The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Crisp, engaging writing. Lots of imagery. The characters felt real rather than contrived.

This whole book, I kept expecting an epic space battle to break out. That’s how space operas work, I thought, but now I’ve been introduced to cozy science fiction.

The book explored a dozen species. Very different people kept finding common ground, something anyone living in the US right now is struggling with.

My life has been filled with people who didn’t fit the average person mold in various ways. I was moved almost to tears more than once as people who were all so different found their way into something like a family. I particularly enjoyed how the love… show more.

This could have been just another “humans working for aliens” book, of which there are plenty.

But by embracing the diversity of the characters, and examining the ways their unique characteristics combine to create a whole, Chambers transcends the trope. Her story is full of optimism, friendship, acceptance, and chosen family, themes which resonate with me and through my stories as well.

The story is cute, quirky, and delightful. With humour and sensitivity, Becky Chambers unveils a complex, advanced world with a deft hand full of rich details that bring it all to life.

It’s a hopeful story of friendship and love and family, that uplifts as each character finds a path through their challenges to discover connection and love of sorts. I felt uplifted and satisfied at the end of this lovely book. It’s a nice change from the cautionary, disaster-filled stories that fill the sci-fi shelves.

I’m a sucker for found families and motley crews. The Outsiders is a great example of this kind of story, though this book doesn’t have greasers per se, the connection that this multi-specie ship crew is one I can relate to.

I’ve been a performer most of my life, and the relationship that develops when people share a common passion and goal, such as putting on a performance, can run deep. That’s mainly because the thing created is greater than the sum of its parts, and that can be beautiful. This book reminds me of that feeling.

This is a fascinating exploration of culture and personality, both human and alien. The breadth and variation in human culture is cleverly placed in context by the presence of alien cultures and, as we get to know them, we see not only how they differ from ours, but we get to question our own values and societal norms. The story is set on a spaceship which is used to build hyperspace tunnels. They agree to build a tunnel to open a cargo route to a far-off planet in an active war zone. The dangers of the journey, and of the… show more.

Becky Chambers’ books have been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Women's Prize for Fiction, among others. This, her first book, was originally funded by Kickstarter and self-published, but was then picked up by Hodder and Stoughton after word-of-mouth success pushed it up the Amazon charts.

The Wayfarer in …Angry Planet is not a battlecruiser or a starship; it doesn’t fight wars, it doesn’t have any weapons to fire. It’s a patched-up rustbucket with a motley crew of diverse species and clashing personalities, all with their own secrets to hide. Their long journey… show more.

You know how Star Trek can have you pondering the human condition one moment and laughing at the antics of a quirky, diverse crew the next? This science fiction novel gave me that same feeling, and I loved every minute of it. There’s action, adventure, and, if you look closely enough, a plot. But the heart of this book is its ensemble cast. I kept coming back to it to see how the different personalities, backstories, and creative fictional cultures of the Wayfarer’s crew would guide their interactions with each other. The scenes where everyone converses over a dinner lovingly… show more.

The crew of the spaceship Wayfarer mingles humans and aliens of various types. Several of the aliens are very creatively designed, not only physically, but culturally. My personal favorite is Dr. Chef, but there are other interesting ones, including Ohan, who handles navigation in a very interesting fashion. Although there is ostensibly a mission, this book is really all about “the long way”—that is, the characters and their interactions.

Chamber’s A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a quiet slice-of-life kind of story following the journey of Rosemary—the main human character—as she tries to fit in and find her place within her alien crew. I really fell in love with Rosemary’s curiosity about her crewmates, and how that translated beautifully into the quiet character-building moments Chambers weaves into the story overall. It’s a lovely queer story where no one is treated any differently for being queer and that resonated with me. The story is also truly compelling—I literally gasped out loud when I got to the midpoint.