The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers: Reviewed by Chris Preiman

Rosemary Harper needs a fresh start, and captain Ashby Santoso needs a clerk to keep his records up to code, That’s how Rosemary finds herself aboard the tunnel ship Wayfarer. The Wayfarer Might be an aging, patched together hunk, that is just about in working order, on a good day, but it is exactly what Rosemary needs, a new home, a chance to see the galaxy, and a crew that just become more. When the Wayfarer is hired to bore a new wormhole through space to a planet controlled by a race that has been at war with itself and just about everyone else for as long as they have records for, Rosemary will end up on a year long journey that will teach her more about life, people and family than she ever knew.

I’m just going to say this upfront, I loved everything about this book, literally everything. I am saying this because, if you are looking for any sort of objective critique, or a balanced and fair explanation of this books strengths and weaknesses, you might want to look somewhere else. Okay, now that I’ve chased away more or less everyone, I can go on, writing to myself I guess. In The long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers takes a lot of inspiration from Firefly, but she does so in some very interesting ways, and not really to the effect most people mean when they say they were inspired by Firefly, certainly not in the way Alex and I meant it in any case. Becky Chambers brings us the misfit crew acting as a surrogate family on a ship moving from planet to planet thing, with a little frontier exploration and a good dash of humor, all part of the Firefly recipe, but then she adds a dollop of humanism, a sprinkle of multiculturalism and a dash of pacifism and empathy, to get A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.

That is what sets this book apart, the crew of the Wayfarer aren’t cowboys, they aren’t outlaws, they are an interstellar road construction crew, and they don’t shoot their way out of problems, they talk their way out and for me that is delightfully refreshing.

I honestly think that calling this book anything short of heartwarming is doing it a disservice, reading more as separate episodes with an overarching plot than a single novel length story, Time and time again The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet takes its characters and makes you cheer for them, laugh with them, cry with them and even love them, and those who have read my reviews before know, that is the highest praise I can give a book. From the boisterous and off beat engineers Kizzy and Jenks, the friendly six legged Dr. Chef, called such because he does both jobs and you’d never be able to pronounce his actual name, the navigator Ohan, who is in a semi parasitic relationship with a virus that is slowly killing him and every other member of their race, but gives them the ability to see and understand fourth dimensional subspace, the fierce looking but gentle hearted reptilian pilot Sissix the irritable algaeest Corbin and of course, captain Ashby, the calm stead hand that keeps them all together and pointed in generally the right direction, each one is truly special and unique and each forms a crucial part of making the crew feel like a family, and making the reader feel like they are part of that family, even if only while you are reading.

The plot itself is by design a little scattered, being broken down into chapter length episodes, in one you might be buying a shield for the ship from a family of weapon making ranchers, being taken hostage by spiders desperate enough to go from refugee to pirate, or attending a lizard family reunion, but each shines a light on people and places that resonate on a deep emotional level and often serve as a vehicle for a philosophical or sociological discussion. Which is of course the other thing this book does so well, presenting time and time again a deeply humanistic and empathetic argument for the audience to take in and digest and while I love my action and adventures, we could use a little more science fiction that takes the time to remind us that no matter how different we are, we are all still people, that different philosophies, religions and biologies don’t mean we can’t get along and work together and that sometimes the choice not to fight is the braver one.

I would recommend this book to, well anyone really. It contains some lessons we all could stand to have reinforced from time to time.

Five out of Five stars

If you’d like to get your own copy of The long Way to a Small Angry Planet, you can do that HERE, or in audio HERE. You can also hit up BECKY CHAMBERS’s website here with links to her other books, social media and other good stuff.

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