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Return to the sprawling universe of the Galactic Commons, as humans, artificial intelligence, aliens, and some beings yet undiscovered explore what it means to be a community in this exciting third adventure in the acclaimed and multi-award-nominated science fiction Wayfarers series, brimming with heartwarming characters and dazzling space adventure. Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way. But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life-and is it worth saving at all? A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one's story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.… (more)
User reviews
I am glad I came to the book not understanding what its themes were, so that I was able to watch them develop and coalesce, and to be startled by them - at times, shocked into tears. I took a
I loved The
Overall, this was such a great book, and everyone should read it.
The setting is just after the conclusion to Long Way but
Through the interactions of the Few with their families and friends, and occasionally each other, we explore the difficulties of immigration and emigration on small communities, on the culture of space fight but also of broader human concerns, the importance of family and the freedom to express yourself and learn lessons with and without consequences. It's all just gentle, charming, important and sympathetic. There's no lack of imagination or clever technologies as needed, but no exposition either, just great writing how SF should be, telling a story but casting shadows on current culture.
Everyone should read this, as an antidote to Epic Space Opera, it's how SF ought to be.
I remember commenting, after reading the first one, that I
Well, with this one, I did notice that very little was happening, and I did care. It felt a little slower, a little less satisfying, I'm afraid. There was still a lot to like about it, though. The universe Becky Chambers has created is still entertaining and interesting. The characters are likeable and very real-feeling, even if their personal stories are not quite as compelling as those of the main characters from A Closed and Common Orbit. And there's some nice, thoughtful thematic stuff about human restlessness, the disruption that happens when two cultures encounter each other, and the importance of finding your own place in the world while still carrying the heritage and history of your community with you. I did find the ending somewhat emotionally affecting, too.
So, bottom line, it was still an enjoyable read, but I'm afraid the first two got my expectations up just a little too high. In any case, if she writes more in this series, I will absolutely be there.
Chambers does an excellent job of telling a fictional tale, while weaving into it a political landscape as well as the particulars of
The story starts with a catastrophic explosion aboard one of the vessels in the Fleet and with the aftermath - emotional, psychological and also practical - of this event, seen through the eyes of a number of characters: Isabel is one of the Archivists, people tasked with recording the history of the Fleet, as well as presiding over the births, and the deaths, of its members; in the latter case, Eyas the Caretaker pays homage to their remains and their return (sort of) into the cycle of life; Tessa (the sister of Captain Ashby from book 1) works in the salvage department and has to deal with huge issues like her daughter’s trauma after the explosion, her father’s failing health and the need to move to a different job; and then there’s young Kip, who’s still trying to find his way and is not sure that his future will take place in the Fleet. The only non-Fleet character we follow in the novel is that of Sawyer, a descendant of former Exodans who choose a planet-bound life: he takes the inverse journey and comes aboard the Asteria - the ship on which most of the story takes place; his destiny will cross that of a few of the people mentioned above, influencing their outlook and their choices for the future.
There are many themes I enjoyed in the novel, not least the one about a space-faring society that forsook a ground-based life to forge its existence in the depths of space, with all the interesting social modifications that such a life implies: there is a similarity here to one of my favorite SF tropes, that of generation ships forging the unknown, and even though the Exodans have established their society in the proximity of a sun they were allotted by the Galactic Commons, their way of life is not so different from that depicted in generation arks traveling in search of a new planet to colonize. The sense of community is the strongest element at play here, together with that of legacies passed from one generation to the next: one of the most fascinating details comes from the descriptions of the quarters allotted to the various families and of the way each group of dwellers left the imprint of their hands on a wall, as a mark of their passage and as an encouragement to those that came after to improve and build on that ground. Exodans left their home with the keen awareness of having mortally wounded their home planet, and with the burning desire to avoid such mistakes in the future: keeping score of their progress toward a better society, a better breed of people, is indeed a way to try and avoid those mistakes - as Isabel says, we tend to be:
[…] a longstanding species with a very short memory. If we don’t keep records, we’ll make the same mistakes over and over.
