kmardahl 's review for:

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

5.0

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THIS is why I read science fiction. I am in love with Becky Chambers' writing. The writing is so beautiful. It is precise, but oh so rich. It glitters! (A witty comment that you will understand if you read the book, and you must read the book!)

I love the concept of OCA, instead of NASA. OCA - Open Cluster Aeronautics. Crowd-sourced space travel! Each OCA campus (where astronauts train) has a garden where you enter from below ground. The symbolism is the roots of the trees. It is not the individual trees, but the interdepency of the trees in their root network that symbolises how OCA works. She describes all this is a far superior way than I did here.

The little cast of four characters is quite rich in detail, too. I will think about Ariadne, Elena, Chikondi, and Jack for quite some time. The lives they live and the decisions they make. .

I cannot find words here. I am just floating in the utter enjoyment of this book. Becky Chambers made it all come alive. I was on those planets with the group. Their joys and sorrows were tangible. I must read more of Becky Chambers.

Spoiler

This is a partial spoiler. I loved the ending. It is so powerful. I won't say what the ending is, but it was not at all what I expected. I had been nervous since page 2. I was expecting something else, but... not the mind-blowing soul-searching, which is how I regard it.