The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, 1)

Why did I love this book so much? Oh, I wish it was easy to answer that. There are just too many answers to this question. First of all, it’s just such a non-typical scifi book. It does not concentrate on plots, plans and big angry sciencey words. (Sciencey is totally a word.) It focuses on the characters, on their development and their dynamics. It also looks many societal problems deep in the eye and shows it to all be resolvable, if not in the most popular, but perhaps the most compassionate way. And the part that I love about it the most – it’s such a feminine scifi book. Let’s start with the fact that females don’t write scifi as often as males, and therefore more often than not scifi leans into the rational, cold direction (not necessarily always a bad thing). But this is such a personal take on scifi that you can see each character come alive, live and breathe, basically. It focuses on the individual rather than the whole big picture, which tends to be the case in a lot of scifi. I don’t know what some hardcore readers would say, but for me, as a female scifi fan, this is something I’ve wanted to see in the genre for so long, and I didn’t even consciously know that THIS was what I was longing for. Other than that, let me just sum up why I loved it and why you should check it out in list form: It’s one of the most diverse books I’ve read (in general). In terms of race, LGBTQ and even general individual sentience. The things you will see here WILL expand your…

Well done, Becky! Alien descriptions were brilliant and character development quite good. Enjoyed the relationship development between them. Not tech heavy but sufficient for the story line. On occasion, the “head hopping” left me wondering who owned the dialog and some the exposition was lengthy. Still a good story with characters that I cared about. I plan to read the sequel. 😎👽🧑‍🚀 .

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Wayfarers series, there are four books in this series. I bought this book for my Kindle. Previous to reading this I had read Chambers’ “To Be Taught If Fortunate” and her Monk and Robot series and really loved them both. Thoughts: I ended up thoroughly enjoying this first installment in the Wayfarers series. This is definitely in the space opera subgenre of sci-fi. Chambers does an excellent job throwing the reader into an intriguing sci-fi world without the term-dumping that makes sci-fi such a drag sometimes. The characters are engaging and entertaining. The worlds are intriguing and I loved the discussion of the different races of aliens and how complicated it is to get everyone working together without any misunderstandings. The story starts by following Rosemary Harper as she joins the crew of the Wayfarer. The Wayfarer is a ship that punches holes through space to different locations to enable space travel. When they get the offer of a lifetime they can’t refuse, even though it may be incredibly dangerous. As the book continues we get to spend time with all of the crew and learn about their lives and backgrounds. It did take me a bit to warm up to all the crew on the Wayfarer because we do jump between a lot of characters and planets and races. However, it was time well spent and once I was about 25% through the book I was totally engaged in this story and absolutely loving it. Chambers’ writing style is easy to read…

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is the debut novel by Becky Chambers. The book chronicles a journey of the Wayfarer, a ship which creates hyperspace tunnels between worlds. Right off the bat the ship and her crew reminded me of Firefly. It’s obvious that Chambers either got some inspiration there or was the recipient of a wonderful coincidence. This is not a problem. Firefly obviously did something right, and the characters are not exactly the same. There are no weapons on the Wayfarer and the crew is not all human. I think it was a smart decision, if it was a decision, to start the reader off in a familiar place before throwing a new universe in their face. The novel begins with a new clerk, Rosemary, joining the Wayfarer’s crew. Unfortunately it starts with one of those overdone scenes where Rosemary wakes up and tries to remember her motivations for signing on to the Wayfarer. Luckily the book quickly recovers from it’s stumbling start. After completing a run of the mill mission the Wayfarer embarks on a long journey; one that will bring a hefty payday. The characters really drive the novel. Chambers created a wonderful cast of characters, from Kizzy, the eccentric engineer to Dr. Chef, a being with six appendages and a fondness for cooking. My favorite aspect is how the characters interact. They grow and change throughout the novel in how they act and treat each other. This is all set to a mosaic of different cultures and races, and the challenges that this…

Ms. Chambers has built a deep, fascinating universe for the Wayfarers stories. Multiple alien species, each with its own variations. Humans as junior players in a galactic society, but still split into different factions. Each character is distinct, each with his / her / its / their own secret. (Beyond the secrets, the characters seem a bit thin.) The gist of this book: The starship Wayfarer picks up a new crew member. The ship then travels to different places. At each place, and in between, a few things happen to various crew members. The shop arrives at the titular small angry planet. A few things happen. Then a very big, bad thing happens. The crew works to recover from that big, bad thing, with mixed results. The end. The novel has no overarching elements: no plot arcs, no throughlines, no central character anchoring the story. Each character develops over the course of the book. Many characters enter loving physical relationships with others, often of a different species. (Thankfully, Ms. Chambers doesn't go into details of the mechanics.) And yet, and yet: The society, the species, the universe are all fascinating. It's a mix of a travel log and a novel, the former predominating. It works out as a good read.