The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Ratings795
Average rating4.1
sorry if i rain on your parade. this was just not my kind of a bag. its not bad, its wellwritten and have a fantastic neverending set of characters. but im left without investing in any of them. There is way to much feeling for my taste
I enjoyed “The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet” quite a bit. Others have mentioned that it's in the same vein as Firefly or Farscape, which is accurate, and puts it right in my sweet spot. The world is well realized and complex, and while there are occasional expository digressions to get some of that stuff worked out, it's by no means disruptive. Like the worldbuilding, the characters are well realized, distinct, and a joy to read. They can feel like echoes of more familiar characters—Kizzy is a clear echo of Kaylee, and Ashby is a more subtle echo of Malcolm Reynolds—but again, this in no way detracts from their distinctness, and mainly serves as a comfortable foothold.
More than the worldbuilding and the characterization, I was drawn in by the prose itself. The author has an enjoyable style that really paints a picture. I'm a fairly sensitive reader, and this book had me all over the place emotionally. Anything that can make me chuckle involuntarily or tear up in the middle of a crowded coffee shop is clearly doing something right.
All that being said, and as good as this book is, I found myself wanting more. There are a few (only a few) missed opportunities or things that were glossed over or skipped that I would have loved to see on the page. Also, I feel that Rosemary, the main character, was not given quite enough room to develop. Her backstory was explained and examined fairly deftly, and she had a clear arc of growth from Solan to spacer over the course of the book, but I felt some of it, again, was glossed over. There were some things not well enough explained to really ground the character, and other things not quite setup enough to make her actions/choices seem completely natural.
Despite these few, very slight flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and highly recommend it.
I'm not going to lie: I totally just picked up this book because of the cover because it is BEAUTIFUL. And I am so glad I did because I think this is such a wonderful book. It was such a break from all the similar stories (especially within the Sci-Fi genre) I've read. This book does not have an A-to-B plot, instead it offers a window into the life of the absolutely lovable, diverse crew of a random spaceship in a beautifully and believably crafted galaxy. It follows no hero on a quest or something like that but just shows what life would be like on a spaceship like this one. Because of that, it allows characters to have certain traits that wouldn't fit in a hero-story, which makes them more believable and more relatable. On top of this all the writing is done in such a way it actually feels like you are there. Despite the lack of a typical plot, this book did not bore me even for a single page.
I heard about the sequel, [b:A Closed and Common Orbit 29475447 A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2) Becky Chambers https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1457598923s/29475447.jpg 48620653], from the Incomparable podcast and thought it sounded interesting. I am glad I decided to check it out, this book was wonderful. The characters, aliens, story, the entire universe in this story is wonderful.
This book was such a surprise, to be honest? I wasn't sure what I expected but it wasn't this and I loved every second of it. Quick shoutout to the cover and title for both being beautiful as well.
I think this book is a great way of showing all the things sci-fi can be. Because yes, the story plays out on a space ship in deep space and there's talk of Mars and aliens and wormholes, but at the same time the story is for a large part about the characters (and boy do I love my character-based stories) and their relationships and their lives. And the characters are just... they were so diverse and complex and rich and all of them had interesting stories and histories to tell? I loved the way the non-human species felt so distinctly not human and they were given room to be their own people with their own cultures. It was a big relief that we didn't only get a human's pov, but that the pov's switched throughout and just trying to experience your own species through someone else's eyes was so cool and eye-opening and funny.
I'm so curious to see what the next book brings (like honestly I have no idea so that'll be cool to see)
A good character-centred tale which is driven more by philosophical reflection rather than plot.
As a story this was gentle, with a few well told moments of high excitement which, while fun, were more the seasoning rather than the meat of the book. This book shines in two areas: the characters and the reflection.
The characters where interesting, each from very different backgrounds. The conceit of putting them all in a ship that's on a long journey means that you get to sit back and watch as the relationships between them grow and develop - a very enjoyable and interesting experience.
As good as the characters were, it was the philosophical side of the book that really got me - both in the playing out of the plot and in literal discussion between characters. So many issues were addressed: prejudice, tradition, the nature of consciousness and the meaning of family to name a few.
The bottom line is, if you want a fun easy read with likeable characters and at the same time want to ponder the meaning of life - look no further - this is the book for you!
