To Be Taught, If Fortunate

Yes! This is how you do a near future sci-fi!

The story follows the tale of an early set of space explorers conducting one of the first manned extra-solar missions to planets where life can be found. The sense of wonder and the possible is palpable throughout the story, with a constant challenge of what forms life could take, recognizing the nature of common ancestors has perhaps limited the variety on earth. The imagination is wild and the scenes produced believable.

The technology used by the astronauts has a root very much in current technology lending it an air of believability. The communication with earth takes years because with electromagnetic based communication like we currently have that is what it would take. The sense of detachment this generates is ultimately central to the plot.

I loved this book, it was extremely well written, offering just the right amount of hope whilst recognizing the frequent failings of our current civilization

Becky Chambers' mom is an astrobiologist (yes, I'm jealous, too) and they worked together to imagine how spacefaring might work in this world. I love super-realistic space stories and there are so few of them, without ansibles and hyperspace drives. To Be Taught leans in to the boundaries of the speed of light. There is no going home, there is no instantaneous communication with earth, light years away. There is the claustrophobic feeling of being with the only humans who come from the same era as you, of being years away from hearing a response to your question. How do people cope with that? How does a society build up an astronaut plan and a culture to accept that? These are the fascinating questions of space travel and Chambers doesn't flinch from them.