A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (review)

What fun! A misfit crew in a ragtag ship. It’s a familiar theme we have seen before: Operation Petticoat, the Wackiest Ship in the Army, Galaxy Quest, Guardians of the Galaxy etc. When it is done well, it can be fun. Becky Chambers knows how to do it, and in her novel A Long way to a Small Angry Planet she does it well. The ship they are on is called the Wayfarer, and this book is the first novel in the Wayfarers series.

What makes it work so well is the cast of characters. There are four different species living in and on the Wayfarer (not including the AI that aids every aspect of ship life and is a person in her own right). The plot . . . well, the plot almost doesn’t matter. We are fascinated by the characters and their relationships. The cast is an ensemble. We get a different point of view with each chapter. With each predicament each character finds themselves in, we get more engaged. We root for all of them. The world-building (or galaxy-building) is expertly done here, and not slathered on us with a trowel, but given to us in increments only as we need to know that piece of backstory. This is a necessity when introducing so many new species.

I also found that, though this is definitely a space opera, the author kept surprising me. One event would happen that would make me go, ”oh-oh, I know where this is going.” But it would invariably not take the predictable path. This book will make you laugh, but also tug at your heartstrings. I heartily recommend it.

Star Liner

Comments

All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu

My first experience with cyberpunk as a genre of science fiction was Neuromancer by William Gibson. Neuromancer was one of the early works that defined the cyberpunk genre. It was insanely influential. It won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award. But for me, it just did not resonate. I had a hard time visualizing the concepts. It left a bad taste in my mouth for cyberpunk. I mostly avoided the genre. Then a couple of years ago I read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson which is cyberpunk (although some people say it is a parody of cyberpunk). Whatever, I liked it. I recently picked up All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu and it immediately became apparent to me that this was cyberpunk. Julia Z is the main character, and I think this is going to be the start of a series following her. She is a hacker (hence cyberpunk). She has got herself in trouble and so she lives on the margins, barely making it. Then a lawyer asks her for her help. His wife has been kidnapped. The ...

Why Walls Don't Work

At the peak of the Roman Empire, the empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to Brittain, from northern Africa to southern Germany. But the great conquering emperors like Trajan learned that conquering land was easy compared to holding on to it. In fact, Trajan’s successor, Hadrian, was known for shrinking the empire and consolidating Trajan’s gains into a more defensible set of holdings. This made him not popular among his generals who wanted glory and spoils. But he understood if you stretch yourself too thin, you can wind up with nothing. To consolidate the Empire’s holdings in Brittain, he had a wall constructed from Solway Firth to the Tyne River. Construction began in the year 122 AD. The Empire had never been able to subdue the highland Scottish tribes, so this wall (Hadrian’s Wall) divided the “barbarians from the Romans.” It was a solid piece of engineering with forts and towers scattered along it to keep the “barbarians” out. Hadrian’s successor, Antonius Pius...

The Linear Nature of Time

Go Go back Go back to the time before Before you did it Before they did it Before it was done to you Before the toast fell on the floor Before the catastrophe Before the mistake Before time’s scars Before Go Go back Redeem it Rework it Fix it Go back No you cannot Go back Star Liner

A speculative mind

Search This Blog