I mentioned at the end of my review of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet that I was disappointed the rest of the Wayfarers books wouldn’t be about the crew of the Wayfarer. That disappointment disappeared immediately upon starting A Closed and Common Orbit. The book starts very soon after the end of the previous book. The AI Lovelace is in a new (and illegal) body kit and is traveling with Pepper to Pepper and Blue’s home on Port Coriol. Lovelace, who soon chooses the more human name Sidra, is not feeling at home in her new body, a theme that will carry through the rest of the novel as she adapts to her new life.
The chapters alternate between Sidra in the present and Pepper in the past, back when she was known as Jane and still living on a planet colonized by people of the Enhanced Humanity movement. Jane was bred to provide labor to the colony. She escapes the factory she was living in and spends the next several years living in an inhospitable environment while working to repair a shuttle – complete with a working AI – that she found so that she can get off the planet.
I don’t consider this book as “cozy” as the previous one was. It’s still focused on character and world-building, and the smaller cast allows more time to get to know the characters. But what Pepper/Jane goes through is occasionally hard to read about it, even thought most of it is in the past. There are elements that are similar to Brave New World and Handmaid’s Tale (I think – it’s been a while since I’ve read either), and it sucks knowing that this colony even exists, regardless of knowing that Pepper escapes it. Chambers also continues to explore the unsettling way that AI is treated, even so far in the future.
This doesn’t make the book less enjoyable, and the ending was lovely, but it didn’t leave me with some of the same warm and fuzzy feelings that TWLtoSAP did. I still recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first book, and I’ve already started the third and expect it to be just as engaging.
cbr15bingo Relation”ship” (multiple relationships, including with a ship (shuttle))
