Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

21 reviews

pandemonicbaby's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

4.75

Really enjoyed this book!! Reading it felt like watching a space-themed slice-of-life anime. I really liked getting to know all of the characters and their quirks, and the lore was surprisingly expansive and very interesting. Will read more books from this series in the future!!
The fact that I really enjoyed this book just goes to show how I should pay attention to all the lesbian space operas my high school english teacher recommends. She never misses I fear

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Body horror, Xenophobia, War, Gore, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Minor: Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Vomit, Colonisation, Medical content, and Alcohol

there is a scene where a character is beaten up while being incarcerated, but it is short. Another character has a chronic illness, caused by a virus with which they are infected. There is also a scene where the main characters' ship is seized by pirates, and they threaten the ship's crew with guns and knock out the captain.

refrejarator's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

No joke, this is now my favourite book. I've never had one before, so this means a lot to me. 

The Long Way was refreshing, healing, humorous, and reflective in ways that made my heart hurt and my chest light. This is exactly what I needed in my life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, Hate crime, Medical content, Racial slurs, War, Grief, Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Racism and xenophobia is applied to extra terrestrial creatures, does not relate to POCs. There are neo pronouns and they/them pronouns as plural (significant to plot and not derogatory).

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Death, Grief, Medical content, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Ableism, and Slavery

Minor: Pregnancy, Deportation, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

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

2.0

I started off really enjoying this book. I liked the writing and the characterization and thought the set-up was interesting. I was intrigued by what Rosemary did to end up with the crew. I liked the worldbuilding descriptions. I was curious what would happen on their space journey. 

But then it just started to slog in the middle. I thought there would be more of a plot, more tension.. I just felt bored. I thought we'd get to know the characters better but they were all just super nice and very 2 dimensional. The vibe was very like overly happy/ juvenile? But then there was lots of sex talk/ alcohol talk/ mild drug use talk which I didn't think meshed very well. 

Kizzy was a little too manic-pixi dream girl for me. Rosemary was very non-descript. Ashby was too nice-guy, like to the extent he didn't want to get weapons even after they were space mugged? Why is Corbin an asshole? Just to balance everyone else being super nice? I thought the romance between Jenks and the ai Lovey was very intriguing but then the book never went into how they got together or why they liked each other or what attraction looks like to an AI? I liked the non-human characters Dr. Chef and Sissix. The sexual relationship between Sissix and Rosemary could have been interesting but it just seemed like Rosemary was being nice because Sissix's species likes being intimate with everyone? It seems like Rosemary just offers to have sex with Sissix because Rosemary feels bad which is a weird dynamic. Lovey the AI being reset didn't really have the emotional impact it could have because we didn't really get to know her outside of her relationship with Jenks which was barely developed. The ethical implications of Ashby healing Ohan without permission wasn't examined

.

I kept going because I thought the Rosemary reveal would lead to something. I was so disappointed by it. It was so boring and had no repercussions or consequences. It also felt like the author tricked us a bit because

she hadnt even done anything! It was her dad being a war criminal and she didn't know? And then that's not examined??

I liked the diversity of the characters and the inclusion of LGBTQ references

but I thought using neo-pronouns to refer to the space pirates that mug them in one scene was a little much in that it felt like it didn't really add anything to the book but it was just the author reminding the reader that neo-pronouns exist in real life

.

The rest of the book just felt really disconnected, just a series of unrelated scenes one after another. Felt kind of like I was just reading a bunch of vignettes with no stakes.

This book felt too cheesy and corny for me for how long it was and the lack of a tight plot. 

Like everyone on the ship is best friends, whatever tension there is, is extremely brief and resolved immediately. To the extent that any tension doesn't even feel like tension because you know everything will be ok because it's a book where the main characters have plot armor. 

The space bandits, the bombs in the ship, when Corbin is arrested and horribly abused, Jenks and Lovey deciding not to put Lovey in a body

 

Characters are just pouring their hearts out to one another, even characters that just met! 

The worst part about this book for me is that it took me a long time to realize what type of book this was. 

I almost did not finish at about 60% but I was listening to an audiobook while sick so I just put it on fast playback.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Deportation, Infertility, Racism, War, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Drug use, Slavery, Colonisation, Trafficking, Sexual content, and Racial slurs

the_reading_wren's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

The quote on the front of this book says it’s “quietly profound” and I think that sums it up perfectly. 

I wasn’t expecting it but I liked the episodic style of storytelling because it made every chapter satisfying. I could tell this was Chambers’ debut novel due to pacing and some lack of clarity in the messages (which in her more recent books are more honed), but the fact I still gave it 5 stars shows just how much I love her world building, and the wisdom she shares through her characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Grief, and War

Minor: Blood, Murder, Ableism, Vomit, Confinement, Drug use, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Torture, Alcohol, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Slavery, and Violence

cekennamer's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

It's nice to read to a story, especially a sci-fi epic, where the are no Grand Prophecies or Evil Empires or Chosen Ones Handpicked By Destiny To Save The Universe From The Machinations Of Evil. The Long Way chooses to instead focus on the "little people", more specifically a multi-species found family whose main concern isn't overthrowing space tyrants, but of completing their next wormhole tunneling job. This story may be boring to some, with pages and pages of quiet yet intimate and endearing character development and visits to fascinating alien worlds, but to me it was a breath of fresh air in a sci fi landscape that seems to care more about cgi explosions than of crafting a story that will stick with you. Also I'm a sucker for tall reptilian ladies. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and War

Minor: Drug use, Slavery, Violence, and Vomit

hmmsome's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Slavery

temporarilyhuman's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Hate crime, Torture, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Death

Moderate: Child death and Chronic illness

Minor: Classism, Slavery, Racism, Drug use, Cursing, War, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Medical content, Body horror, Blood, Genocide, Gore, and Confinement

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Confinement, and Genocide

Minor: Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical content, Alcohol, Animal death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Slavery

lotten4's review

adventurous funny lighthearted 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? No

4.0

The main focus is on uncovering the complex but delightful world Chambers has created. This is done through several detours from the main plot and from the different perspectives of the crew members, both human and aliens. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

Minor: Child death, War, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Racism, and Gun violence