A Closed and Common Orbit: A Heartwarming Space Opera of Friendship, Discovery, and Unlikely Bonds Across the Galaxy (Wayfarers, 2)

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Wayfarers series. There are four books in this series. I bought a copy of this ebook from my Kindle. Thoughts: This was another wonderful installment in this series. I was a bit sad to leave the Wayfarer crew behind and be stuck planet-side for this book, but it was still an excellent story. This story follows Lovey (Lovelace, the Wayfarer's AI) as she adjusts to her new (illegal) human-like body. Pepper is helping Lovey navigate her new situation. The story alternates between present-day with Pepper/Lovey/Blue and the past where we follow a character named Jane, who we quickly find out is actually Pepper as a kid. There are heavy themes about artificial intelligence again, which is a theme Chambers really likes to explore (I also just finished reading the most recent Monk & Robot book, that whole series is very focused on AI). This is very much more a space opera type of book than a sci-fi adventure one. I missed the Wayfarer crew and their adventures through space. This story is about what it means to be human; it is thought-provoking and heart-breaking at times. The characters are incredibly well done and I loved all the different alien cultures. We spend a lot of time watching Pepper get some closure and watching Lovey figure out what it means to have a body and will of her own. The writing here is incredibly easy to read and well done. I love Chambers' writing style; it's very engaging and personable. I did miss the…

This book is less of a sequel to A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and more of a spin off, as Pepper is the only character from the original books in the series. Like many of Chambers' stories, it's definitely a slow burn and I found myself struggling to get through the first quarter of the book due to how slow the pacing was (this is the only problem I have with the book). However, like many of Chambers' stories, the rest of the story is fantastic and finding the themes and metaphors in the story is almost as fun as the world building that Chambers makes in her story. The themes in this book are autism and trauma. The chapters switch between the perspective of two of the characters, Pepper and Sidra. Sidra is the AI from the first book who had their memory wiped. The AI was put into a "kit", which is a machine resembling a human body. Reading the emotions that Sidra was experiencing and it was easy to tell that the AI was exhibiting autism symptoms. Pepper's story I found to be more entertaining. Her childhood story starts with her as an enslaved person in a factory who escapes and finds a ship with an AI named Owl. Pepper spends years fixing the ship to make her escape. The true beauty of Chambers' works is almost always in her ability to describe the world around the characters. It's often more fascinating than the plot itself.