A Closed and Common Orbit

This book is an amazing read as a stand alone story, and a beautiful extension of where things left off with Lovey and Pepper in the first book of the series. You can read this without reading the first book, but the connection I had to Lovey from book 1 made her journey throughout this book that much more exciting and thought provoking.

Lovelace was meant to be a ship’s AI, processing and monitoring her crew. But when circumstances push her towards uploading into a kit, her grasp of purpose and understanding begin to unravel. Pepper stays by Lovelace’s side, as she tries to process the new world around her from the eyes of a human looking kit. Along the way, readers will discover Pepper’s tragic past and heartwarming experience with artificial intelligence.

Through Lovelace, or as readers come to know her as Sidra, there are many moments where the new perception of the world is too much for her to handle. She has what amounts to panic attacks and struggles with feeling the kit is not actually her own body. The way Becky Chambers can capture these internal struggles is heart-wrenching. But no matter how difficult it may be, Sidra has the love and support of her friends.

And one of those friends is Pepper, a woman who has gone through a traumatic past. As Sidra’s story grows and develops, readers are also taken back to when Pepper was known as Jane. While there are hints at her past in the first book, A Closed and Common Orbit will dive fully into Pepper’s abusive upbringing and escape. It is a sad read, but knowing that Pepper is around to help Sidra in the future lets readers know there is hope for her in the end.

The two storylines interconnect and show how acclimating to a new society and worldview isn’t easy regardless of who is experiencing it. They also are in line with the understanding AI’s are much more than just pieces of software, yet the world at large still doesn’t want to accept it.

A Closed and Common Orbit may be the sequel to A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, but it can also be standalone. However, if you do read this book first there will be major spoilers for book one. While book two may not follow the same cast of characters from the prior novel, it is no less phenomenal. I could hardly put this book down and highly recommend it to fans of sci-fi.

Following on from The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet where the Wayfarer has been almost destroyed in an alien attack. The AI that runs the ship has been blitzed and when it was rebooted it reverted to a brand new install, having lost all it's memories and relationships with the crew.

In this book the AI has been transferred to a body kit and the story from here explores the difficulty of the transfer from ship to body. Running parallel is the story of Jane, a ten year old girl who was artificially bred to be a factory worker. Chapters alternate between the cloned human working out her life and the AI in an artificial body working out her life. Their respective struggles are intermingled with the strange relationships between various aliens that populate the planet.

It's the cozy scifi of Becky Chambers with the same sense of optimism of the Angry Planet story. This time she deals with themes of identity and acceptance in a deeper way. It got a bit bogged down in the expository stuff in the middle but suddenly sparked up again once we got back to characters instead of concepts.

Hard to believe this was written by the same author as ‘The Long Way to a Small & Angry Planet' - this one is so much more complex and thoughtful in how it handles characters and themes.

A tight focus on two POV characters helps really dig into their experiences and arcs. There's an interesting and cohesive structure with the flipping back and forth in time, and some nice background stuff to be picked up on (like the origin of Pepper's name). It's worth trying this book even if you found the first one tedious.

I really wanted Jane to be saved by the rest... not for her to be Pepper. It just wasn't as satisfying to me.

I trust Becky chambers. I left the great first book hoping to continue with those characters and was initially a bit disappointed that it doesn't stick with them but I think I enjoyed this second book even more. It really jelled together better and had a cohesive theme. Really really good. Already checked out book 3.

Really great story about found-family and figuring out exactly who you are when you were sort of born into an expected role. 

oh wow. I read [b:The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 22733729 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532474l/22733729.SY75.jpg 42270825] a WHILE ago (for a podcast! and really liked it, more than I was expecting to given my usual wariness toward sci-fi. But then when I heard the 2nd book in the series wasn't about the Wayfarer ship anymore I was like “girl IDK”. And then I put it off long enough that by now I've forgotten most of that book so this was fresh to me, and I loved it! Really thoughtful world-building designed to support a nice cozy found family. You love to see it!

I actually like this addition to the Wayfarers series more than I do the first. Chambers takes all the best of her world-building and character development skills from A Long Way to Small Angry Planet, and compounds it by adding a beautiful narrative with themes of self-identity and what it means to be human in this book.

‘Life is terrifying. None of us have a rule book. None of us know what we're doing here. So the easiest way to stare reality in the face an not utterly lose you s*** is to believe that you have control over it”

I pretty much love everything Becky Chambers writes so this being a 5-star read is not a surprise for me. An AI in human form is something I haven't read yet surprisingly (although the Ann Leckie series that does this is on my list). “A Closed and Common Orbit” had more conflict than the other books I've read by Chambers but it was still a cozy sci-fi nonetheless. If you are interested in reading a cozy sci-fi about an AI in a human body you actually do not have to read the first book in the series to read this one, although I recommend that one too! There are some nice twists in this novel too which is a nice addition as I don't recall any in the first one or in the Monk and Robot series.

I really look forward to reading the next one in the series!

i actually enjoyed this more than the first book.

I don't knowwwww, man. This book is so well-liked with all the great reviews and stuff but it just didn't work for me. It wasn't terrible by any means and had a fairly interesting story, but I just... found it a little draggy almost.

