I love Becky Chambers and I’m familiar with her Wayfarers series, so I knew I would have to switch rapidly between multiple characters with multiple points of view… but I still found the beginning of this book rough. The viewpoint characters have little to do with one another (at least at first) and the reader is forced to juggle multiple locations, conflicts, and cultural issues for quite some time before things come together. At that point, though, we’re safely back in Chambers’ warm universe where people are all just trying to do their best to understand one another and figure out one another’s needs. The society of a completely spacefaring race and the self-sustaining ecology of their vessels was also really interesting. Good book, eventually.
Tag: author-becky chambers
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers
Second in the Monk and Robot series: Tea monk Dex and their robot buddy Mosscap continue their journeys together, both through human villages and through their internal motivations. The first book was about the characters but also worldbuilding; with the worldbuilding established, the second book concentrates almost entirely on the characters. Mosscap’s quest is to ask what humans want, but begins to ask itself: what information is it really looking for? And what role can Dex find for themselves along the way?
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers
Sequel to A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, but only insofar as one of the characters is reused, and the other characters are briefly referenced. A cascading failure of orbiting satellites leaves a motley group of characters stranded at a remote waypoint, in the care of a solicitous host and her moody teen. This is purely a character study; there are no bad guys, and no conflict save the fact that they are all on their own schedules and have their own reasons to get off-planet as quickly as possible. Gradually, their backgrounds and conflicts are revealed; equally gradually, a companionable friendship grows between them. Chambers dresses old conflicts up as alien cultures, and then finds a way for her characters to come together anyway. It’s like a warm sci-fi hug.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
A book of found family, in which the family is a hardworking multispecies crew of a starship. The sheer inventiveness of the alien characteristics and biology was amazing; however, Chambers I think falls into the trap of loving her characters too much to let anything bad happen to them, which blunts the edge of some of the more exciting bits. Still, great characters and universe and I would love to follow the series further.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers
Another cute robot story. It’s set generations after robots became self-aware and humans let them walk into the wilderness rather than continue to enslave them, and also after the small number of remaining humans have decided to minimize their footprint on the earth rather than continue to destroy it. In that time, a tea monk named Dex (they/them) finds themself unsatisfied with life, goes literally off the beaten path, and meets a robot named Mosscap who has decided its mission is to figure out what humans want. Since this is also what Dex is trying to figure out, the two go off on an odd-couple journey through the wilderness, having philosophical discussions along the way. Quiet, thoughtful, and adorable.