I think if there is such a sub-genre as “cozy sci-fi”, Becky Chambers is one of it’s lead writers. A Closed and Common Orbit is the sequel to Becky Chambers debut novel, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Even more than it’s predecessor, this book is more concerned with the interactions of it’s characters than with action or adventure. At the end of Small Angry Planet, the Wayfarer’s AI, Lovelace, “Lovey,” is damaged in an unprovoked attack. To save Lovey, she is downloaded into a […]
Becky Chambers might be my new hero
Before I finished my last read, I started poking around in The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, trying to pick my next read, when I noticed the page “A special note from Becky Chambers” all the way in the back. I assumed it would be an acknowledgement page or maybe a teaser for an upcoming book or even just a note to her fans, but instead, Chambers included a note to encourage aspiring writers not to give up. The timing […]
Delightful, feel-good space opera
A closed and common orbit is the sequel to The Long way to a Small Angry Planet, so… A Closed and Common Orbit follows Lovelace the AI after she’s been downloaded into a kit resembling a human body. Pepper takes care of her and brings her back to her home planet. Lovelace changes her name to Sidra, a human-name, and tries to adjust to life with different senses in a strange place. She is no longer a ship with a camera in every room, […]
Sci-fi to make you cry (in a nice way)
Lovelace is an AI. She belongs on a ship, protecting and caring for its crew. But due to events in Becky Chambers’ first novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, she finds herself instead in a synthetic body. To everyone else she looks perfectly human, but inside she’s struggling with her new circumstances, missing her old abilities, and feeling lost. Her guide through this transition is Pepper, an expert in all things tech, and someone who knows what it’s like not to be […]
A genetic multiple and an artificial intelligence encased in a manufactured body walk into a bar . . .
This is yet another review where I’m putting up the white flag. It’s been months since I finished it and for whatever reason I’ve been having a hell of a time trying to figure out what I want to say about it. So I’m just not going to say much at all and this will be more of a mini-review than a real one. I liked this book, but not as much as the first one. It’s really more of a companion novel to A Long Way to A Small […]
Not Firefly
This seems to be a divisive book and I can see why. I had two problems with it: one was a matter of taste, the other was a tension and storytelling problem. The book features a motley crew manning a spaceship. This is where the Firefly comparisons come in, and people that enjoy it seem to see the connection beyond that. And this is where the taste issue comes up, I love Firefly and its brand of humor and quirk. I did not think this […]