I loved To Be Taught, If Fortunate, and I am excited to begin the Wayfarer’s series. I am reviewing books 1 and 2 here, though I am pausing the series for a bit because I need to shuffle my TBR due to library books being due – plus, I have found that while I really enjoy the world that Chambers has built with this series, I don’t mind stepping out of it for a moment to read something else. I also really want to share this article
as we talk about Becky Chambers because I think her work defies genre in a really heart-warming way. The question in this article – “what is we didn’t think about genre just as content, but also a question of the story’s worldview?” is fascinating (also, Ted Chiang and Lincoln Michel are now also on my TBR and I’m excited for both of these books). And in terms of Chambers’ world view – well, I think she’s got the sci-fi mechanistic view but ALSO the fantasy benign / heroic, with a far more encompassing worldview than any other sci-fi that I’ve read. Her books are about big questions about our place in the Universe, but also about acceptance on all levels – as a society, but also just person to person. She sets her books in space, but really these novels are about people exploring their own identity, and trying to be as good as they can be to one another.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Book 1 in the Wayfarer’s series introduces us to the crew of the Wayfarer – a ship whose job it is to “punch” and “tunnel” through space, making a means of travel for other inter-galactic movers and shakers. Chambers has a strong enough background in the science to make this part sound more or less believable – at least to a VERY limited human like me who knows almost nothing about what space travel might be like. But that isn’t the point for me at all, so I am definitely not someone who’s going to criticize the science / space travel parts of her books. On board is captain Ashby, mechanics Kizzy and Jenks, and an algae specialist (the primary form of fuel on the ship) Corbin – all human members of the crew. The pilot is Sissix, a reptilian sort of alien, and also on board are Dr. Chef (a Grum, one of the last of his kind), and a Sianat pair named Ohan (a species that has been infected by a virus that supports incredible thinking but super short lifespans). Also onboard is a sentient AI system called Lovelace (Lovey for short). Rosemary is the newest member of the crew, and the least well traveled – she has just left her colony on Mars for the first time, and readers get to learn more about the universe through her neophyte eyes. You’ll meet multiple species throughout the book, because the world is far larger than just Earth. In this world, Earth has become generally inhospitable and humans have branched out, moving all over the Universe. Some have formed colonies on Mars or on various moons or other planets, others have become constant travelers who live their lives on spaceships. Humans are also relatively low on the authority rankings of beings across the universe – they’re pretty new to the Galactic Council (GC) and they have lots of feelings about the ways in which they left the planet. Many alien species view humans as a sort of annoying kid sibling. Each alien race has their own customs and mannerisms, and the world in general is an example of people who generally want to be kind and accommodating. In this world, there is a great need for cultural competence, and all the characters are generally striving for that – working out appropriate ways to accommodate their own needs and the needs of others is the central tension in the novel, despite the fact that there are sometimes intergalactic space wars.
Book 1 starts with Rosemary’s introduction to the crew, just before they take on a long and potentially ethically dubious (but well paying) job to punch a tunnel that would benefit a group of aliens who are more or less known for their conformity and antisocial attitudes (and it speaks volumes that these are the “bad guys” in this novel). The crew embarks on this journey, along with a few stops at different ports along the way, broadening Rosemary’s views of the universe, and learning more about each other. The tension is mostly interpersonal, and while characters get angry and sad and scared, they are mostly caring beings so they also comfort one another and form deeper bonds as a result of these feelings.
NOTE: It’s sort of hard to talk about book 2 without giving away a spoiler from Book 1, so if you want to read these knowing NOTHING about the plot, STOP HERE. Go read the book if cozy science fiction sounds of interest to you – given the state of the world today, it felt really good to read something so heartwarming! If you want to know more about book 2, be prepared that it starts with a spoiler.
A Closed and Common Orbit
In book 2, we move away from the Wayfarer and onto Port Coriol. We meet the main characters of Book 2 in Book 1, but here we get to explore much more of their background. Book 2 is focused on Pepper, a human who was more or less bred for doing hard labor by a world of extravagant humans. In book 1, we meet her as a friend of Jenks, working on various types of repairs – we know that she had a traumatic background, and we know that she can access things that others cannot. One thing she accesses for Jenks is an illegal body kit – although there are sentient AI, they are only allowed to be housed in certain structures (homes, spaceships) and they are not supposed to be allowed bodies (for safety reasons, but also this is very much questioned by most of the characters as potentially prejudiced against AI). The intention had been for Lovey to install herself in the body kit, because she and Jenks were in love and she wanted to know what it might be like to be in the same form as him. However, at the end of Book 1, Lovey suffers a catastrophic hit, and she needs to be rebooted – which results in her erasing all of her previous memory files, and essentially becoming a factor default. Her existence in the Wayfarer is too painful for the rest of the crew, who knew and loved Lovey, so Pepper gives her an alternative – download yourself into the body kit that she had already given to Jenks, and come live on Port Coriol with Pepper and her partner Blue. The program agrees to that option, and Book 2 follows what happens when the AI and her new friends attempt to make a community together. There are external stakes – the body kit itself is illegal, and the AI programming won’t allow her to tell lies or rewrite her own programming to fix that glitch so they’re in constant danger of being found out. On the other hand, these stakes are low level, and like the first book, much of the action is in interpersonal relationships.
I did enjoy both books and I think there’s a feeling of almost respite in reading about a world where, while there is indeed much suffering and pain, there are so many beings who just want to be good to one another.
