People in the Future Act Like People Today
Becky Chambers imagines the future full of whiz bang technology and the same old people we have today, even though some folks are human, some humanoid lizards, others reminiscent of mollusks. Some seek to dominate, others want to be left alone, while others try to thread a narrow path through ties of friendship and loyalty, economics and ambition. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is an engaging story full of interesting people and challenges.
Chambers focuses on characters in turn, but primarily tells her story through Ashby the captain and owner of the tunneler ship Wayfarer and Rosemary, the ship’s new clerk late of Mars. Ashby is in love with Pei, a non-human captain of a merchant ship that supplies one side of a long interstellar war. He is also torn between his ambition to make his ship and crew better equipped to handle difficult jobs and his desire for a peaceful, happy life.
Rosemary is hiding from her father’s crimes under an assumed name. Her family had been rich, having settled on Mars when Earth was dying and before most of its inhabitants either died or migrated en mass to other worlds via the Exodus. The Exodans nearly died until rescued by the Aeluons and Aandrisks and given access to other planets. The Martians and Exodans are only now beginning to talk to each other.
Sissix, the Aandrisk pilot, Dr Chef the doctor and chef, Kizzy and Jenks the technicians who each get a cameo role or two plus short feature chapters, and the two other crew and assorted friends and enemies make the rest of the story move along. We see a bit of the fascinating Aandrisk culture, one where individuals come together for families to bond in friendship, then later join other families to raise hatchlings.
By the end of the novel I felt as if I knew Ashby, Rosemary and Sissix and we were friends already.
Excellent People-Centric Novel Set in Space
My favorite science fiction stories use space or the future as the setting and feature people. I enjoy books that bring in a touch of the old romance we love in the best space operas without overwhelming the story about people. The best use the future/space/science fiction to create challenges that the characters must beat, without focusing too much on the technology behind or the whiz-bang spaceship stuff.
Military science fiction can be wonderful when it keeps away from “gee gosh, let’s talk about that nifty laser thingy”. Exploration stories can be fun when they keep the explorers front and center.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet proves even a long journey is engaging when we enjoy our traveling companions.
Angry Planet
Author Chambers asks a similar question as we confront today: What do you do when you encounter people who instantly and savagely want to kill you? The angry planet in the title is located near the galactic core, and is the centerpiece of a strange race’s incessant wars.
The Toremi culture believes in complete unity and consensus. If you disagree you either leave or fight. The Galactic Commons, which unifies many races including Aeluons and Aandrisks and humans, wants to trade with the Toremi and believe they have an agreement to do so.
The GC contracts the Wayfarer to punch a new tunnel from the Toremi world Hedra Ka back to GC space, to cut the journey time from months to hours. Unfortunately when the Wayfarer crew attends a gathering of GC diplomatic staff, the Toremi gate crash and overhear an innocent conversation that crystallizes the urge to kill the GC folks and attack the Wayfarer.
If this novel is made into a movie no doubt the angry planet and GC/Toremi relationsihp will be the featured points. The attack and subsequent actions are the climax to the novel’s plot; however, they are not the climax to the crew relationships or the story itself.
Summary
I thoroughly enjoyed The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Author Chambers set up a realistic, interesting world with complex and believable people. She could easily add sequels or other stories set in the same universe, whether featuring same or new characters. I will watch out for any follow ups and recommend you do the same if you enjoy people-centric science fiction.
I did wonder, though, whether aliens would not be, well, more alien to us. These aliens were all more or less recognizable human. At one point the characters themselves discuss this as a fact that had puzzled the different species for centuries with no answer.
4 Stars
Note: A second book is due October 2016.
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