It’s not surprising, then, that a similar focus on trying to create what sounds like an utopia, and a sort of insistence on traditions, might feel suffocating for younger generations, here represented by young Kip who struggles between the love for his family and his desire to look beyond the metal walls of a ship, no matter how comfortable or secure that existence might be. So it’s interesting that he ends up being profoundly touched by the inverse journey taken by Sawyer (who does not seem much older than he is) when he chooses to join the Fleet and finds himself on a very unexpected path. (I apologize if this sounds a little cryptic, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers…)
Given all these intriguing premises, it came as a surprise that I was not as invested in this story and these characters as I hoped: while I enjoyed the book overall (by now I know that Becky Chambers’ novels will always play well with me), I felt as if something was missing, and I’m still struggling to understand what it was. My involvement always remained on the surface, and while interested in what was happening to these people, I could not form any emotional ties with them, even in the direst of situations. Probably the contrast with the more adventurous bent from the first book, or with the deep personal journeys of the second, led me to believe that I would be able to get the same level of in-depth perception here, but the chronicle form of the narrative seemed to prevent that - even though the title itself should have represented something of a warning…
Still, Record of Spaceborn Few turned out to be a pleasant read, and my hope is that with the next issues in this series I will be able to recapture the sense of wonder and the character involvement that I experienced in the previous books.
This is a multi-generational story
This might have been an easier book to review if the characters crossed paths with each other more often, or revolved more around common events, but instead it’s a book where what ties these storylines together is themes about culture, traditions and what happens when a community’s context changes. Exploring these themes from different perspectives allows for more nuance -- acknowledgement that there isn’t always one right answer, one right way of living.
Like Chambers’ other novels, this story is touching, inclusive and hopeful. It’s focused on personal matters: home, relationships, finding your place, finding meaning in what you do. It’s portrayal of families is positive, lively and believable.
I took longer than I’d expected to warm to the story, but once I did, I really liked it. I was fascinated by its ideas of how a space-born community might be organised -- exactly the sort of worldbuilding I like.
“We are the Exodus Fleet. We are those that wandered, that wander still. We are the homesteaders that shelter our families. We are the miners and the foragers in the open. We are the ships that ferry between. We are the explorers who carry our names. We are the parents who lead the way. We are the children who continue on [...] By our laws, [this baby] is assured shelter and passage here. If we have food, she will eat. If we have air, she will breathe. If we have fuel, she will fly. She is daughter to all grown, sister to all still growing. We will care for her, protect her, guide her. We welcome you, Robin, to the decks of the Asteria, and to the journey we take together.”
They're a distinctly different culture from the humans who settled Mars and the outer planets prior to that final collapse. Originally, they were looking for an Earthlike planet to start over on, and they wanted their descendants to be prepared for planetary life. In addition to their quite functional food- and oxygen-producing farms, they have decorative oxygen gardens, theaters that show nature videos of Earth, murals on the walls that, functionally, don't need to be anything but bare metal.
They also guard against the development of the competition and divisions that helped destroy Earth. Everyone has windows onto space in their living quarters. Everyone is guaranteed "if we have food they will eat, if we have air they will breathe, if we have fuel they will fly." Their economic system is barter.
And membership in the Galactic Commons has brought changes, changes that can disrupt this system.
Tessa is a supervisor in salvage operations--managing and sorting what comes in, sending it on to where those materials are most useful, making sure nothing goes to waste. She has two children, a husband with his own ship and work that takes him and that ship out of the fleet for extended periods, and an aging father. Her husband, George, is earning the Galactic credits the Exodan fleet didn't need before joining the Galactic Commons. Her father has failing eyesight and needs an eye replacement that is Galactic tech, not fleet tech--and which will need those credits George is earning.
Those credits, in larger context, may also be about to buy AI technology that will eliminate the job Tessa has been doing for twenty years, and which she loves. If it happens, she'll find other work, and the security of her family won't be threatened, because this is the Fleet, but...it's making her uneasy, and restless.
