The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

I'm getting really tired of 2-starring universally-beloved novels. It makes me feel like Anton Ego before he experiences the joy of ratatouille. Just gonna copy-paste my notes (with some clean-up).

-

Firefly in the

Babylon 5 universe. We must always love space ships and aliens no matter what...No matter what. If there are a million alien lovers, I am one of them. If there is only one alien lover, I am that alien lover. If there are no alien lovers, it is because I am dead.

- There is also an AI and an AI romance. This is another one of my pet interests. Unfortunately, it's mostly a thought experiment on interabled coupling. Boring.

-Rosemary sets eyes on Sissix and is like, "Oh. Wow. This is the species that likes to fuck right? Shit, be respectful, be respectful." The rest of their relationship is founded on this reaction. I mean, I get it, but. Eh. Contrived.

- That said. I like Sissix. She's maybe the only crew member I really click with. Hot competent touch starved lizard alien pilot gf.

- Again, I don't buy Sissix/Rosemary in terms of narrative complementation. I guess b/c it's not technically a romance. It's more like an casual open invite to a friendly polyamorous make-out sesh. But, anyway, I like the anticipation of: "Sissix is touch-starved on the Wayfarer + Rosemary desperately wants to touch Sissix = ...?" Like...

yes...ha ha ha...yes!! What's going to happen next???

And then the gut-punch of, "But no one touches you." Okay...okay...hold on a minute.

- The prose is fine. Nothing to write home about, but it's fine. Inobtrusive. I know how hard that is to do. Polite snapping.

- Huge pet peeve of mine when SFF invents fake curse words/exclamations and over-uses them. Here it's, "Oh my stars!" instead of, "Oh my god." Because, you know: space. Where the stars live. Non-denominationally. Just say fuck!!!

- Kizzy is so annoying, and the fact that she's blatantly coded to be Your Insta-Fave Precious Immature Wacky Grease Monkey only makes me hate her more. Obviously, there's a moment where she Gets Serious because she's Good At Her Job, Actually and it's just...transparently clear that it's supposed to seed some nuance into her character. It doesn't. Oops. This is a problem with most of the characters. Everyone has a lot of Traits, but there's no internal conflict between them. Ashby is the solid dad friend captain who is in love with a sexy dangerous alien lady. Rosemary is the new secretary with the

secret war profiteering family

. I've seen all of these characters before...what else ya got?

- Weird how heteronormative the future still looks?? Esp from a queer author? Like, the only nonbinary/trans ppl are the aliens, and it's always like, "Oooh, ahhhh, how strange to our human sensibilities--but we must practice cultural relativism!" wtf. Mentions of boy p***y: zero. Mentions of alien genitals: [INTEGER OVERFLOW]. If this is the future, I don't want it. Can't help but yearn for the polygamist, choose-your-own-pronouns free-for-all of the Murderbot universe. sad cowboy emoji.

- Trying too hard to Make The Found Family Work by going through the motions of found family. Everyone is so nice and politically correct. Everyone wants to be friends with everyone and politely chuckle at everything everyone says. Every problem is solved with diplomacy. Anything you need, you got it, brother. The worst we get is Corbin, who is the grumpy, spineless, loner old man scientist who is

traumatized into Realizing The Joy Of Found Family After All. You know, like Ebenezer Scrooge

. Also distant, faceless empires at war and rando pirates. I just want people who have deep-seated dynamic problems with each other and have to live in close quarters anyway. That's the whole point of a space western, right? Mal and Wash love each other, but there's always a little bit of tension about the ways that Zoe prioritizes Mal. Fuck, it's so sad that I'm giving it up to Joss Whedon right now.

- Evil grunting alien pirates infiltrate the ship to point guns at everyone but it gets wrapped up really quickly before anything really bad happens because Eager New Hire Rosemary comes in the nick of time with a convenient cultural loophole. A loophole which smacks of, "Troy actually had to let in the Trojan Horse because of the Greek Concept of ~

Xenia~." What? No the fuck they didn't. Bite each other's dicks off!!

- "Your dad was involved in some fucked up stuff? Well, that's--Wait. Were

You Involved In Some Fucked Up Stuff...? Because I Would Have To Report You To The Cops If You Were Even Tangentially Involved In Some Fucked Up Stuff. Like If You Filed Some Papers And Didn't Know It. No? Oh, okay, then whatever! Besties for life! Oh, By The Way, You Have To Tell Everyone We Live With Everything You Told Me Because It Would Be Fucked Up If You Didn't." what the fuck. remember when ur avg 100k mid-2010s drarry fanfic handled this topic w more nuance. we can't even enjoy them anymore bc jkr has soured even reading about gay sex w twitter hate speech. ✊

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is, in many ways, a classic space opera. A ragtag band of eccentrics, a noble captain, a main character with a ‘dark secret,’ aliens galore, and beautiful descriptions of space and worlds fantastical are at the forefront. We follow Rosemary and crew’s trip to a hostile planet that has recently entered an accord with the rest of the ‘Space UN’ (called the GC), as they need to build a wormhole tunnel to connect the new ally with the rest of the universe.

Wormhole tunnels!

(The tesseract reference was great too, so kudos)

The book is not very plot-driven; certainly, things happen, and the last hundred pages or so deal specifically with the tunnel, the new alliance, and the wisdom of it all, but most of the book is dedicated to the journey and the character growth that takes place. We see Rosemary start out a guarded young woman and then become more confident and outspoken as she defines herself not based on her connections to others, but her own ideas and strengths; Kizzy, the energetic tech, struggles with the difference between fear and cowardice; Jenks and Lovey (the AI!) examine love [kind of a fitting name for the AI, then, huh?].

