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The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Record of a Spaceborn Few is still my favorite Wayfarers novel but this was a delight to read from start to finish. If you like James White's Sector General novels, this is the closest thing I've read to one of them in ages (but way less offensively sexist). It's Chambers's first Wayfarers story that has no human characters, and seeing all of the alien characters interact and learn about each other with no humans around was really satisfying. The premise is that an accident at a jumpgate leaves a group of travelers stuck at a refueling depot for several days, and while they wait they try to figure out how to pass the time by socializing.
It's also... I dunno, people have applied the hopepunk/cozy label to Chambers's work, and this is definitely a cozy story premise, but while things mostly work out for our characters, this is a book that is at its most effective when it is angriest, and when it is most clear-eyed about the way the Galaxy grinds people down. Speaker and Pei's drunken argument about Aeluon culpability for Akarak exclusion from civil society is the center of the book; it is exquisitely rendered and heartbreaking. For a story premise that seemingly has no stakes whatsoever, Chambers manages to raise the stakes incredibly high. This entry was originally posted at https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/383885.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are
comments.
Record of a Spaceborn Few is still my favorite Wayfarers novel but this was a delight to read from start to finish. If you like James White's Sector General novels, this is the closest thing I've read to one of them in ages (but way less offensively sexist). It's Chambers's first Wayfarers story that has no human characters, and seeing all of the alien characters interact and learn about each other with no humans around was really satisfying. The premise is that an accident at a jumpgate leaves a group of travelers stuck at a refueling depot for several days, and while they wait they try to figure out how to pass the time by socializing.
It's also... I dunno, people have applied the hopepunk/cozy label to Chambers's work, and this is definitely a cozy story premise, but while things mostly work out for our characters, this is a book that is at its most effective when it is angriest, and when it is most clear-eyed about the way the Galaxy grinds people down. Speaker and Pei's drunken argument about Aeluon culpability for Akarak exclusion from civil society is the center of the book; it is exquisitely rendered and heartbreaking. For a story premise that seemingly has no stakes whatsoever, Chambers manages to raise the stakes incredibly high. This entry was originally posted at https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/383885.html. Please comment there using OpenID. There are
comments.