The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet [Hodder, 2015]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

by

Becky Chambers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic.

This is one of the best science fiction books I’ve read in years and definitely one of my favourites written by an author who is currently alive. A great example of what the modern science fiction genre is capable of achieving.

Set on a ship that is a tunneling ship, i.e, the job of the crew and the vessel is to take contracts to bore literal holes in space-time to create safe and stable tunnels between different points in space and thereby help in the creation of space-gates for interstellar travel. Known space is run by an alliance of planets called the G.C, aside from some loosely affiliated fringe planets plus there is a mysterious and dangerous race that dominates the galactic core and no one who tries to enter their space, gets out alive.

There is no primary narrator, the focus very much being on the crew as a whole and that is one of my favourite things in most any medium as I love a good ensemble cast and it is no small job to build a crew and keep the story balanced well between them. We start of the story through the perspective of Rosemary Harper who acts as a kind of reader stand-in as the newly arriving member of the crew and through her we get a great glimpse into the workings of the ship, the nature of the crew and their dynamics and just in general a solid glimpse into this new world. There is the captain and father-figure to all, Ashby; Skizzy, the Aandrisk pilot; Kizzy and Jenks, the techs who keep the ship running; Dr. Chef, the multi-limbed doctor/cook; Corbin, the algae specialist; Ohan, the navigator from a pair-bonded species (of sorts) and Lovey, the A.I that pretty much is the ship itself.

Overall I would put this book pretty comfortably into the sub-genre of “cozy fiction” because it is very much a cozy and comfortable story on board a ship and with a crew that, as a reader, was a warm and inviting space to settle into for a while. There is some drama, there are challenges and there are external events that play out that the crew gets caught up in, but the “bigger picture” things that are the hallmarks of space-opera and action adventure stories, are very few and distant as much as possible – the focus is on the crew and their life as they live this very niche existence in a dangerous and specialised profession, living as a part of society but a bit apart from it. Everyone has a history and baggage and some even have some secrets and being stuck together for long chunks of time and travelling amongst the stars from place to place can make for a hard time keeping those secrets and also forces people to deal with each other as well as themselves.

Taking this approach also allowed for a much richer experience as the lack of high-stakes drama and action gave writer Becky Chambers a wonderful amount of time and space (heh) to delve into nuances and details of the various cultures that the crew comes from and how they work as well as many of the other space-faring species that are a part of the G.C and frankly I loved this detailed and accessible world that she was able to build and flesh out in an organic manner as the narrative progressed.

If you’re all about thrillers and high-octane action, I honestly don’t know how you might take this kind of more mellow story – HOWEVER, it really is a wonderful story that doesn’t seem to have any major agendas, idealogies to shove down your throat or anything such; it is just a very rich and compelling story. So, that said, if you like a good science fiction story peopled by great characters in a fascinating setting – I would highly, highly recommend you read this book.