Reviews - To Be Taught, If Fortunate

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8.63k reviews for:

To Be Taught, If Fortunate

Becky Chambers

4.27 AVERAGE

meggoes's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective relaxing 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

An enjoyable, generally laid back book that shines a light on the beauty of science and discovery.

A crew of 4 is sent on a many-years-long interstellar journey to explore a small nunber of life-supporting planets that vary wildly from one another and Earth. The journey is marked by logistical, technical, and morale challenges as well as interpresonal, scientific, and creative triumphs intermixed with the banality of every day life. It is on-par with other Becky Chambers books I've read in it's slow pace and focus on characters.

Speaking of characters, there are basically only 4: the narrator Ariadne, a woman from the US(?) who describes her deep respect for space, exploration, and discovery and serves as the flight engineer for the ship; Elena, another American(?) woman who has classic leadership qualities like experience, wisdom, and a need to go by-the-books

(which later, esp. in the face of challenges, translates into a fixation that strikes me as compulsive)

; Jack, an Australian man whose trans identity is alluded to exactly one time and whose scientific focus is rocks/dirt

(and who, in the face of stress, takes on pretty aggressive negative self-talk and repeatedly refers to himself as stupid, etc.)

; and Chikondi, an asexual Indian (?) man whose scientific focus is on biology

(and his reverence for living beings later, in the face of failure and loss, pushes him to reevaluate the purpose and morality of their mission because of the way it does/could disturb the organisms they observe)

. The narrator is intimate with the entire crew in various ways. She "moves her cot" into the cabins of Jack and Elena, but her intimacy with Chikondi is based entirely on an intellectual and emotional bond.

The worlds are fascinating to explore alongside the crew. Their reflections on purpose, science, and consensus encouraged the same in me. Why explore space? For utility? Utility for what? For the beauty of discovery? What is our obligation to one another and the rest of the universe?

I don't think I'll reread it but I did enjoy it and would recommend it to plenty of people.

martamastt's review against another edition

informative medium-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

robbin's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Not a book I'd read if I needed comfort, but it does bring about a lot of questions of what it means to be human, and what if meant to be an adventurer. I finished this book feeling somber.

cheesetopher's review against another edition

2.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

leenbean's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional informative reflective 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

I love Becky Chambers’s books! They’re so good at writing an interesting, in depth story in a short format. I wish more authors would be more concise.
This book was interesting to think about why space travel matters and what we’re trying learn from it. It’s also interesting to read how scientists think and process information.