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librarymouse's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I sat I my kitchen crying as Owl told Pepper not to cry and that she was there, and I didn't stop crying till the end of the book, though the tears were for a variety of different emotions. These characters are so easy to love. Sidra learning how to be a person, including her inate instincts and not ridding herself of the unique aspects that are core to her is such a huge and beautiful storyline, which I read as allegorical for neurodivergence. Tak is a great friend, and Owl getting to see Pepper and Blue Shepard Sidra into personhood as she'd done for Pepper was beautiful. Sidra and Owl getting to share digital space is beautiful and I long for a continuation of the story in which AI are granted legal personhood. I know the series continues and god I hope that change in political landscape is a part of it. My heart is full with Owl and her reunion with Pepper; being able to finally hug the girl she's loved and raised for years. My heart breaks for Lovey and what could have been.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Medical content, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Animal death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, and Grief
Minor: Deportation and Slavery
novella42's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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
I have yet to find a sci-fi author who handles themes of disability, chronic illness, neurodivergence, and mental health with the same deeply grounded compassion of Becky Chambers. This book is one of the harder reads in this series, but I love it to pieces, I love the characters, I love where it takes you, love the way it makes me feel by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Eating disorder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Infertility, and Mental illness
Minor: Cancer
Spoiler-level clarification on the eating disorder tag.ventenne's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
becky chambers does it once again! and this time, i was crying before the book even finished. lowkey preferred it to the long way to a small angry planet, which isn’t to say that isn’t also a phenomenal book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Animal death, and Blood
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Drug use, and Infertility
Minor: War
innerweststreetlibrarian's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-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? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this one too! I liked the way the book is structured, flipping between the two intertwined stories.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Animal death
Moderate: Medical trauma, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, and Slavery
Minor: Infertility, Drug use, and Gore
librarianmage's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Slavery
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Drug use
lyrellian's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Slavery, and Child abuse
Minor: Child death
overbooked207's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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? Yes
4.0
📖 A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers Book Review 📖
6th book of August and 23rd of the year:
The sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, this book follows an important character from the first book along with a whole new cast of great characters. It was heartfelt, inspiring, adventurous, and fun, had lyrical, atmospheric, and beautiful writing, complex and lovable characters, and queer, PTSD, disability, anxiety, and more representation, and it explored what it means to be human and the importance of community and togetherness. The series is still heavily character-based, which I love, but this installment had more action than the first, so people who enjoy more plot-based stories will enjoy that aspect of it. Personally, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still my favorite in the series, but this was another amazing adventure, and I definitely recommend it and all other Becky Chambers' books! TW for PTSD, anxiety, abuse, animal death, ableism, child death, death, child abuse, drug use, vomit, violence, grief, gaslighting, injury/injury detail, captivity, slavery, mental illness, gore, blood, explosions/fire injury, mentions of sex, mentions of food, murder, and medical content📚🚀🔭
6th book of August and 23rd of the year:
The sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, this book follows an important character from the first book along with a whole new cast of great characters. It was heartfelt, inspiring, adventurous, and fun, had lyrical, atmospheric, and beautiful writing, complex and lovable characters, and queer, PTSD, disability, anxiety, and more representation, and it explored what it means to be human and the importance of community and togetherness. The series is still heavily character-based, which I love, but this installment had more action than the first, so people who enjoy more plot-based stories will enjoy that aspect of it. Personally, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still my favorite in the series, but this was another amazing adventure, and I definitely recommend it and all other Becky Chambers' books! TW for PTSD, anxiety, abuse, animal death, ableism, child death, death, child abuse, drug use, vomit, violence, grief, gaslighting, injury/injury detail, captivity, slavery, mental illness, gore, blood, explosions/fire injury, mentions of sex, mentions of food, murder, and medical content📚🚀🔭
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Death, Blood, Animal death, Slavery, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Vomit, Violence, Sexual content, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, and Murder
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Not my favorite of the Becky Chambers books I’ve read cause I just never quite gelled with the characters as much as I wanted to, but still very good.
It was fairly obvious early on where the story was headed, but I didn’t mind that because the plot was executed really well.
Sidra was a great main character. Jane/Pepper was good as well, but I would have connected to her more if we’d gotten a bit more of the in-between years I think.
This book expands the world and the lore and the science from book one, which I liked. I also thought this one handled gender much better.
The main themes here are definitely consciousness and purpose. Kind of feels like a precursor to the Monk and Robot series in some ways. I’ll definitely be thinking about it for a while.
Excited to continue with the other books in the series!
It was fairly obvious early on where the story was headed, but I didn’t mind that because the plot was executed really well.
Sidra was a great main character. Jane/Pepper was good as well, but I would have connected to her more if we’d gotten a bit more of the in-between years I think.
This book expands the world and the lore and the science from book one, which I liked. I also thought this one handled gender much better.
The main themes here are definitely consciousness and purpose. Kind of feels like a precursor to the Monk and Robot series in some ways. I’ll definitely be thinking about it for a while.
Excited to continue with the other books in the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death
deedireads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? No
4.75
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
A Closed and Common Orbit is the sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. When I learned that it was set in the same universe but not about the same crew of characters, I was sad. And tbh, I would definitely still read a sequel about those characters specifically. But this was also so lovely that I ended up anything but disappointed! I shoulda known Becky Chambers would deliver.
The main character of this book is an advanced AI program who’s been decoupled from the ship she was created to run and placed inside a body kit. That’s illegal, though, so she goes to live with a side character from TLWTASAP, work as her assistant, and attempt to blend in. The story is about her struggle to adjust to a body that isn’t *her*, explain that dysphoria to those who love her, and forge authentic friendships of her own. At the same time, we get more and more backstory on the woman she lives with, until the two plots come together into an exciting ending.
So, that sounds very sci-fi, and obviously that’s the genre, but again, Chambers’ books aren’t about the AI or the science or space battles; they’re about characters and found family and self-acceptance. I was blown away by how much this said about real people’s experiences with body dysmorphia and society’s xenophobia through the metaphor of an AI living in a human body.
Another heartwarming, cozy, beautiful read from an author who will never disappoint me.
A Closed and Common Orbit is the sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. When I learned that it was set in the same universe but not about the same crew of characters, I was sad. And tbh, I would definitely still read a sequel about those characters specifically. But this was also so lovely that I ended up anything but disappointed! I shoulda known Becky Chambers would deliver.
The main character of this book is an advanced AI program who’s been decoupled from the ship she was created to run and placed inside a body kit. That’s illegal, though, so she goes to live with a side character from TLWTASAP, work as her assistant, and attempt to blend in. The story is about her struggle to adjust to a body that isn’t *her*, explain that dysphoria to those who love her, and forge authentic friendships of her own. At the same time, we get more and more backstory on the woman she lives with, until the two plots come together into an exciting ending.
So, that sounds very sci-fi, and obviously that’s the genre, but again, Chambers’ books aren’t about the AI or the science or space battles; they’re about characters and found family and self-acceptance. I was blown away by how much this said about real people’s experiences with body dysmorphia and society’s xenophobia through the metaphor of an AI living in a human body.
Another heartwarming, cozy, beautiful read from an author who will never disappoint me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Slavery, Animal death, and Grief
frozencusser's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
mysterious
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Child abuse, Child death, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders