The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: A Novel (Wayfarers, 4) (edición 2021)

The fourth and final Galactic Commons novel is set on a space service station, where a group of different travelers find themselves trapped for several days during a disaster. Like most Becky Chambers novels, there's little conflict, and I found this dead boring; of her novels, only A Closed and Common Orbit has really worked for me.

I think the issue, here at least, is that the characters are all the same. Despite being from different species and different societies, they're all well-intentioned people who are vaguely awkward and have some kind of minor secret that sets them apart from their own people. That's all we get out of three hundred pages!

Nothing ever feels like it's at stake. Not externally, but even internally. Am I worried about how these people are and how they might change? Not at all. Chambers has her devoted fans (including my own sister) but she and I are obviously just not on the same wavelength.

Exactly what I hoped for from another Wayfarer's book -- a diversity of species in a weird situation trying to get along and discovering more about each other in the process. I particularly loved that in many way this book centers on reproduction -- on the challenges of childrearing, on the autonomy of parents regardless of the love for offspring, and on the ultimate and unassailable power of choice. Very topical, and I respect more than I can say that Chambers kind of pulled the wool of her own world-building back to remind us of the ugly side of the GC; to show us that there are winners and losers in Utopia, too, and that there are still wrongs to rectify. Speaker is such a great character, and her strength of opinion and mind are amazing. I also love that there is a an argument that she and Pei cannot get through -- that they cannot come to agreement or pretend to like someone who holds the opposite opinion, but they still manage to respect each other. They still manage civil discourse. That costs them, but it's an example that America needs right now, in so many ways. ( )

Gah, I love Becky Chambers' work so much!

We are back in the Wayfarers world of "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet," this time at a stopover joint for interstellar travel. There is the site host and her child and three travelers passing through. Deliciously, none of these main characters are human and so we get to explore different cultures, foods, ways of being and moving and communicating. Due to unforeseen circumstances, they end up having to stay at the Five-Hop One-Stop longer than planned. The reader learns more about each character and gets to see how their interactions influence each other. Lovely and deceptively simple and heartfelt.

Review cross-posted to Goodreads ( )

This fourth book in Becky Chambers' loosely connected Wayfarers series is set in a sort of interstellar truck stop, where some kind of orbital disaster traps several aliens of various kinds together for a few days.

You know, I remember reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first book in the series, and commenting that I was something like a hundred pages in before it suddenly occurred to me that basically nothing had happened in it, and that I didn't remotely care because I was really enjoying hanging out with all of the characters, and learning about all the different aliens species in this universe and their cultures and interactions with each other, and so on.

Well, this one is also largely about hanging out with characters and learning about alien cultures while not much actually happens, but this time I definitely noticed. Everything was mildly interesting, and all the characters were mildly likeable, but it wasn't exciting me or keeping my attention in anything like the same way. I also couldn't escape the very strong sense that the entire thing was basically an exercise in the author carefully modelling How to Behave Well Towards Others and Respect Their Personal and Cultural Diversities for the benefit of her readers. As moral lessons go, this is one I'm in favor of, and it's done pleasantly enough and not in a way that's terribly clunky or preachy, but, nevertheless, I sometimes felt like I was experiencing some sort of science-fictional Mr. Roger's Neighborhood gently attempting to teach me good behavior by example. But, with the greatest of respect and love for the late Fred Rogers... I really do feel a bit too old for that. ( )

The whole series seems of its time — not that it’s going to feel dated, just that 2015-2021 is such a particular, eventful era that anything thoughtful written in that time is going to feel like it couldn’t have been written anytime else. This is the COVID lockdown / having difficult race conversations with conservative loved ones entry in the series. Again, it’s specific enough to its own universe that I doubt it’ll feel dated, but some moments were deeply emotional for me (like the lights flashing at each other across the habitat domes, the way we stood on our porches with flashlights in early pandemic) that may just go by unnoticed for a younger reader 20 years from now. I understand Chambers needing to move on from this universe, but I will miss it tremendously. ( )