Record of a Spaceborn Few

It seems like this book is the reward for the previous books in this series. Now that we got to know the Wayfarers universe, it's a story that dives deep into some of its inhabitant and, in particular, the exodus fleet.

The fleet isn't just an interesting part of the story's universe, it is also more closely tied with a potential future for us humans on Earth. This made me feel able to relate more with the characters in this book over the others. The relationships between the characters, especially the ones with the kids, enhanced that relatability.

The only issue I had is that there were a lot of intertwined stories and a lot of unfamiliar, yet similar names (e.g. Kip vs. Kai) and I found my self having to concentrate to switch contexts between the storylines.

Although I liked the two previous books in this series, I'm afraid this one lost me. I read a good chunk of it, nothing much happened, and what little happened was generally rather downbeat. I gathered from reading other reviews that the rest of the book is much the same, so I lost interest in reading on.

Damn, Becky Chambers gets me every time. It took me longer to get into this book than the previous two, but it was well worth it.

3.5 stars. Didn't have the magic of the first in the series, but I liked it well enough. A particular character was extremely annoying, but he grew on me. I had hoped for a bit more, but ... well. Still very warm.

Wish there were more slice-of-life SF and Fantasy books like this. I'm pretty tired of saving the world, you know? Heh.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

This third part of the Wayfarers series focuses on the Exodan Fleet. This has been mentioned a few times in Long Way to A Small Angry Planet and A Closed And Common Orbit. But this third book is set on the Exodan fleet and is about the group of people living on it.

The Exodan fleet is the last of the humans who left Earth because it was dying. They built huge generational ships for humanity to live on and set off into the stars. This book is set around 70 years after the Exodan Fleet joined the Galactic Commons – this universe's version of the Federation. They have been given new technology and even a star to orbit. But it seems the Exodan Fleet are still searching for a proper place to live.

I think the thing I love most about this whole series is how humanity is portrayed. In a lot of science fiction books, humans are the strongest, smartest, they run the galaxy. The humans of Wayfarers are vastly different. To aliens they smell, they are too exuberant. They live in clunky old ships and are still searching for something. The way it's put in the book is that the other alien species have had the time to adapt to space travel. But the humans are still trying to figure that part out, where they fit into the universe.

Before starting Record Of A Spaceborn Few I had seen one complaint that it wasn't very science-fiction-like. And I guess that's true to an extent. This whole series is more speculative science fiction. But this book, in particular, is very character driven. Unlike the first two books in the Wayfarers series, this has a large cast of characters. They all seem separate at first but as the story goes on you become invested as their stories intertwine.

I love that this series is normalising gender neutral language and LGBT pairings in science-fiction. In the past sci-fi was a man's genre. All the authors were men and the stories all had that white, male perspective. Aliens were all vaguely human-shaped, women were mostly just there for sex. I really like the fact sci-fi authors are beginning to realise alien species would be totally different from our norm and so you can't write them with our human biases.

Perhaps my favorite of the series. Character driven and contemplative. It somehow managed to make me homesick. So lovely.

My first reaction on finishing was that nothing really happens, and that it felt more like a fictional documentary about life in the Exodan Fleet than a novel, but that's not really fair. The more I think about this one, the more I like it. The characters we follow change and develop, and all their stories come to a resolution. There's no gosh wow action setpieces (well, maybe one), and all the drama comes from characters talking and thinking. It's a very human story, full of compassion for people at all stages of their lives. It's also a well thought through and executed future setting, painting a convincing picture of far future off planet life. Another winner for Becky Chambers.