A review by moonknitter
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow! After the last one was kind of tricky to follow this one really brought together everything I loved from the whole series. I had a hard time getting into it in the beginning because I was like “oh great more character perspectives to keep track of” but since these characters firmly overlapped with each other’s lives it was MUCH easier to follow between different perspectives each chapter than the previous book where they had their own lives that didn’t really interact until the end. I also continue to absolutely love learning about the different cultures and their histories. I really liked the part where Pei and Speaker had their disagreement and conflict about politics. It was also really great to learn more about the Laru, Akaraks, and Quelin but I liked having Pei as a character as well since this built on our prior knowledge/connection to this character. I also felt like this one had a more clear plot than the other ones while still balancing the great character development. I continue to love the way Becky Chambers writes different characters and gets their voice so clearly for us, like Tupo and xyr very teen mannerisms which are apparently cross-species to recognize. I felt like this book also had much of what I enjoyed about the first book where there are multiple species interacting in a small space which helps you quickly learn about culture, temperament, and personalities of the characters. The interactions are rich. The ending was very fulfilling and even though I’m sad and I don’t think this should be the last book, I think it had the best ending. One thing that was weird upon beginning this book (especially after the last one) was that there were no humans in this one. All prior books had humans as the most central characters and this one had no humans until the doctor showed up which was a bit weird at first but I wouldn’t complain about it. Would recommend! Loved it! Sad it’s over!!
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