The crew of the Wayfarer on a year long journey out to the edge of Galactic Commons space to punch a wormhole next to a tentative new addition to the GC. Its a interplanetary road trip with a diverse, multi-species crew where nothing much happens as the stars slide past, so instead we focus on the emotional interactions between the crew.
It reads like episodes of Star Trek where space is merely the colourful backdrop to larger metaphorical examinations of the human condition exploring ideas of race, sexuality, being and community. All of this is filtered through a YA lens where the emotional beats are dialed up to 11.
Chambers has a firm grasp of each of the characters unique voices and plots their interactions well. Everyone onboard the Wayfarer is heart on their sleeve earnest, and gosh, darned nice. Scrubbed clean of any sort of grit and lacking any real gravitas they are a big, happy family bouncing around their patchwork ship. And it's lovely really. I just found that I had nothing invested in the story, nothing in the lead-up informs the eventual climax and I'm left understanding the crew is a tight knit family. Warm fuzzies all around.
I was pretty disappointed in this book, sadly. It had been on my “To read” list for a while, but it just didn't grab me the way I'd hoped. Chambers does an awesome job envisioning aliens, and the reptilian society was particularly interesting and unhuman without being a cliche. The parasitic Ohan was also pretty fascinating. The rest of the characters, though, felt extremely one-dimensional. Kizzy in particular just irritated me every time she opened her mouth in the space version of manic pixie dreamgirl. It felt like the novelized version of a pretty bad Syfy space opera, something I've just seen to many times to really get into.
Really enjoyed this, I found it was far ore about the crew and the relationships than about “hard” sci-fi. Not really a space opera either, just an enjoyable read.
An entertaining group of characters, and an engaging examination of how sentients should treat each other.
The most enjoyable sci-fi book I've read in a long time. I love Alistair Reynolds, and Chambers is the opposite of him - but in the best possible way. Another reviewer described this as “feel-good sci-fi”, and I couldn't agree more. Well-written, entertaining, superbly paced, funny and touching in equal measure. I was very happy to find out this won't be a one off.
The super fun and yet sometimes sort of deep space opera I needed. More Sissix please!
2025 re-read: when things get tough I turn to re-reading and I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading this year. This is such a wonderful series and it’s just what I needed: a warm hug, an encouraging word, a family.
This book is less about the plot and more about the engaging characters and the fantastically detailed world. Chambers has dived into the idea of intercultural (and interspecies) relations in an inventive and fascinating way.
For a little while I was listening to some GetBooked podcasts from BookRiot. They seemed to keep recommending this one. They had also recommended The Rook which I read last January and which was excellent. But this one was not as strong. The story concerned a disparate crew of a space tug whose job was to create worm-hole tunnels through space. The crew was a mix of humans and few other sentient species along with an AI. Easy to read, but my main problem with it was the meandering, non-propulsive plot. Not exactly a page-turner, more a sci-fi piece concerning some interpersonal (and interspecies) relationships aboard a spaceship. It was interesting enough to finish, but I confess to some skimming in the final quarter.
Upped to 3 stars because my teenage son liked it better than I did.
While this book is well written, not much of a story or plot is developed. Instead this book is chock full of introductions of species, why they have feathers, who doesn't like molting, pirates with starving kids, etc. Talk, talk, talk, endless chatting about scales, why someone became a chef, the differences between egg-mates and nest-mates, and so on. This book was one of those rare ones where I could not wait for it to end.
This has interesting characters and world-building, but there isn't an overarching or driving story. Also, I wasn't sold on several of the relationships. I felt the author was telling me that A and B had this strong bond, rather than showing me.
Executive Summary: This book was a lot of fun. I don't read a lot of sci-fi, but this is the kind I seem to enjoy the most. A bit light on plot at times, but great/memorable characters. I'm looking forward to the second book.
Full Review
This is another of those books I'd probably have never heard of/picked up if not for Good Reads. Now that I have, I'll be adding my voice to the praise of several of my friends here.
I prefer space-opera to hard sci-fi. I love character-driven stories. This book is both of those. In fact for much of the book there is very little overarching plot and mostly a lot of interconnected vignettes about a crew of a ship whose job it is to create wormholes between planets.
