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To Be Taught, If Fortunate
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In her new novella, Sunday Times best-selling author Becky Chambers imagines a future in which, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the solar system instead transform themselves.
Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with differe ...more
Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with differe ...more
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Kindle Edition, 160 pages
Published
August 8th 2019
by Hodder & Stoughton
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Apr 14, 2019
Emily (Books with Emily Fox)
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2019-releases,
favorites
One of my newest favorite books.
Becky Chambers has a way with words that makes every book she writes feel like home. I was sucked into this story from the first sentence ( If you read nothing else we've sent home, please at least read this. Eum yes?!).
I've never read such a wholesome character driven sci-fi and I can't recommend this enough.
A must read! ...more
Becky Chambers has a way with words that makes every book she writes feel like home. I was sucked into this story from the first sentence ( If you read nothing else we've sent home, please at least read this. Eum yes?!).
I've never read such a wholesome character driven sci-fi and I can't recommend this enough.
A must read! ...more

Aug 28, 2019
Chelsea (chelseadolling reads)
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorites
WOW, this reminded me so much of why I love sci-fi and why I need to make it a priority to read more of it. Becky Chambers has such a knack for writing heartbreakingly human, character driven stories. I loved this a whole heck of a lot.

“We have found nothing you can sell. We have found nothing you can put to practical use. We have found no worlds that could be easily or ethically settled, were that end desired. We have satisfied nothing but curiosity, gained nothing but knowledge.”You have to possess a specific mindset to like this novella. You need to be that person who, in the middle of an adventure story featuring a group of explorers would pause and think — wouldn’t it be nice that if instead of battles/ chases/ intrig ...more

I’m sad I didn’t love this as much as I wanted to 😔
“We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship - to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.” We know full well that our planet and all it’s inhabitants are but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us, and it is with humility and hope that we take this step.”
I love Becky Chambers. Her Wayfarers series had me utterly spellbound. But this one just didn’t do it for me. ...more
“We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship - to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.” We know full well that our planet and all it’s inhabitants are but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us, and it is with humility and hope that we take this step.”
I love Becky Chambers. Her Wayfarers series had me utterly spellbound. But this one just didn’t do it for me. ...more

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3.5/5 stars
This may surprise you, but unlike The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, I actually enjoyed reading To Be Taught, If Fortunate.
Becky Chambers is most often known for her work on Wayfarers series, a space-opera series that many people have called the ultimate feel-good space opera or literary hugs. Admittedly, I haven’t finished reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, either I was in the wrong readin ...more
3.5/5 stars
This may surprise you, but unlike The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, I actually enjoyed reading To Be Taught, If Fortunate.
Becky Chambers is most often known for her work on Wayfarers series, a space-opera series that many people have called the ultimate feel-good space opera or literary hugs. Admittedly, I haven’t finished reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, either I was in the wrong readin ...more

A travelogue with frankly underdeveloped characters and a bonkers ending--and I don't mean in the Gideon the Ninth kind of way. No, I mean in the Tana French, authorial choice kind of way. A metaphor, in novella, for exploration, learning and weighing costs.
The set-up is that a team of four astronaut-scientists are on a long-term exploration mission from the Earth, with an agreed mission to explore four different targets and report back, engaging in a type of extended torpor between locations. T ...more
The set-up is that a team of four astronaut-scientists are on a long-term exploration mission from the Earth, with an agreed mission to explore four different targets and report back, engaging in a type of extended torpor between locations. T ...more

Since I first read Joanna Russ' WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO... I've had a hole in my heart. This book healed it. This extraordinary novella proves that you don't have to write a long book to pack a big punch. Becky Chambers' writing gets better and better with everything she writes, and this is no exception. Every sentence is perfectly balanced without attracting unnecessary attention; characterization is subtle but effective; and the impact of the ending is everything I hoped it would be. A future sci-
...more

This is a beauty. A novella which packs twice the punch of the average full length novel. A story of hope and a better future. An ending which makes you want to cry. Wonderful.
I love well written sci fi and To Be Taught, If Fortunate is exactly that. It follows the experiences of four scientists/astronauts who are basically crowd funded by a future Earth to explore several previously unvisited planets. Time passes and eventually they lose contact with Earth. What should they do next?
I must admi ...more
I love well written sci fi and To Be Taught, If Fortunate is exactly that. It follows the experiences of four scientists/astronauts who are basically crowd funded by a future Earth to explore several previously unvisited planets. Time passes and eventually they lose contact with Earth. What should they do next?
I must admi ...more

Becky Chambers is a freaking genius. If you have any interest in speculative fiction about where we as a species could be headed then you really need to pick up any of her books.
'To Be Taught If Fortunate' is a short novella about longterm space mission to study four planets light years away from Earth. There are four members of the crew of the OCA spacecraft Merian; Ariadne O'Neill, Elena Quesada-Cruz, Jack Vo and Chikondi Daka. But instead of getting caught up in stereotypical space opera sty ...more
'To Be Taught If Fortunate' is a short novella about longterm space mission to study four planets light years away from Earth. There are four members of the crew of the OCA spacecraft Merian; Ariadne O'Neill, Elena Quesada-Cruz, Jack Vo and Chikondi Daka. But instead of getting caught up in stereotypical space opera sty ...more

Sep 16, 2020
Mrinmayi
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
People who want to try something different & unique
Recommended to Mrinmayi by:
Rue my good old friend
The moment Mrin realized that she did not enjoy FANTASY her go-to genre BUT ended up liking this book...