Isabel is an archivist. This means the obvious keeping and preserving of records, but it also mean being the officiant at weddings, births, and funerals. She has a love of history and knowledge; she corresponds with scholars outside the fleet. One, a Harmargian, a member of a species that was distinctly divided on whether humans should be admitted to the Commons, has come to visit and observe.
Eyas is a caretaker; she prepares the bodies of the deceased for composting and return to the soil that helps the fleet live, and counsels the families of the deceased. It's work she loves, finds meaningful, and always wanted to do. Yet she fells there's a piece missing, something more she could be doing as well.
Sawyer is a young man descended from a family that left the Fleet, to settle on a planet. They moved around, never really staying on one planet, and then an epidemic struck for which Galactic medicine didn't yet have proper treatment for humans. They developed it quickly, but Sawyer was the only survivor. At 24, he's decided to go check out his family's original home, try something new to him. He meets Eyas, who impatiently gives him a little advice about how to start fitting in with the Exodans. And he meets a man who connects with with job salvaging materials from a wrecked ship.
Kip is a teenager feeling restless and dissatisfied. He has no idea what he wants to do, he's not sure he wants to stay in the fleet, and he has a friend with perhaps more intellectual firepower (not that Kip isn't smart), but perhaps not as good judgment or concern for others.
They're all trying to find their way, all being affected by the changes that are coming to the fleet, now that they're part of the Galactic Commons and have been settled, not on planet, but around an otherwise unused star. Their culture is surviving, but also growing and changing. This is a story about how they cope, how they adapt, what they feel and think and do. It's about decent people trying to make the right decisions, for themselves and those they care about, in changing circumstances.
For me, that makes it the best kind of story. Chambers makes these people you can care about, and want good outcomes for.
Highly recommended.
I bought this book.
Becky Chamber's style of slice of life was a much better read in the cozy confines of a small spaceship than across the sprawling expanse of an interstellar fleet. While some of the individual stories were excellent, I did not feel that intimate interconnectedness of A Long Way to a Small
Here are my three top quotes:
"Yet it was a quiet grief, an everyday grief, a heaviness and a lightness all at once."
"That's how we'll survive, even if not all of us do."
"Our species
Yes!
I loved the cast of diverse characters and the plot threads that connected them all. I loved the worlds and the perspectives, and the clarity of this story. I was a little impatient with teenager Kip, but hey, that's what teenagers are for! The alien viewpoints were also fascinating.
One of the best reads of 2018, for sure.
The whole point of this book is to explore what it means to be an Exodan, the decedents of the first groups to leave Earth.
The author created such a deep and layered culture here so much so that I wish I could go there.
All of the characters felt believable and relatable, sometimes heartbreaking so, and the worlds felt lived in and you could see how it all fits together. So much effort and thought went into creating this world and yet you can't feel the weight of that work, it just seems to all flow naturally.
I really can't say enough how much I loved this book, it actually made me sad to finish it.
These books seem to just get better and better and while I hope the author keeps writing in this universe, it will be interesting to read stories by her in other settings.
All in all, the world building is really good here, and it's nice to soak it in. However, the story moves really slowly and there's not much action. In some ways, all of the stories feel too tidy - they are all wrapped up neatly at the end, and even though the characters of the different storylines don't interact much, their stories all dovetail very tidily. On the other hand, given how much sci-fi is dystopian these days, it's refreshing to read about people and cultures who ultimately get along with each other.
Record of a Spaceborn Few,
Becky Chambers has real talent in her ability to create and inhabit the minds of aliens. Here she has concentrated on humans, but in my opinion, the plot needs more action.
We see a bit more of the galactic commons this time the human fleet. As before there are no spear carrying
I loved this book. It follows the lives of five people who all live in space aboard the fleet, the crafts built to carry the remaining humans away from their dying planet. This character-driven and a fairly plotless book is charming and warm nonetheless.