Reviews tagging 'Death'

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

26 reviews

marlandreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Grief, and Death

alxjasper's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death and Animal death

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I didn’t know what to expect from the blurb, but I think going in blind and letting the story unfold before you is the perfect way to experience this book. This is the kind of book that reminds me why I love scifi.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Confinement

Moderate: Death

Minor: Sexual content

iaraya's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Death, Body horror, War, and Death of parent

The space exploration mission lasts for 80 years. The characters deal with the fact that when they return, most people they know will be dead.

Over the decades, they receive news from Earth, both innovation and wars/disaster. In one extended scene, a character grieves after learning her hometown has been destroyed. Later, they stop receiving transmissions and learn that Earth civilisation has been devastated by an apocalyptic event. Another spaceship crew makes contact, but is implied to have died upon reentry to Earth.

lilly_anne's review

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Death and Grief

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE presents a delightful and intimate portrait of long-term space travel with a small team of scientists who undertake this journey knowing that it means saying goodbye to everyone they knew and loved. 

Ariadne has strong bonds with her other three crewmates, singly and collectively. Their personalities come through very well and her interactions with them are a delight. They're all affected differently by certain plot events, despite being generally in the same situation as each other, and by the time things get stressful I had a enough of a sense of them to resonate with their reactions. The science explanations are just a much a part of the narrative as Ariadne's conversations with her team. Everyone's enthusiasm for their work makes this a delight to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Grief

Moderate: Medical content and Death

Minor: Ableism and Suicidal thoughts

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Ohh I love this, just like everything else Becky Chambers writes. This is different from the other books I've read by her, but still absolutely engaging and interesting and compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Death

Minor: War

storykath's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A four-person astronaut crew explores life-filled planets light-years away from Earth, thanks to the technology of somaforming. As they explore each new world, they learn more about the universe, and also about themselves, each other, and human nature. As they leave Earth farther behind, they must confront the possibility of what they will find when they eventually return.

I am a big Becky Chambers fan - the Wayfarers series has a special place in my heart. To Be Taught isn't too far removed from Wayfarers, in that it's speculative, cozy sci-fi with diverse characters and engaging moral quandaries. That being said, To Be Taught doesn't quite live up to Wayfarers for me. I miss the multiple perspectives and lengthier narratives that get sacrificed in novella form. Some of the science is believable and well-explained, while other aspects feel less fleshed-out. For instance, the narrator Ariadne's role on the crew often feels contrived; she doesn't actually do much as the ship's engineer, which conveniently leaves her with plenty of opportunity to help the others and thus observe and narrate their actions. When she does act in her role, she can be indecisive and unscientific, with a lot of "probably"s and "I don't know"s that never get methodically addressed like I would expect.

As always with Becky Chambers, To Be Taught is an interesting, easy-to-read sci-fi that effectively uses outer space and science to reflect inwardly on humanity. While I can't rave as much about this novella compared to any of the Wayfarers books, I am still glad to have it on my shelf.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Gun violence, and Sexual content

fancymcgee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

this book literally has my heart beating out of tune. i don’t know how to exist with this in my head. the characters. fuck. the whole novella. dude. how did she write this. becky, how do you do this? only 130 pages and yet i am completely attached to characters and dumbfounded by the whole thing. the third planet? chikondi at the end of the second? JACK? wow. i. it was so much. i was so excited by the end of that discovery that i had to remind myself that it wasn’t real. i was absolutely and completely hooked. becky always fucking outdoes herself and to this day i think about her. i can’t. reading her books sends me into a spiral every goddamn time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Confinement, Animal death, Gore, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Grief

strange_little_ranger's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Minor: Blood, Cancer, Death, Grief, and Medical content