The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

I really enjoyed this book! I don't read a lot of science fiction but was happily surprised when I got into this story and realized how character driven it was. I have affection for every character and was impressed with the author's imagination. I did have trouble visualizing some of the tech/space aspects of the story but did not find that this made me lose interest in the book at all.

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced digital copy of the book.

Oh man.

I loved this. It reminded me of Farscape, and man I loved that show.

The writer did such a great job of making the races so different, but so beautifully described. I can hardly put into words why I loved it. It was so just so “full”, engrossing, exciting! I devoured it in superquick time.

October is just too long to wait for the next one.

Melhor livro que li esse ano até agora? Siiiiim
(talvez eu esteja falando pela empolgação que da quando você termina um livro super bom? Siiiiim também)

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It's a road movie in space which allows you to explore and understand each and every crew member of the Wayfarer. This book made me, a 39 year old man, cry on a packed train.

There isn't some galactic problem, some incredibly important mission that needs solving, or some undiscovered alien race threatening the existence of life. It's simply the story of a crew travelling to somewhere far away near a small, angry planet to do their job.

It's simply incredible.

Ohhhh what a fabulous book. I loved it dearly, in so many ways. Inventive characters, fast pace, exciting action, cool ending... The only detractor was a slight erring to the side of SJWism, but other than that I can find little to fault with this outstanding read. For fans of Firefly, Star Wars and great writing in general.

Pros: interesting characters, fascinating world-building

Cons: limited plot

The Wayfarer is a ship that punches tunnels through space, connecting major hubs so other ships can travel between them faster. When they're offered the chance to tunnel to a new area, they say yes, even though it means travelling over a year to the entry point in space that isn't quite friendly.

This is a space opera that focuses on the crew and the world they inhabit by way of a simplistic plot. The crew encounter a number of problems on the mission, some personal, some interpersonal, and some brought on through outside forces.

I found the crew a lot of fun. You get to know some of them and their foibles a lot more than others. Corbin, for example, is introduced as a jerk and a loner and then pretty much ignored until a crisis focused on him arises. Other characters get a lot of page time, like Kizzy, the mechanic, and Sissix, one of the alien species on board. Having said that, I never really connected with any of them, and so never felt particularly strong emotions during their crises.

Where the book really shines is the world-building. The alien races are brilliantly done, with unique languages, cultures, dietary preferences, gestures, sexualities and more. There are minor info dumps through conversation explaining some of the races' habits, but they're integrated well and feel mostly natural. You're given enough information to understand the differences between races, and how they interact, without being bogged down in details.

If you're looking for action and adventure you won't find it here. If you're looking for a fun, interspecies crew and learning about a new world this is a great book. The climax is exciting and there's a good denouement that wraps things up well.

You know when people talk about books that left them in a state of euphoria for days that they're unable to move on to a new book due their minds still on the said book? well this is one of those books! hot damn! Becky Chambers' sic-fi masterpiece is more than just sci-fi, its everything. Its a hard core character-driven ride with strong commentary on cultures, xenophobia, social etiquette, politics, science, tech, vocation and the strength of friendship all wrapped up nicely in this little novel. Character building? perfection. I loved every single one of the crew members aboard the Wayfarer, especially their beloved AI, Lovey. Never thought I could get teary over an AI but I did and proud of it. It would be hard for any other sic-fi novels to top this. This novel will warm your heart and uplift your soul, its the kind of book that you would return to again and again just to be with the characters. I am missing them already. If this is what space opera is all about then I am definitely on board! A million stars.

A warm, funny, very human piece of science fiction.

My initial reaction when I started reading this book was that I would not enjoy it, but the more I read the more I was drawn in to it. An intriguing mix of characters, alien and human, set against a fairly standard space opera universe. Not much action, but lots of interaction between characters, and some inter-species love! It was the characters that made this book so good. More please!

halvány lila milkám sincs, milyen alapon hasonlítják ezt a könyvet a fireflyhoz, de kb. annyi alapja van, mintha minden maffiafilmet a keresztapához, vagy minden romantikus filmet a love storyhoz, vagy minden akciófilmet a die hardhoz, vagy minden katasztrófafilmet a pokoli toronyhoz, vagy minden sitcomot a jóbarátokhoz, vagy minden krimit a francia kapcsolathoz hasonlítanánk.
ez az egyik. a másik meg az a főleg aspergeresekre jellemző vonás, hogy nekiállnak beszélni a különleges érdeklődési területükről és olyan hosszasan teszik ezt, mint a fönti példák sorolása (sőt...). valahogy minden túl sok. nekiáll leírni valamit vagy egy szereplő elkezd beszélni valamiről és csak mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, már rég nem érdekel senkit ennyire részletesen az egész - amit a diszkrét és kevésbé diszkrét jelzések ellenére sem vesz észre -, és még mindig csak mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja, mondja... ( remélem, elég érzékletesen írtam le, bár így könnyű átugrani a hosszadalmakat, szóban meggyőzőbben hangozhatott, amikor mr. gatwoodnak panaszoltam el a bánatomat ezzel kapcsolatban).

