The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

Fourth in the Wayfarers series but able to stand on its own, Becky Chambers has created a space opera novel that is light on plot yet so beautifully character-driven that I didn’t care.

After a freak disaster, five strangers — three visitors and two residents from four different species — are stranded together on a “stopover” planet, and what follows are character interactions that are so engaging that I hated to say goodbye when the book ended.

For the record, all of the Wayfarers novels touched me this way. Each of them felt so real, with their own strengths and… show more.

This book - the third in the Wayfarers series - took my breath away with its creativity,

It looks at what life is like thousands of years in the future for the only surviving human colony, living off-planet in a multi-species multiverse.

It made me cry and laugh and, above all, think. With such a light and natural touch, this book explores death, climate change, gender diversity, migration, and the role of ritual and tradition. All in ways that prompt us to be kinder, more loving, more open in our lives.

If you’re not a fan of science fiction… show more.

Not a mystery, but one of the finest science fiction novels about a subject not often encountered in SF:  kindness.

A group of travelers arrive at a way station, each on their way elsewhere, when a catastrophe strands them. None of them are human, they are all aliens, and they default to helping each other, and by the end friendships are forged.

Chambers is amazing at exploring the heart of cooperation and recognition. Their are tensions born of mutual ignorance, but the default here is to figure the problems out and build. Refreshing.