Is your Sianat pair showing signs of old age? Does your Aandrisk need her scales scrubbed? Do you need parts for your algae drive? Does your AI want an (illegal) body? Well come to Port Coriol in the heart of the Galactic Core! We have everything you need and even some things you don’t, like humans!
Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (ISBN 978-0-06-244413-4) is a breezy enough read that you could just blast through the 438 pages in a week or so but you probably won’t because Chambers isn’t just telling us a romping space adventure, she stops at times and asks us to think about things: whether it’s sex, gender, brotherhood, being, or even the big things like what it means to be human (trust me, we are dirt monkeys) or the nature of evil and loss.
The scene is this: the Wayfarer is a drilling ship but what she drills are holes through space-time – building shortcuts from one galaxy to another.
Wayfarer is a sturdy ship, though she might not look it given the patchwork way that her captain has outfitted her with parts from other ships. But that was done with the crew’s comfort in mind. At the core, Wayfarer is just as sturdy as any other ship thanks in large part to its brilliant (and mischievous) techs Kizzy and Jenks. The ship even has a biodome so that its Grum (that’s an alien species) Dr. Chef can keep the crew well fed and healthy.
The crew of the ship are the two techs, Dr. Chef, and an AI named Lovey. The pilot is an Aandrisk (sort of reptilian) named Sissix, the navigator is a Sianat Pair (a sentient species which is infected with another sentient species, a virus) named Ohan. Ohan is the key to the whole operation – they are the only ones able to navigate the ship through the tunnels.
Ashby Santoso is the captain, he’s a human – though there are a lot of different types of humans as you will find out. For example, there are two other humans on the ship: Corbin the guy who keeps the ships fuel (algae) in perfect running condition, who is also a specisists asshole; and Rosemary, the ship’s clerk. Rosemary is also the new guy.
Those aren’t all of the species of aliens you’ll meet. There are Harmagians, Auelons, and Quelin, plus the antagonists, which we’ll get to in a second.
The story is simple. Thanks in large part to hiring Rosemary, Captain Santoso (Ashby to you!) has just won a lucrative new contract to drill a hole from the center of the galaxy – where a secretive and warlike species (the Toremi Ka) control the galaxy’s most lucrative ambi (fuel) mining operation. There are only three problems: the trip will be long, there are hostile aliens along the way, and when they get there? Hostile aliens.
“Ninety percent of all problems are caused by people being assholes.”
“What causes the other ten percent?” asked Kizzy.
“Natural disasters.”
But the story is also deep and Chambers asks questions about just what it means to be human. There are no pithy answers, just more questions and maybe a few gentle nudges in a certain direction but in the end this book isn’t preachy or heavy-handed. It’s a wonderful space-walk with delightful characters who are just as confused about why we are here as you and I are.
Not much of a reader, but I may look into this one after a couple of books I have ordered today.
I always have a book handy (well, something that’s on my Kobo Clara HD e-reader) but I’m more of a mystery novel kinda guy myself. Harlan Coben, and Lee Child used to be my go to authors but they have gotten progressively worse over the years. Could be that my tastes have changed too… Nah, it’s their fault. Establish a big enough of a fanbase by putting out some quality product first, and then start producing dross on the regular basis because chances are the fans will eat it up anyway. Hmm, sounds a lot like Arsenal. Michael Connelly, Jeffrey Deaver, Lisa Gardner, Dennis Lehane, as well as Chandler, Hammett, Chase, etc. have given me plenty of highlights over the years but I’m no stranger to sci-fi works either. Ender’s Game was and still remains my all time favorite in that genre but I have to give a huge shout out to Harry Harrison and his Deathworld and Stainless Steel Rat novels that I just could never get enough of. Also, Jeffrey Lord and his Richard Blade series, as well as Burroughs and his John Carter books… but those are more of fantasy/adventure than pure sci-fi.
For something positive (no, really this time), try Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. Appealing protagonist, more complex than the cookie cutter here’s-an-example-of-female-empowerment. Two species of interesting aliens. Lots of space opera mixed in with decent character development. Great appendices that try to explain the extrapolation of theoretical science concepts to his version of SF: FTL, Markov Drives, etc.
Good diversion from what continues to grip planet Earth: death, war, pestilence and a really skanky Arsenal side. If you like SF on the harder, less fantasy side, you won’t be sorry.
I love this book. I think it has a very thin plot, but the ideas, characterisation and the world are so well drawn, that’s irrelevant. The various sequels are also well worth your time 😀
A lot of what I consider “travel” books are thinly plotted (is that even a phrase?). Moby Dick for example, the entire plot is “man sails to get revenge on a whale”. But the descriptions along the way, the ideas in the book, are what we are drawn to (even if Melville is a moron and ends up saying “my whole book and all the ideas in it were worthless”).
This book is very much in the “travel” genre, like pretty much every Jim Jarmusch film.
I borrowed this one from the library and I’ve gone and ordered the other two.
Thanks for sharing this