We get a split narrative here, first with Lovelace's brand new iteration after the end of the first book, now also stuck in a “kit”, i.e. a synthetic body that looks and can behave like a human but isn't. Pepper brings her back to her home planet of Coriol, where Lovelace gains a new name (Sidra), meets Pepper's friend/partner, and eventually learns about life as a sentient AI. In the other narrative, we learn about Pepper's origins, from her beginning as possibly some kind of clone, her life in a factory (literally a factory in which she and other girls like her are made), and then eventually how she ended up as a mechanic.

Book 1 was amazing for me because it had a strong plot driving things forward while also giving us the readers time to know the different members of the crew, the ways different species behaved and interacted, and the unique stories for each member. Because there was an underlying point of the story, I appreciated everything else the book was showing me about species that were gender-fluid, or had much more complex family units (more than two parents, most of whom are not biological), etc. This book - didn't have that.

Instead, Book 2 spends a lot of time in both narratives meandering and taking its time. We don't really have any crisis or a “mission objective” for the narrative until maybe about 75% in. In a sense, it reminded me a lot of Chambers's other novella series, Monk and Robot, but it worked for that one because the point of that book was to be contemplative and to almost function like Plato's Dialogues in the way it was exploring concepts and asking thought-provoking questions. In this one, I didn't get the feeling that that was its objective. Instead, we get smatterings of action here and there, smatterings of questions here and there, but honestly nothing that really had a huge impact on me, or which made me stop and think, “That's such a good question.” which I usually do with most of Chambers's work.

I've heard that the rest of the series will take its time with other characters and so aren't narratively linked to each other, so will still give them a try!

4.5/5 stars

it's a becky chambers novel so i'm fully into it. really loved this one's themes about the disconnect between body and mind and what you can do to bring the two together. as a trans person, this hits with me pretty intensely!! the idea of “purpose” and how we inherently do not have any but need to make one for ourselves, is something i really connect with too, and it's cool to see it crop up here a little before becoming a major part of one of her later works. super bummed that it both seems like the wayfarers series has ended/gone on pause and that the very nature of it means i probably wont see sidra and pepper and tak again, or at least for a while. wanna check in with them right away!!

This is two stories in one. One is that Lovey the AI from the first book is now in a body but her memories didn't travel over. So she has to adapt to the all the input and try to make sense of her new friends and surroundings while trying to fit in to society as well. The other is a story of survival of Jane and how she escapes her enslavement with the with the help of an AI program.

This is was so good I want to read the next book right away. I listened to it on audible and it was very well narrated as well.

This review will refer to my review of the first book here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1369172522

So, this was much improved. Unlike the first, there was no real preaching, which was much appreciated. I don't like being preached at, even if its something I agree with.

Unlike the first book, there was also conflict and character development, which was a huge improvement. There was tension, I was actually curious on what was going to happen instead of waiting for something interesting to actually happen.

But what makes this earn its 4th star are the journeys both Jane\Pepper and Lovelace\Sidra took. Similar but each unique to themselves.

A few of the ideas that come up are things like being shaped by others, finding your identity, and independence. There may have even been some body dysmorphia in there as well

If this had been the first book, I might be eager to continue with the rest of the series. But the actual first book left such a bad taste in my mouth that its dampening my enthusiasm. I likely will, but I need a break first.

–edit–
I read reviews of the next book. Nope, that's it for me. Lets leave this at a high note.

A billion bright stars for this heartwarming cosy thought-provoking book! I

When I read the first wayfarers I hated the fact that Lovey got reset and I don't even think about starting this book. But I waited a very long time and I am so glad I returned to it because this story was amazing. 

Not only do I love the exploration of cultures that seem to be a staple in this series but I love the parallels between Pepper's story and Cirta discovering the world in her new body. And the ending, omg. I felt homesick for a book somehow. 

The consideration of the humanity of AI is just...so good. I love that this wasn't just a continuation of the first book, and that it tackled many of the same issues that the first book did.

Al principio el no estar con los personajes del primer libro fue un poco triste pero según iba avanzando me iba encariñando más y más de Pepper y especialmente de Sidra

Ist leider nur ok gewesen. Band 1 hat für mich deutlich besser funktioniert.

I wasn't sure about this one at first. It took a little bit for me to get into it because even though it picks up right after the first book ended, we are now following two characters we didn't get to know much in the first book, and leaving the rest of the crew behind. But before too long I was hooked and I was constantly looking forward to when I had time to listen to the audiobook. I can't wait to read the other two books in this series!

This is very unique style of storytelling. This takes you through journey of 2 protagonists in different times. Very very well written indeed. I am listening to audiobook version of this and it's engaging and fun!

❤️ Becky Chambers

I was expecting a continuation from the first Wayfarers book but this can almost be read as a standalone. A ship AI struggles with finding her identity and sense of purpose after being placed (illegally) in a human-like body. At the same time we follow the story of a genetically modified girl, Jane 23, destined to spend her life working in a factory, who escapes and has to figure out how to live in the outside world. Even though it tackles some heavy subjects, it's just such a cozy, comfy sci-fi thanks to the relationships the different aliens and AIs build with each other.

I see why this is everyone's favourite Wayfarer book. It is now mine as well. :)