A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, 2) (edición 2017)

I expected to be disappointed that the second installment of this trilogy focuses on characters only tangentially relevant to the first book, but was happily surprised to find that Chambers drew me right into this new set of characters as easily as she did in the first. This one gets a little more involved in the ethical questions about what constitutes a person, to the point that it feels a little contrived sometimes. But honestly I don't care too much. The characters are interesting and realistic and the story is exciting and suspenseful without a single explosion or interstellar chase scene. It's fun to imagine the multiplicities of life that potentially exist in the universe beyond the human/nonhuman, male/female binaries we assume are immutable. I will impatiently await the third installment in 2018. I'm excited to find out where Chambers takes the GC universe next! ( )

The Wayfarer series just gets better and better. I already started on book 3 a few minutes after I finished this one and it will not disappoint. I cannot get enough of the marvelous world building and well developed characters. ( )

I cannot recommend this book, and series, enough. Unbearably good writing that inspires reflection and thought without losing its light touch. ( )

Another excellently crafted tale in this series. Not quite as much action as the first, but has some excellent world-building. ( )

I keep not wanting to leave this world -- it's fascinating, and I find the characters to be ridiculously seductive, in a friend sort of way. I totally want to hang out with these people. This book is all about Artificial Intelligence and thinking a lot about what the experience of an AI in a body shape would be. It's, yep, fascinating. I also love that Sidra's story is intertwined with Pepper's -- so much to hear about, so much reflecting and adding to each other.

The only thing that I am still trying to understand is the taboo on putting artificial intelligence into body kits -- that premise is just a little off, in this multi-species world -- likewise the distaste for clones and genetic manipulators -- not that I don't understand the distaste, just that I'm not sure how this alien colloquium defined their borders. It's also very interesting to me that there's this peaceful, working interior space league of sentients, and they don't hold with cloning or genetic manipulation or artificial intelligence in bodies, or weird unprovoked warfare within their borders, but they completely tolerate it in outside groups. How do those decisions get made? Eh, it's just odd to me. Still, fascinated.

Re-read. Still LOVE it. This time I got more of the ways the conversations in the book track to body dysphoria, and I love that even more. ( )