amúgy nem annyira rossz ez a könyv, érdekes volt, nagyon jól kidolgozott világgal és érdekes karakterekkel, az sem zavart, hogy lényegében eseménytelenül telik az idő, jó egyfajta hétköznapiasságot végigkövetni a sok öldöklős young adult regény után. ugyanakkor hiába a szereplők jól felépített múltja, a jelenben borzasztóan egysíkúak, semmi jellemfejlődés, béna párbeszédek... hát szóval unalmasak. az meg egyenesen kiborító, hogy amikor valaki kérdez a másiktól a múltjáról, akkor az mindig ádámévától kezdi a mesélést, mert nyilván csak kilométeres monológokkal lehet megbeszélni ezeket a dolgokat.
szóval látszik, hogy rengeteg melót fektetett az írónő a regénybe, de ez a végeláthatatlan szófosás tönkretesz mindent. ráadásul még így sem sikerült megszerettetni a karaktereket, bármiféle kötődés nélkül meg azért elég nehéz keresztülrágnia magát az embernek négyszáz oldalon. az pedig a hab a tortán, hogy ennek a négyszáz oldalnak az utolsó tizenöt százalékába zsúfolt bele minden akciót és drámát, ami kitelt tőle.

összességében nem azt mondom, hogy szar az angry planet, de meglehetősen rosszul megírt, az biztos. elképzelésem sincs, mitől élteti mindenki, de lehet, hogy én vagyok túl hülye vagy szűklátókörű hozzá.

most, hogy aludtam rá egyet, eszembe jutott még pár gondolat (amit már nyilván senki le se fog tojni, de azért még idefosom). szóval az egyik, hogy semmi hangulata nincs a regénynek, nincs, ami magával ragadja az embert. a másik meg, a szófosásra visszatérve, hogy mindent görcsösen túlmagyaráz, mintha attól tartana, belekötnek, ha bármit is kihagy. ebből kifolyólag pedig egyszerűen az égadta világon semmit sem hagy az olvasó fantáziájára, minden szájba van rágva, de még az is, hogy adott eseményekről mi legyen a véleményünk. hát hogy mondjam, elég zavaró.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

You know how sometimes you read a book that gives you all the feels but then it takes those feels and jumps on them and mashes them into tiny pieces. That was The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet. To say I enjoyed this book is an understatement. Its a mash up of all the things I love about Star Trek, its about modern problems, race, class, gender, violence but told through a futuristic setting.

The story is told the eyes of a girl called Rosemary who has never been off Mars before and gets a job on a spacecraft with other alien species. Most of the story deals with Rosemary adjusting to living with these people and getting used to the fact that the human way of life and normal gender roles don't apply to aliens and even just assuming that they would apply can be seen as offensive. I suppose it's an idea that we should see more in science-fiction (it can't really apply to real life since as far as we know aliens don't exist). Just because we have male and female sexual organs doesn't mean that an alien species will have the same or even something that compares to it.

The characters are so fascinating, we have 4 humans, Rosemary is from what you would call the upperclass, these humans left Earth to start a new life on Mars but in doing so left the others behind to die. The other three are spacers which basically means they have lived in space all their life. But one of them also has dwarfism so you have this really interesting thing where they could be cured of their dwarfism – we even see how people having their genes changed is a normal thing – but they choose not to because even though they are small, they feel normal like that.

We have Sizzix, who is very similar to a lizard, though calling her, or any of her race a lizard is akin to speciesism. Just because the closest thing she can be compared to is a lizard doesn't mean it's okay to make that comparison. But we also get to see how the family dynamics in her species differs from humans (and that's really fascinating). We have the doctor/ chef who is also a member of an alien race, I don't want to say too much but he has a really fascinating back story.

And then we have Ohan who is the Navigator but also a navigator. The closest thing I can compare Ohan to is the Trill in Star Trek. Ohan is the member of a species called the Sianat, this race is infected with a virus while young, this virus gives them the ability to understand what is going on in the sublayer of space, an extremely important thing for a Navigator. However this virus makes them more than one person. Sort of like that episode of Voyager where a transporter accident turns Tuvok and Neelix into one person. But this virus ends up causing some interesting moral dilemmas.

I really loved this book. It feels like an episode of Star Trek. You have this organisation – very similar to the Federation – who have realised that they can do better than fight, so try to find a way to cooperate in peace. But it's really this little story about the people living together on a ship and the fascinating characters they meet. The only complaint I have about this book is that there is no sequel. Basically if you like Star Trek read this book. If you don't like Star Trek read it anyway.