Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers Book 3)

It’s hard for me to articulate just how much I loved this book. I mean, I know that’s my purpose as someone who reviews books on a blog, but Becky Chambers always leaves me a little bit speechless with her writing. Her books are like warm hugs that I never want to let go of. This is the third book in her Wayfarers series and it focuses on a few characters who live in The Fleet, several huge generational ships that were built by humans to leave the planet behind and look for a home elsewhere in the universe. Only instead of finding a new planet, they got a new star to orbit around and the ships became their new planet, so to speak. Many of the Exodans have since left the ships and settled elsewhere, but some have stayed and they try and stay true to their ideals and way of life aboard the fleet. But everything changes eventually and as more and more people leave the Exodans find themselves having to adapt and be willing to open their doors to the outside, allowing for immigration so that they have enough people to sustain the ships and all the various jobs that need to be done to keep things running. The entire culture of the Exodans is super interesting. Because of the unique living situation, purposefully designed in such a way, they’ve developed their own culture that very much revolves around sharing with each other and equality. Even when it comes to jobs, there are some that all have to take turns at so as not to make any one person do the things that no one wants to…

Chambers' Wayfarers stories are set in the Galactic Commons, a galactic federation of intelligent species, most of them significantly older than the newcomer humans. Each has looked at a different part of life in the Galactic Commons. This one is set in the Exodus Fleet, the fleet carrying the descendants of the last humans to leave Earth, fleeing its environmental collapse. They're a distinctly different culture from the humans who settled Mars and the outer planets prior to that final collapse. Originally, they were looking for an Earthlike planet to start over on, and they wanted their descendants to be prepared for planetary life. In addition to their quite functional food- and oxygen-producing farms, they have decorative oxygen gardens, theaters that show nature videos of Earth, murals on the walls that, functionally, don't need to be anything but bare metal. They also guard against the development of the competition and divisions that helped destroy Earth. Everyone has windows onto space in their living quarters. Everyone is guaranteed "if we have food they will eat, if we have air they will breathe, if we have fuel they will fly." Their economic system is barter. And membership in the Galactic Commons has brought changes, changes that can disrupt this system. Tessa is a supervisor in salvage operations--managing and sorting what comes in, sending it on to where those materials are most useful, making sure nothing goes to waste. She has two children, a husband with…