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Oh, I've just read one of the most marvellous books ever. Any of you read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers? I just did this weekend, and it was the best time I've had reading in a long time. That feeling when you're not just reading the story, you're living it, and you feel unable to put the book away during a tense part, because then you feel like these characters are struggling for their lives right now, I need to know what's going on - your own time just disappears and blends into story time, and your mind blends into the story, and the story is more real than anything. When you feel as though the characters have become your friends. I've had that experience with this book, and it's so amazing.
I'm going to avoid being spoilery, for the benefit of anyone who wants to read the book and hasn't yet. It's a science fiction story, following the crew of a spaceship called The Wayfarer, in a distant future where several sapient species have spread out across the galaxy, humans being just one of the newer additions, and by far not the most advanced one. The Wayfarer is basically in the business of building wormholes: punching holes in the sublayer between the space so that distant places can be connected and this whole galactic interaction and travel is possible. The book follows the story of the multi-species crew as they journey a long way in space for a particularly big, challenging job.
There's so much I love about this. It's very character-driven, focusing on several fascinating people of varied backgrounds. The characters are all amazing, intriguing and real, and I love how effortlessly diverse this book is. There's same-sex and inter-species romance that mostly isn't a big deal (though there are cultures that don't approve of interspecies romance), there are cultures with very different ideas about family and children and sexuality than human cultures usually have, there are aliens that naturally change sex during their lives or don't have one etc. There are totally kick-ass female characters, in several ways, from the young and smart human clerk to the awesome Aandrisk pilot (the Aandrisks are this totally amazing reptilian-ish species who I want to be adopted by, though they'd find me so weird) to the feisty human engineer who keeps the ship together.
( Oops, this turned out a bit long, better cut some )
Aaaand it just happens to be on the Yuletide nominated fandoms list, so I'm already tweaking my planned sign-up in my mind. Also, there's a stand-alone sequel coming out this month. I think I'll be making an order.
I'm going to avoid being spoilery, for the benefit of anyone who wants to read the book and hasn't yet. It's a science fiction story, following the crew of a spaceship called The Wayfarer, in a distant future where several sapient species have spread out across the galaxy, humans being just one of the newer additions, and by far not the most advanced one. The Wayfarer is basically in the business of building wormholes: punching holes in the sublayer between the space so that distant places can be connected and this whole galactic interaction and travel is possible. The book follows the story of the multi-species crew as they journey a long way in space for a particularly big, challenging job.
There's so much I love about this. It's very character-driven, focusing on several fascinating people of varied backgrounds. The characters are all amazing, intriguing and real, and I love how effortlessly diverse this book is. There's same-sex and inter-species romance that mostly isn't a big deal (though there are cultures that don't approve of interspecies romance), there are cultures with very different ideas about family and children and sexuality than human cultures usually have, there are aliens that naturally change sex during their lives or don't have one etc. There are totally kick-ass female characters, in several ways, from the young and smart human clerk to the awesome Aandrisk pilot (the Aandrisks are this totally amazing reptilian-ish species who I want to be adopted by, though they'd find me so weird) to the feisty human engineer who keeps the ship together.
( Oops, this turned out a bit long, better cut some )
Aaaand it just happens to be on the Yuletide nominated fandoms list, so I'm already tweaking my planned sign-up in my mind. Also, there's a stand-alone sequel coming out this month. I think I'll be making an order.
