Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Record of a Spaceborn Few

Although I didn’t quite love this book as much as I did ‘a close and common orbit’ (that one is hard to top for me though, I absolutely adored it), this book was still wonderful.

Wayfarers is a science fiction series, set in a time and place very far from our own. Yet the stories, the emotions and the people are so real and recognisable. And I just want to eat up every single detail of this universe that Becky has created, as I have mentioned before, she has the most incredible imagination.

I never thought I would enjoy a character-focused series so much as I do this one (I have always favoured plot-based books in the past) but Becky has really changed that for me.

I am sad I only have one more book left to read.

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beereads27's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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? No

4.25

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novella42's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

In some ways, the darkest of the Wayfarer series, but also the most beautiful. The most human. The central themes of this book remind me of Alice Walker's short story, Everyday Use. What do we preserve? What do we carry with us, and why, and how? What matters most when we're grappling with our own mortality and purpose and connection to other people who live like we do, in frail, mortal bodies in fragile, finite spaces?

I agree with some reviews that this book is slower than the others, and that the teenage character can be hard to empathize with because he's struggling with boredom and purpose. But the payoff. For me, the payoff is everything. I cry throughout this book and feel so peaceful at the end. Like I'm a little bit closer to finding my own purpose.

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georgw's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

So far the worst of the series, probably because the many characters having more sprawling storylines made it feel less focused and the characters were less rich as a result. The plot points were also a bit more obvious, for lack of a better term. Still a great book, it’s hard to follow up the masterpieces that started this series.

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bibeanenergy's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

I adore the wayfairer series, and Spaceborn few is such a nice snapshot of a different side of the Fleet to the first two books. the characters are always so compelling, and the systems, diversity and interpersonal communication and learning etc are written so well excellent slice of life SciFi read, without so much of the life or death intensity of other SciFi plots.

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sollie's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

By far Chambers' most existential read that I've read thus far, in a good way. What I love about her Wayfarer series (and why I'm so happy I can finally continue it) is the hope and nurture that shines through everywhere. There's something so human about the questions she explores and the way she does it in a world full of fictional politics and aliens. It's speculative fiction at its finest.

The worldbuilding is important but also secondary. You're not here to read a page-long info-dump about the inner workings of a space engine, but you also care about such things when the current protagonist cares. Just like the previous two books, this one is (almost aggressively) character-driven. Although the universe isn't described in extravagant detail, all the information you need for immersion is there--again, if a character cares, you care. Or at least that's how it was for me.

In this story, we follow people connected to the Exodus Fleet, a fleet of ships that left a ruined Earth for the great unknown space, hoping to one day find a planet to settle on. The fleet left ages ago, and by the time this story unfolds, it has long since reached its goal by finding the other sapient aliens of the Galactic Community and the multiple planets and civilizations within. Many humans chose to leave, to spread out, but a few million remain on the Fleet because it is familiar, because it is home, because it has developed a culture and a way of life of its own. There is no money system, because everyone is already given what they need, and everyone cooperates to make the civilization a functional one. Everything is recycled, reused, re-traded, remembered. They are also somewhat isolated and because of the pride over their unique ways, the people of the Fleet are sometimes defensive or hostile toward change and/or outside influence. The Fleet promotes community, yet has a slightly bitter us-versus-them-attitude always present.

We follow Eyas, who cares for the dead and all the rites and rituals that comes with it, all the nurturing and consoling that comes with it. She also cares intensely for the Fleet and its traditions, the safety and warmth it holds.

We follow Isabel, (a 75-year-old lady who's gay and happily married--I can't think of any other book with such a character and I just had to point it out, we need to see more of this!) who takes care of the Archives where all information about Earth and the Fleet and everything in between is stored, and she spends most of her page-time showing an alien journalist around which works to give a deeper understanding of the Fleet for the reader as well.

We follow Kip, a teen who's sick of the Fleet and doesn't know what to do with his life, because what the Fleet offers feels so finite, but the world outside it is unfamiliar.

We follow Sawyer, a 20-something who has lived a pretty sucky life on a planet and wants to try to turn to the Fleet for community and purpose, but he struggles to fit in.

We follow Tessa, a mother of two who loves the Fleet and doesn't want to leave it, whose job in the Fleet might not exist soon because of "outside" technology, and whose daughter doesn't feel safe on a spaceship because she witnessed a terrible accident when she was very small.

Out of everyone, Eyas was my favorite. I think I cried a few times because of how her duties and existential thoughts intersected, how beautifully Chambers has crafted the rituals Eyas performs. Eyas is a space priest of sorts and even if there isn't a common religion of a kind among the Fleet, rituals are what make a community even here, in a speculative future universe. Even though we don't think about that stuff all the time, or even most of the time, it is still somehow the core of who and what humanity is. Something that has been a constant throughout our existence. I don't know if I'm able to put my thoughts down properly but long story short, Eyas and everything about her made me emotional.

This book was less "Mass Effect"-vibes and more like a parent patiently explaining that the ways of the world and the purpose of life is as much a mystery to them as it is to you.

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