A review by ladyk23
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

5.0

Where to start with this fantastic book? It was recommended to me by my friend Lizzie and I’m so grateful to her for introducing Becky Chambers motley crew of misfits into my life!

The story focuses on the crew of the Wayfarer. A tunnelling ship that creates wormholes between certain points in space and time. Don’t get too bogged down by the science part of the science fiction of the genre this novel falls under, as this is a story about people and the intricacies of getting along despite our differences.

My friend prepared me for the novel by telling me that it’s a series of stories that shouldn’t be particularly interesting, but because of the way Becky Chambers has written them, they will grip you and you will find yourself completely taken in by these characters.

She wasn’t wrong. There is little in the way of action here, and what action there is seems to be over quite quickly. And to be honest I’m not mad about this at all. The characters are what I’m here for, and they are glorious. I was instantly a fan of Kizzy, who reminded me a lot of Kaylee in Firefly. Dr Chef was also an instant like, and despite myself I found I was picturing him as Dex from Star Wars Episode 2. In my defence I had recently re-watched SWE2 so he was in my recent memory. Recent recruit Rosemary has a secret from the off so I was more reserved about her until I found out what it was she was hiding. Captain Ashby and Sissix soon followed, and it’s impossible not to fall in love with Jenks and Lovey. You’ll see why.

Lastly cranky Corbin and mysterious Ohan clawed their way into my heart and then that was it. I was done for.

I don’t want to spoiler anything in this book and so I’m going to sign off my review by saying that I can’t wait to read the next one, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes character driven stories.