That’s where this book’s strength lies—the character growth and the descriptions of the fantastical. There is never really a true sense of danger (with one exception that was so jarring I couldn’t believe it); rarely do the characters suffer setbacks that last more than several pages. This book is not about adversity. It’s about finding beauty in the strange and wonderful, and I could appreciate it for that. The galaxy is well-built, and Chambers’ prose, while simplistic at times, is great at bringing it out; cultural tidbits are strewn here or there without info dumps to hint at even more complexity, and the alien cultures don’t feel like cardboard, though there were a few details that were mildly uncomfortable and that I could do without.

Whether it’s swarms of giant crickets or exploring busy space port markets, Chambers has delightfully introduced such a variety of alien races and locales that they’re a pleasure to read.

I can’t help but feel, however, that the character growth, tremendous as it was, could have been much stronger if the adversities had been taken more seriously. Corbin, for example, goes from a jerk to slightly less so because of his own crisis three quarters into the book, but it’s not a very pronounced change, nor does it particularly resonate—it’s simply not long enough. Rosemary’s own personal dilemma is over within several pages, and while we do see changes in her character throughout the book, the biggest was within such a short span of time that it was rather unbelievable.

The book also tries to address some philosophical questions, which is an admirable goal, but something about the dialogue or the style of prose made these stick out like a sore thumb. I might be in the minority opinion for saying this, but at times it felt very preachy as well. The themes examined could have all been poignant: power and perceptions of it, safety and tradeoffs for it, empathy, and judging individuals by their actions, not one’s initial impressions. However, none of these are explored adequately, nor deeply, despite the great amount of time spent on them. (The first sixty pages, for example, are fraught with speeches about diversity and acceptance, but none of them particularly says anything new, nor different from the previous speeches about avoiding judgement using one’s own cultural bias; they’re tired arguments, and not well explained) These discussions tend to significantly detract from the book’s forward momentum, rather than be integrated seamlessly into the text.

In the end, that’s this book’s both greatest weakness and greatest strength: the characters and their interactions with the world. We have just enough provided to see there could be some depth, if only the author put in a little more, but instead we get rushed and frequent philosophical debates and a romance between two crew members that comes out of nowhere.

Do yourself a favor and read this book

I've ran out of books to read, so I picked this up, and it is...an odd one.

It is what I would consider soft science fiction where the plot is between characters who just so happen to be on a spaceship. There's a mini-human making out with a metal AI panel he is in love with. A human getting kinky with a lizard alien thing, and a human captain getting more kinky with a fish person thing that can't talk. I really don't know why I'm reading this, but it is better than no books. It is not something I'd pick up normally but I'm sure it is a good book for those who like this type of stuff.

That being said. Will I read the next book? Sure why not. It isn't a bad book, it is just odd and focuses more on stuff I don't care about, but who knows where the series plot will end up. The writing isn't bad, the narrator is good, and thought it is odd as long as it doesn't turn into trash it is a easy light read, and it is simple enough to skip ahead if it gets too heavy on interpersonal issues.

It was an alright read. I enjoyed the science fiction and world building, but I found the plot a little dull, and I wasn't a fan of the "romances" throughout the story.

What a wonderful book! I am so impressed by Becky Chambers. This is the second book of hers that I've read, and I loved both. I remember reading articles about how you don't have to create likable characters in your fiction, and I was so unhappy about it, because I don't want to read about people who are dicks. As much as I like a good plot, being a slave to the plot might be a bit overdone. Both books that I read by Becky Chambers had a lot more characterization than plot, and I really enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more of her books.

Will come back. On hold for now.

This is an odd book to review. I enjoyed it, but ... not a lot happened. There wasn't really any grand conflict to get through, or any thing like that. It was an in-depth exploration of these characters as they go about their job in the universe.

And it was lovely, in a lot of ways. Thematically, I think it's about love - taboo love (which there are several examples of), cross-species love, and the love of friends that have formed their own little family, a hub of safety and care set against the vastness of space.

Things that we think are going to be potentially huge moments -

the reveal of Rosemary's identity, and/or it blowing up in her face at some point; the interaction with the war-obsessed Toremi Ka; even this major situation with their is-she-or-isn't-she-a-valuable-sentient-life AI, Lovey

- all really play as minor blips in the story of this crew. Heck, we don't even see most of the crew find out about Rosemary. This book is about the life they are making together, and all the events are just window dressing. The interaction between the characters is all.

Which meant that the actual plot had a bit of 2-dimensional feel to it. But it didn't hurt my enjoyment in the way I would have expected, because I very much liked these characters.

That said, given that they're not really in the remainder of the series, I don't think I'll read onward. But I'm glad to have read this book.

Gran space opera, que se centra en lo importante, los personajes de la nave. Además unos personajes que no son soldados, que ni pueden ni quieren solucionar los conflictos con violencia, y que se ven sobrepasados con los resultados.

La historia son como los capítulos de una serie: Todos casi independientes, pero arrastrando las consecuencias de los anteriores, y además la escala de las situaciones va subiendo progresivamente.

Me ha recordado mucho a la segunda saga de "La vieja guardia" de Scalzi, porque comparten muchas de las características, pero este libro desprende mucho más optimismo, tal vez por no estar directamente involucrado en ninguna guerra.

Reading this book felt kind of like watching a season of Star Trek: Voyager. It's very episodic, focused on character growth and relationships, into the cultural difference between species, a bit fuzzy on the science, and fun but not great art.