The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

Surprisingly difficult to connect with.

This is still a well written, interesting, continues the Wayfarer universe and prompts some challenging thoughts.

Where I did struggle was connection with the characters. Because they're exclusively alien, and entirely so: 4 arms and a shell, tiny sloth like swinging creatures, laru furball bendy things (though I imagined the creature from Ice Age oddly enough), because they're hard to visualise in my head I found it harder to connect to the characters.

I do also suspect this is a way of putting the reader in a position of a minority, to be unable to recognise oneself amongst the peers, which is what kept flipping back and forth in my head whilst continuing with the tale.

As with other Becky Chambers' books, the story isn't some fantastical explosion of events, but a soft observation of life and interaction of species and races living together - and that's something I'll continue to love about their books.

My favourite is still the first book, I'm not sure anything is going to top that for many years, but this is still a solid entry into the Wayfarer world.

On first reading, I found this a pleasant and enjoyable experience, and sufficiently gripping that I read the whole thing at one sitting, which I don't normally do these days.A few strangers of different species (none of them human) meet at the interstellar equivalent of a motorway service area while travelling in different directions for different reasons; they're kept there longer than expected, and they interact with each other. Initially they sometimes distrust, offend, or disagree with each other; but they each have their own personal problems, and they end up helping each other with these problems. It's rather charming that they're all basically well-meaning: there are no villains in this story.There's no sex, no violence, no weapons are present, no-one dies, no crimes are committed, no scientific discoveries or technological innovations or social revolutions occur. At the end of the story, the galaxy remains entirely unchanged except that the characters we meet know and like each other better than they did at the beginning.These well-meaning characters include representatives of the Akarak and Quelin species, which were presented as hostile and dislikeable in [b:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 25201920 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438590529l/25201920.SY75.jpg 42270825]. Presumably the message is to beware of generalizations: any large group of beings may contain some good and some bad individuals, however you define good and bad.I'm not quite sure why I like this book so much, but by now I've decided that it's my favourite of the Wayfarers series, even though not very much seems to happen in it. Well, in fact, all kinds of things happen in it, they're just on a more intimate scale than we're accustomed to in sf stories. There are major things happening here, but they affect individuals, not whole societies, and for a reader of sf that takes a bit of getting used to.As in most sf stories, the aliens have brains that seem human-equivalent: they're about as intelligent as humans, and they behave much as humans might behave if they'd grown up with non-human bodies in a non-human society. If we ever encounter real intelligent aliens from other solar systems, it seems unlikely to me that their mental functioning will be so familiar and readily understood by humans. However, genuinely alien mentalities would be hard for the author to imagine and describe, and probably hard for human readers to appreciate and enjoy.Could you read this fourth book in isolation, without the rest of the series? Probably, yes. It would be somewhat helpful to have read the first book in the series, which provides some context, but I don't think it's essential. The second and third books don't contribute anything to this one, as far as I can see.

This is a very 2020 book – about what happens when an external temporary disaster stops your daily routine, sets back your to-do list and forces you to reflect about your priorities. This is also a very Becky Chambers book – each main character belongs to a separate alien species and one that was not well-fleshed out in the previous books – each species is intricately developed in physiology, cultural norms around gender, living style, values, etc. And each character is carefully developed within that species.

Like Chambers' other works there isn't much plot there. Instead, the book really focuses on character development. Most of the book is spent on each character's own reflective practice and their pairwise relationship developments. Beyond that, the book is largely an exploration about family and parenting - why and how each character does or doesn't engage in different types of family relationships. Chambers wrote in interviews that she was strongly influenced by Le Guin and it shows here – very strong world building and a lot of contemplation about how speculative fiction to open a window into the choices we make in the real world without considering them.

Also, basically Come From Away, but with aliens and no music.

A few adorable snippets: a child's rock collection is all dressed up as a natural history museum; an entire conversation about how dumb humans are for eating cheese (there are no humans in this book, which I found a great choice that really allowed for larger cultural exploration), zillions of baked goods and a bath house so epic it needed foreshadowing

This was a phenomenal wrap-up to the Wayfarers series, and seeing it come full circle back to Pei and her character amidst others in this universe was perfect.

