Becky Chambers can do so much in such little space. This novella is only about 135 pages (according to my Kindle), and I was interested and invested from the jump. The book is basically an earth-bound log written by astronaut Ariadne, an engineer on an exploration vessel with three other astronauts. They’re on a mission that will last decades in earth years, and they will be exploring a moon and 3 planets in a solar system light years away from earth’s solar system. Their goal isn’t to colonize but to observe and collect data.
I love that these characters are just geeking out over what they’re finding on the moon and planets. Everything is interesting to them, but what’s really cool is that they find life forms (ranging from single-celled to macro organisms), and they are just so excited by each discovery. Chambers has come up with creative life forms, but mostly I just loved being in on the characters’ excitement and passion.
Not much happens, you could say, but it doesn’t need to. The characters are just going from planet to planet exploring, existing in a sleep-like state as they travel between planets. However, because we were just merrily tripping along following these nerds on their slice of life adventures, it came as a gut punch when about halfway through the book something disturbing happened. The tension builds from there when they hit a long-term snag on the next planet and then realize that there’s a reason earth hasn’t been in contact with them, and they have to decide what to do about that.
Like Chambers’s other two novellas, this is a gentle book that asks some philosophical questions, in this case what it means to explore – or perhaps intrude upon – other planets. I didn’t agree with some of the reflections at the very end of the book, but that didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the novella, and I gave it 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.
cbr16bingo Celestial