is a solid, near-masterpiece 4.5 stars. I'm definitely not going that high! In epic space films we often see entire ships or planets destroyed and just move along, death on such a large scale it becomes that Stalin quote about one death a tragedy, a million a statistic. Long Way to a Small Angry Planet zooms in to the individual level and shows how for the regular person caught up in these cosmic struggles just a single death could be a universe of grief. It brings us to the level of what goes on with the Red Shirts in Star Trek, the transport crews in Star Wars, the regular staff in Dune, a crew full of non-combatants just trying to live their life in the universe. I love this crew. I can’t help it after feeling their kinship, engaging with their struggles, and watching them learn and love with each other. We are brought aboard the Wayfarer along with Rosemary, a young woman with a new identity fleeing a mysterious past and welcomed in to their crew. I’d tell you about them all, but I’d rather you get to meet them for yourselves. It’s been a few days since I finished the book and I rather miss them, so say hello for me. 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. So. On a paragraph-by-paragraph level, it's very good. Just not very... gripping. Well, a good deal of Vance's work isn't particularly gripping, either. Overall, I'm rating this one at 3.5 stars, and rounding down because its narrative thrust is so weak. YMMV, and others liked it more, or less. If you've liked previous Chambers books, give it a try. Almost certainly your library will have a copy.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate

And had this been punctuated by anything like plot and actual tension and if ever doubting that anything being less than hunky-dory with our decent to the bone protagonists was possible I’d be alright with it. But when the entire book is just fluffy light dessert, I get bored and irritated. I also want some broccoli and maybe even a cheese* enchilada.

I loved two books by Chambers - the first Wayfarers book (which I plan to never reread lest I figure out that it doesn’t hold up on reread by my inner grumpy cynic) and To Be Taught If Fortunate which was like Cousteau Odyssey on alien planets. But apparently I need plot or a nature documentary feel. This one has neither. All it has is kumbaya in spades. Or in space. Or maybe kombucha. (I kid. I’m partial to kombucha myself. I’d never talk crap about it). Imagine a male hard SciFi author who wrote absolutely brilliant scifi on the technological and physical parts, but also kept adding long sequences where people explain that they have treated their depression through the magic of pulling themselves together, treated their disability through the magic of yoga, dealt with jealousy by suppressing it and with anger by unleashing it on weaker people, so that they are now perfectly mentally stable, physically healthy and social, and had all the other characters go, unironically, wow, that makes sense, this strikes me as ideal and like it would totally work. - This is how I feel every time a Chambers character explains how their ship is a perpetual energy machine and everyone around them nods.) Content and trigger warnings for murder, death, loss of a loved one, PTSD depiction, grief depiction, blood depiction, and general war themes. 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. This is my third SpaceTime Reading Challenge book. I really must do more reading! To Be Taught, If FortunateChambers’ 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. Is that reason enough for an adaptation? No. But for Wayfarers, I count it as a distinct positive. A savvy adapter could plot out a 12-episode anthology series, giving each book a three-episode arc. Release it in two parts. Or four! Let Wayfarers enter the zeitgeist and take its place among the best modern sci-fi stories adapted for screens. What a beautiful, lovely read this one was. A fantastic way to say goodbye to a fantastic series that will always have a special place in my heart. 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. The story follows Pei, an Aeluon, Speaker, an Akarak, and Roveg, a Quelin. They all end up grounded at the Five-Hop One-Stop which is run by Ouloo, a Laru. They have all lead distinctive lives and they also necessitate differentiating things given that they belong to a different species. Oxygen, for example, would be lethal to Speaker. At first, they view the others as mere aliens but the more time they spend together—picnics and get-togethers—the more they begin to see the others as individuals in their own right. There is some conflict due to Akarak not being considered a sapient species and therefore they are not part of the GC. They were colonized by another species and are now regarded with distrust. Pei is fighting for the Aeluons against the Rosk (whom, if I record correctly, they had previously colonized).

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. Tupo was still so soft, so babylike in temperament, but had finally crossed the threshold from small and cute to big and dumb." Speaker was awake, but hadn’t left her bed. She had no plans to do so anytime soon. It was very, very morning." A compelling departure from any of sci-fi’s typical subgenres, Wayfarers plants humanity into a multi-species society far in the future and says “Go.” The four loosely-connected books contained within the series follow characters from myriad species and communities as they come to terms with their senses of identity and try to find their place in that endless universe. Chambers’ thoughtful, distinctive brand of science fiction makes Wayfarers a perfect choice for a limited streaming series. The Story So FarShortlist Announced". The Arthur C. Clarke Award. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018 . Retrieved 12 July 2022. And sometimes fear is good. Fear keeps you alive. But it can also keep you from what you really want."