Merry-go-round, the final frontier.

 

Mysterious English edition.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.

This was my first book by Becky Chambers, didn’t know what to expect as usual and it was quite an uneven experience for me.

You can find the mood and themes that are portrayed through all the series of books: found family, a gentle approach for living, light events for the plot, communication among different individuals, races and points of view. It isn’t the regular flavor of science fiction you can be used to.

Random mumbling.

This first approach to the diversity of living beings, and it´s exploration as what is considered sentient (AIs, clones, etc.) is a terrific starting point, but it fails a little short, the characters are interesting, but eventually lose strength and the lightness of the plot gets mushy when the climatic conflicts arise.

The aspect of the book that shines greatly is the amazing worldbuilding, the originality and definition of the different species and the thematic gentle approach of living, the lightness of plot isn’t a flaw, nor the optimistic perspective the characters carry through, it was for me very… refreshing and brave of the author. The consistency and execution despite falling short leaves us with a deceptively light and comfortable story, not because it isn’t, but because it could be much more. 

And then...

It took me a while to decide to continue the series, not because I wanted to drop it, but to gather more interest. In hindsight, I can see more clearly the themes and its weight of a very interesting series and I very glad I decided to continue.