The crew is about 65% human and 35% alien. Oh, and one fantastic AI whose named after Ada Lovelace! There are a lot of alien species in this book, not just those aboard the Waybringer. Most of the focus of alien culture comes through the crew members, but we do get to learn a bit about some others as well.
Ms. Chambers does a great job of trying to come up interesting and alien seeming perspectives on the universe.
The pictures she paints may feel unrealistic to some. In a small ship of about 8 individuals there is very little conflict among them. In fact all of them get along well with each other save for 1 crewmate. Most of the conflict is external to the ship.
She also explores a variety of relationship ideas and what it means to love someone. That isn't to say this is a romance book. I personally am not a big fan of books with big romance arcs. Instead these ideas are often presented as just another part (albeit at times a large part) of the characters lives. I liked the way she weaved these ideas in.
Overall, I found it a nice change of pace. I read to escape realism, and I'd love to spend more time among the Wayfayer. Luckily for me being so late to the party, I don't have long to wait for book 2. I'm looking forward to it.
If you enjoy light/fun character driven stories give this one a shot.
I'm not sure how I felt about this one, to be honest. I liked the world, and it was really easy to get into (from page one, actually), but all in all it didn't leave that much of an impression on me.
The book is very character-heavy, and they take precedent before what story there is in here. I actually really liked that aspect of it. Unfortunately most of the characters fell sort of flat for me. For some reason I just wanted to know more about Corbin (even if he is an asshole throughout the majority of it) and I really liked Ashby by the end, but because I was never properly invested in them, a lot of the dramatic and emotional moments didn't have much effect on me. There may have been too many characters? There are a few in there who seem like they never get the proper time to shine.
I liked it, but it's a shame that I can't stop thinking about how it could have been slightly more, because I loved the concept and I loved the idea a lot. It's still a worthy read, even if just for that.
This was so much fun. I really enjoyed it. I needed something just like it as I have a ton of stuff going on in real life and need a true escapist adventure. To be honest, I hit page 68 and starting looking up the release date for the second book. The Long Way...reminded me a bit of Farscape. It has a ton of heart and Chambers cannot be accused of creating one dimensional characters! Everyone is interesting and very layered. There is some great humor here too. Little gems like, “His silence sounded baffled” (417).
I loved it and cannot wait for the second one.
Review to follow (hopefully) - but I recommend this book highly to anyone who likes space operas.
Meh, I had a hard time staying interested in this, mostly because the writing is extremely amateurish. The pacing is all over the place, the plot doesn't really do much, and the tone is very uninspired (the whole thing reads like “this happened, then this other thing happened” without very much richness of description or really much texture at all).
The characters are interesting-ish, but the author writes about them as if she's writing about the wacky hijinks of some dear friends of hers from college, and I just never really warmed up to them. Rosemary, very obviously the reader stand-in, is cardboard-thin as a character; the narrative technique of “she asks to have something explained to her” is overused and ultimately makes her seem kind of dull-witted. Plus she's often weirdly judgmental of alien habits even though she's supposedly an anthropologist so... okay. Her character is not at all well-defined.
The plot is a mess – the author keeps introducing plot points that seem like they're going to be pivotal, only to either resolve them super quickly and without very much suspense, or have them just sort of peter out.
I really wanted to like this book – I mean, it's awesome that it normalizes a bunch of stuff like preferred pronouns, homosexuality, and alternative relationship styles. It's awesome that it features such a diverse cast of characters. It gestures in the direction of some pretty interesting philosophical questions (albeit without really following through on any of them). Ultimately I think it just isn't a very well-executed novel.
It will probably make the anti-SJW crowd angry (which in and of itself is a selling point), but it tends to pull back from concepts that would be truly challenging. For example, the character that uses “they” pronouns isn't agender or anything like that, they're two entities. Rosemary and Sissix's relationship: the conversation is just Sissix proposing a bunch of boundaries and Rosemary agreeing to everything, and then apparently it's all hunky-dory and there's never any conflict. Lovey's death: it's as if the author wasn't sure how to resolve the plot threads about personhood and wanted an easy way out.
If you haven't read Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, I definitely recommend picking that up first. It scratches pretty much the same itch but is also far better-written!
This book takes a well worn trope and instead of upping the action to distinguish itself from the rest it focuses on the individual characters and their own stories. Despite this approach it still had a compelling back story making it a good read and a great setup for the next one.