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A review by deedireads
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
4.0
While Record of a Spaceborn Few wasn’t my favorite Wayfarers novel (that award still goes to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Becky Chambers never fails to deliver beautiful characters going grappling with relatable challenges in a way that makes us feeeeel feel feel.
This Wayfarers book is about a cast of characters who live on the Exodus Fleet (sort of like a nation of big space stations filled with humans who had to flee Earth when it became uninhabitable), one of whom is Tessa, the sister of Ashby from Small, Angry Planet. Without giving too much away, it tells a small slice of the story of a community that’s still healing from a big, years-ago tragedy and reckoning with the momentum of cultural change. Amid all that, another, smaller-level tragedy strikes that forces them to look inward.
While the plot here isn’t the strongest (having now read all the Wayfarers and Monk & Robot books, I can see that this is where she started to shift toward interiority over plot), her characters are as beautiful as ever. I really loved the way this book examined personal and cultural grief and guilt. And of course, very few people writing today treat representation as well as she does.
A worthy continuation of the Wayfarers books for anyone who read and enjoyed the first two!
This Wayfarers book is about a cast of characters who live on the Exodus Fleet (sort of like a nation of big space stations filled with humans who had to flee Earth when it became uninhabitable), one of whom is Tessa, the sister of Ashby from Small, Angry Planet. Without giving too much away, it tells a small slice of the story of a community that’s still healing from a big, years-ago tragedy and reckoning with the momentum of cultural change. Amid all that, another, smaller-level tragedy strikes that forces them to look inward.
While the plot here isn’t the strongest (having now read all the Wayfarers and Monk & Robot books, I can see that this is where she started to shift toward interiority over plot), her characters are as beautiful as ever. I really loved the way this book examined personal and cultural grief and guilt. And of course, very few people writing today treat representation as well as she does.
A worthy continuation of the Wayfarers books for anyone who read and enjoyed the first two!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Death, and Grief