Book review: The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Hop aboard the Wayfarer for wholesome, sci-fi escapism.

I give this book a human thumbs up, an aandrisk nose nuzzle and a grum hoot.

Throughout 2021, I want to read more new(ish) sci-fi from a diverse set of authors. Most of the sci-fi books I've read (and therefore most of the books I've read) are written by white men. And I mean to cast no shade on the likes of Iain M Banks, Terry Pratchett or China Mieville - they're some of my favourite authors. But it's nice to mix things up. 

Get on with it, Andy! 

The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers follows a cast of human and alien characters as they navigate their spaceship, the Wayfarer, towards a wormhole-tunnelling job. 

The Wayfarer is a 'tunnelling ship', building wormholes to join distant parts of the galaxy together and is home to a unique set of characters. The plot follows each in turn, and I uncovered secrets and plotted plans with most of them. 

There's the irreverent, Human mechanic, Kizzy, who is always covered in oil or eating Hot Shrimp or stoned, or all three. There's Jenks, the computer guy who falls in love with the ship's artificial intelligence (Lovey, or Lovelace - a hat-tip to Ada Lovelace). And there's Sissix, a reptilian-like Aandrisk, who's constantly baffled (but touched) by the soft humans she shares a ship with.

I had favourite characters who I wanted to see all the time. And not-favourites who I wanted to avoid by hiding behind a bulkhead. Though there's no real villain in the story. I don't think this is a bad thing - The Long Way... shows normal people (and aliens) doing a normal job in a pan-galactic society of many species. 

Oh! The aliens are great - alien enough to feel alien, but similar to humanity so that they are easy to empathise with. Each species has a wonderful, rich history (my favourite being the hyper-intelligent Sianat Pairs, a species which, when infected with a brain virus, become able to visualise hyperspace - how cool is, that?). 

What about the plot?

The book lives up to its title - it takes a long time for the characters to get to their destination. And I loved that. It meant I got to spend longer on the ship with the characters who soon felt more like friends. 

And it meant that I got to spend longer with the food! The ship's chef (also the ship's doctor) cooks up delicious-sounding dishes. The food sounded so tasty, that I wished I could take a little of this alien vegetable, a sprinkle of that alien spice, whisk in flour from Earth and bake spiced bread for myself. 

There isn't a great amount of tension in the story, but I think this is deliberate. And I found it refreshing to read sci-fi where the primary characters aren't shooting lasers at each other. 

This book is pure, cosy, warm escapism. I felt as excited reading the descriptions of the Wayfarer and spiced bread as 12-year-old me did while reading about the Hogwarts Express and chocolate frogs. 

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