I did receive both a gifted digital ARC via NetGalley and a complimentary physical copy of this book from Harper Voyager, but this in no way influences my review. I've been a long time fan of Chambers' books!

I love this series and I love bottle episodes so I knew this one was gonna be amazing. And it was, oh god it was. I lose track of who is what species and what all of them can do, but luckily so do the characters and it feels natural the way they repeat certain things about their anatomy and culture in the text to help you keep up. 

Honestly the last 100 pages of this I was just crying and smiling the whole way. This made me want to reread the first book because it gave me that same feeling. A group of people of different species learning about each other, helping each other and sharing their lives and cultures. Magnificant. 

This was another great addition to the Wayfarers series. All of the books have been so different from each other, only sharing their universe. I feel this book had more references to all of the other books, but still had its own unique story and characters. Speaking of characters, it had a mix of alien species that just happened to come together for the story and shows off my favorite thing about Becky Chambers' books, how well she writes her characters and from their perspective.

The audiobook was narrated by Rachel Dulude and she was great, I loved the unique voices for Pei and Tupo.

Nothing much happens in this book, and yet it's wonderful. A variety of alien species are stuck together in a small family-run space motel, and they get along, because by some lucky coincidence, they are the nicest cosmopolitan outsiders that their respective species has to offer.

Becky Chambers' Wayfarers universe has always impressed with its wide range of unusual alien races, from bugs to dinosaurs, and this book gives us a lot of backstory for several of them. My favorite scene was the one where they discuss the phenomenon of cheese, and universally agree that humans are the weirdest. I'm especially thankful for the extended epilogue that brings each individual's story to a satisfying happy end.

OK, I need to be honest: this isn't really five stars, more like three point nine, but it is five stars right now, in this shitty post-Roe moment. This was exactly what I needed to read: a handful of characters, each broken in their own way but each also compassionate, kind, thoughtful, Present, aware of and listening to every other character, doing their absolute best together under tough scary conditions.

Chambers is just so fucking wonderful. Yeah, treacly at times, but I need that right now and so, probably, do you. She packs so much in this obviously-post-pandemic book: good communication, emotional intelligence, gender identity, body autonomy, bioparents vs nurture parents, cooperation in the face of uncertainty; she slams “differing opinions” when it comes to killing sentient beings, magat cultures, and closeting.

Warning: a bit tough to get into: the characters are all alien (to us) races, and it takes some time (maybe 50 pages) to get them mentally sorted out. It's totally worth it. And: you do not need to read any of the prior books. Same universe, one shared character. Readers familiar with that character's backstory will nod in recognition, but the backstory is not necessary to understand this book.

I thought this was a stunning conclusion to the Wayfarers series (which to me is mostly made up of standalone books than stories that flow into the next). A very minor mystery/event starts the book off and between that and the very masterfully done character work I was hooked from the start. This is a very heavily character-driven book and if you like those kinds of books I strongly recommend this one.

absolutely adored this book. its my first exposure to the wayfarers series, as well as its author, but i wasn't lost at all. i was really swept away by the characters and their lives - which is good because that's basically all this book is! it's a book about some people who learn about themselves through meeting other people with lives, customs, habits, ways of living drastically different from them. it's beautiful and sweet and kind and funny and one of my favorite books ive read in years. absolutely will be checking out the rest of the series and following becky chamber's career like a hawk.

I feel like it's too easy to associate sci fi with the coldness of space. I fear encountering stories focused too much on descriptions of the tech, the science, and not enough on the speculative what-if, the relationships. The Wayfarers books hold such warmth, this latest is no exception, not that they're without friction. Interpersonal sharing and understanding, managing conflict, cultural differences, discussing sexuality, gender and reproductive rights, touching on the harms of colonialism. Above all they make me happy. ❤️
Yes, yes I did just go buy the whole series, since I just finished the latest published (next in May 2025!). In paperback, because I think they're prettier. Grateful as always to my library for providing the opportunity to ‘test drive' before I buy. I only have space for a teeny tiny personal library at home so if I bought it, you know I loved it. Between Wayfarers and Monk & Robot series, I'm officially a huge Becky Chambers fan.