Book #4 of 2018: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

[thistlechaser]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



One of the reviews of this book said something like "This will make people on Tumblr happy", and that is very true. Everything in this story was Kumbaya. Every sexuality was okay. Nontraditional pronouns (xir, xer, etc) were 100% A-OK. Even just the thought of owning a gun shocked people. I'm not saying that those are bad things, but it just made everything seem less realistic, more, as the other reviewer said, a book written for the typical Tumblr person.

Not much happened in this long book, and that too was okay. The story was mostly just about interesting characters interacting with each other. Only the last 10% of the book had much plot, and honestly I could have done without that.

The main character, Rosemary, is new to space travel, but she joins the crew of a tunneling ship (tunneling through space/time to make wormholes for travel). Through her we meet and get to know the whole crew. Most of the book is just about them getting to know each other, talking with each other, and rare shopping trips. It may sound boring, but it really wasn't. It was quite nice and I mostly enjoyed reading it.

I see there are two more books out in this series, but I doubt I'll pick them up anytime soon. Too many other books to read, and while this first book was nice, it didn't drive me to want more. (Based on reviews of the three books, I appear to be in the minority opinion on that.)

Currently reading: The Wolves of Winter, which is really, really good. Post-apocalyptic (which I don't seem to read too much of anymore), but the main character's voice is great and I love the book so far.

Comments

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read this one and had similar feelings.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The book I'm reading now has so much plot, it really does make a difference.

[hamsterwoman]

Heh, this is a VERY Tumblr-y book which was my principal problem with it. Everyone is too reasonable and woke to have conflict! or plot. (Except for Corbin, who is Problematic and has to be punished. But is convenient for making the iffy decisions so the nice people on the crew don't have to sully themselves.)

For all that I clearly have a lot of feelings about it, I actually did really enjoy reading it -- I had fun with a number of the characters anyway (Sissix and Kizzy especially), and I loved almost all of the worldbuilding, which is neat and clever and unusual and deep.

I just wish Becky Chambers had chosen something more interesting to do against the background of all that fabulous worldbuilding and with those fun characters...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep, I agree with you 100%. There was so much potential here, but she shied away from all conflict.

You hit it right on the nose with Corbin. He did what the rest of the crew were too nice to do themselves.

Did you read the other books in the series? Apparently she's writing two "solarpunk" stories as well. I assume that's steampunk in space.

[hamsterwoman]

I haven't read the other two books yet, but I do kind of want to. I've heard that book 2 is better in the "having a plot" department, even though it's about characters I didn't really care about in book 1.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, book 2 I have less interest in because we don't even hardly know Pepper, and we know even less of Lovelace.

I was slightly more interested in book 3, even though (or maybe because?) it has completely new characters. Apparently 3 is standalone, so if I go back to the series, I might just skip 2. To be honest with myself though, I likely won't go back to it.