During my recovery from a surgery I read a book from Becky Chambers, which is maybe a little bit unusual to me. I'm not a very good reader because I can't focus on the text as well I can on pictures; it needs to be a really intriguing piece of text for me to properly read it. It's a shame, really, because I like the idea of books; you're entering some other person's mindspace through them, and they can teach you a lot. That's not what meant to ramble about but anyway.
The book I read is called The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is the first science fiction novel in the series from this author. I stumbled across this author's works last summer when I by accident bought the second book in a 3-for-2 deal. I didn't read it then, but deemed it was interesting enough so I also got the first book later.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, or "TKWSAP" (?) with its bare-bones settings seemed hilarious to me; judging only the fact that it's a scifi book which implies spacetravel, I was amused by the idea that maybe some alien race is making their way to Earth only to find a species of grumpy little things. While the expression "Angry Planet" still holds true in the book, it was not Earth they journey towards.
The story focuses on a small patchwork crew who work on an equally patchworked spacecraft meant for creating wormhole tunnels for travelling quickly through the cosmos. The crew is a mishmash of various alien species, each with unique traits, racial history and customs, and during their "Long Way" to the place where they need to be to do their job, they also meet other alien life forms, and this was personally the reason why I liked the book so much -- the richness of other sapient species in the story. The sense of adventure and the thrill of the unknown, not knowing just what kind of creatures you will meet next. The book's tone was cheerful and hopeful and majority of the species were friendly, and it was just so enjoyable to indulge in a crazy story of how no matter where you were in the universe, you always had friends around. Especially true for the crew; as the story went on, each of the crew members got to tell their background and why are they like they are as a species and/or as a person, and it was such a curious and intriguing thing to learn about.
Yet, here I think was also the book's weakest link; many of the alien species seemed perhaps too similar to the human psyche and it may have gotten a little numb at some point. Still interesting, but I feel there was potential for wackier and more imaginative alien life forms. Another thing that somewhat hindered my enjoyment of the book was the fact just reading the back cover of the second book ahead of time was enough to spoil me a bit.
I know the plottwist at the end was meant to tug your heartstrings, but personally it hit me pretty hard. The twist put forth a chain of events that I'm curious to see how they have developed in the second book, so hopefully some good came out of it.
I really enjoyed reading this book and not just because I had to lie in bed and had nothing else to do. I was always looking forward to opening the book and I was practically devouring the story. During the big climax scene I was pretty much unable to put the book away, super-glued to the text, and I love when that happens because it's so rare to me.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet gets a solid 4.5 out of 5 from me. I recommend looking this up if you like smart and whimsical scifi! Very fresh stuff!
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