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

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

I really enjoyed reading this book! I was looking for some lighthearted sci-fi and it definitely delivered. It’s a slice of life type story so there’s no main plot at the forefront, which I personally really enjoyed, but may not be for everyone. 

I did have some issues with how race was portrayed among humans. It seems like the author went with the route of humans all being ambiguously brown (though no one is mentioned as being darker than “tan”) thus ending racism among ourselves since we all look  the same now. It came off as a pretty lazy writing ploy to me given how much the book pushed embracing differences among species.   

And why are we so far into the future and to be fully accepting of neopronouns, but it’s still ”confusing” to use singular they?
or in this case it actually is a plural they. 
It’s great to see neopronouns used so casual, but as  someone who uses they/them pronouns and was told this book had great trans rep, it was really off putting. 

I also really disliked how Ohan’s bodily autonomy was violated with seemingly no consequence. They were cured with zero input on their part and it just gets glossed over
Expand filter menu Content Warnings