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

See my previous review about Becky Chambers’ novels — after I read and loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built, I had to go back and read her earlier Wayfarers series, beginning with the first volume, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It’s set in a different future world from the world of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, but it has a similar sensibility — a belief that while human society can’t go on as it’s currently going, what comes afterwards, while different, might be better.

In this version of Chambers’ future, humanity is one among many species out exploring the galaxy, under the watchful eye of a Galactic Confederacy. If that sounds a bit Star Trekky to you, it’s worth noting that this is no human-dominated United Federation of Planets; in these novels, humanity is a recent addition to the spacefaring races, and is looked on by the others as possibly a bit too primitive and dangerous to be trusted (actually this was also canonically true originally in the Star Trek universe, but it’s somewhat obscured by the fact that the Federation is so human-centric in the time period of the TV series and movies).

The titualar Wayfarer of this series is a small spacecraft with a tight-knit crew of various species. Where Chambers really shines here is in creating different species that don’t just feel like “humans with one or two different physical/cultural features,” as is the case in a lot of sci-fi, but alien species that actually feel like fully thought-out and fleshed-out different kinds of beings, where different physiology leads to cultural differences that make sense. As a result, the book’s reflections on what it means to be human — or rather, to be a sentient being — take on an additional richess and variety. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the others set in the same universe.