The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

(Written after the body of my review: Another attempt at a book that I marked as DNF once before already. I did finish it this time, but have now realized that I wouldn't have missed much if I hadn't. Original DNF review at the end.)

I...am not sure how I feel about this book. It's very character driven, to the extent that the plot is borderline nonexistent. The chapters are very episodic, just tangentially connected to the ones before and after - and that only through a couple of character arcs. The characters are...kind of bland, honestly. I mean, they were so good and written to be so likable that ... none of them really had any flaws. (Except for Corbin, but that, I think was just so he could do something the rest of the crew wouldn't.) And even that was more of an informed flaw than anything.

The book was a very quick read, so that was a good thing, and the first half to two-thirds went by fairly quickly, but then all these moral questions started popping up and the book just takes the easy way out on every single one of them.

And, honestly, there's problems in this book. I mean, this is sci-fi, humans should have learnt better by now, but it's aggressively human-centric. Also, kinda transphobic and unaccepting of non-binary and asexual folks. Though it does normalize gay relationships and makes an attempt to do the same for poly relationships.

Huh... Looks like I do know how I feel about this book. Sorry guys, I'm going to have to disagree with so many of you. (Like every single person I know that's read this book.) Thanks Goodreads, for letting me figure out my feels in a stream of conscious type review!

(There's more and better reviews that deal with some of my problems - like a good half of the one star reviews! - but I'm going to leave you a link to this thoughtful one that isn't on Goodreads. https://candidceillie.com/review-a-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet-by-becky-chambers-spoilers-galore/)

DNF - PG 148

Why?

I actually have over a page that I wrote out about what this book does well (everyone's nice and respectful of each other and get along wonderfully) and me saying why it doesn't work for me (characters are boring, nothing happens - ever) at great length. And now I can't find that paper. Ah, well...

Anyway, this book wasn't for me because while the respect the races show each other is wonderful, the romances (human woman/alien female & human man/AI) are sweet and cute, the characters are flawless - which I do not find a good thing - and the writing relies too much on omnipotent narrator for me. But, most importantly, nothing ever happens. There is no plot beyond a slice-of-life space-trip.

Honestly, I would totally feel comfortable recommending this to readers that usually read contemporary or romance or, maybe literature or historical, that are looking to try some sci-fi but don't want the lots of action that usually comes with it. But, if you're a sci-fi fan that likes action and/or plots and/or flawed characters...well, I wouldn't recommend this book.