The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
By Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager)
Spectacular, approachable, award-winning hard science fiction novel
Review by Lawrence I. Charters, August 19, 2017
The title is the plot: a crew from multiple spacefaring cultures travels a long way to a small, very angry planet. This is a first novel, and a wonderful first effort with a fresh, original approach. I immediately read Chambers’ second novel, which is related, but also completely independent, with a very different set of problems and perspectives. Be sure to get that one, too: A Closed and Common Orbit.
One of the more extraordinary charms of the book is the utter lack of expository lumps. Too often in science fiction, one character (usually male) has one or more long discourses to another character (usually female) explaining all kinds of technical or political or social information that the reader needs to know in order to understand the story, without troubling to burden the story itself with such details. Chambers doesn’t do that; the reader learns a great deal about the multi-species crew of the Wayfarer through their thoughts, actions, and interactions. You learn how humanity ventured out into the galaxy, how it encountered other species, what these species are doing to one another, and the trials and tribulations of each individual over time, much as you do with everyone else you’ve ever met. Life is not a military briefing, and neither is this novel.
This novel is the first in Chambers’ Wayfarers series, and it contains plot elements that are picked up in the second volume, A Closed and Common Orbit, but both novels are entirely stand alone.