This was me after reading this book

NO, I WON'T LET YOU GUYS KNOW THE PLOT OF THE BOOK!!!!
I forbid you all to look at the blurb!!!!
Just go into it blindly


This book was so atmospheric and fascinating !!!
Also, you DON'T have to be a science student to enjoy this
though you will enjoy it more if you are (Which is what happened to me🤗)
The various terms the author used were something I was familiar w ...more

This was me after reading this book

NO, I WON'T LET YOU GUYS KNOW THE PLOT OF THE BOOK!!!!
I forbid you all to look at the blurb!!!!
Just go into it blindly


This book was so atmospheric and fascinating !!!
Also, you DON'T have to be a science student to enjoy this
though you will enjoy it more if you are (Which is what happened to me🤗)
The various terms the author used were something I was familiar w ...more

Aug 12, 2020
Holly
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2020-read,
fantasy-science-fiction
3.5 stars
Well written, but this kind of felt like the result of a creative writing assignment. It's like someone gave the author a prompt of "write a novella where a small number of humans are visiting unknown planets/moons light years away" and this is what the author came up with. Don't get me wrong, I would give this an A if I was a teacher grading this. There's thought given to how humans would need to adjust to different conditions (gravity, light, etc), how they would attempt to identify a ...more
Well written, but this kind of felt like the result of a creative writing assignment. It's like someone gave the author a prompt of "write a novella where a small number of humans are visiting unknown planets/moons light years away" and this is what the author came up with. Don't get me wrong, I would give this an A if I was a teacher grading this. There's thought given to how humans would need to adjust to different conditions (gravity, light, etc), how they would attempt to identify a ...more

Aug 31, 2019
Matthew Quann
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
pretty-short
Guys, if you haven't read any of Becky Chambers' uplifting solar punk (see her Hugo-award wining
Wayfarers
trilogy), then To Be Taught, If Fortunate is the perfect place to start. Stuffed into less than 200 pages, it is a compelling, intelligent, and deeply humanistic science-fiction yarn that is representative of what Chambers does best.
The story is told as a letter being sent back to Earth from Adriane, pilot of a OCA spaceship meant to categorize and study exoplanets. These four pilots t ...more
The story is told as a letter being sent back to Earth from Adriane, pilot of a OCA spaceship meant to categorize and study exoplanets. These four pilots t ...more

THE MARTIAN meets INTERSTELLAR, this is high-concept speculative fic at its finest. Rendered with startling clarity, Chambers' latest offering is a short but fierce ode to humanity and all our reaches and flaws. Unputdownable.
...more

A terrific piece of specfic showing you don't need hostile aliens or laser shootouts to do terrifying. Ariadne and her three colleagues are sent on a long-term science mission into space which involves going into a kind of hibernation to get there before dying of old age--so a lot of time has passed on Earth before they wake up, and then they spend years on the planets they're studying. It's absolutely fascinating and immersive--the pictures of completely alien habitats, the amazing but constric
...more

The good:
I honestly enjoyed the science bits and exploring the worlds. I kept thinking of Peter Watts' book, Starfish, where the people alter themselves for the harsh environment rather than the other way around. But unlike Peter's book, this is downright mild and doesn't go for the mental health issues. At least, it doesn't go for them in quite such a hardcore way.
The bad:
This is hard-SF, and while the cool focus is mostly on biology rather than physics, we still have to ignore quite a few thi ...more
I honestly enjoyed the science bits and exploring the worlds. I kept thinking of Peter Watts' book, Starfish, where the people alter themselves for the harsh environment rather than the other way around. But unlike Peter's book, this is downright mild and doesn't go for the mental health issues. At least, it doesn't go for them in quite such a hardcore way.
The bad:
This is hard-SF, and while the cool focus is mostly on biology rather than physics, we still have to ignore quite a few thi ...more

“Hello, I hope you are listening and it’s okay even though I’m a space traveller I won’t exclude you by using fancy words coz I want to talk to ALL of you so I’m gonna talk like you’re all simpleminded idiots ok? So yesterday I found a stone and it was so pretty and this is the whole meaning of life, you know? I used to live somewhere that sounds pretty and today we’re having this for dinner and I find animals so fascinating especially insects because they are one thing and then they are another
...more

A lovely, hopeful book. A love letter to science, a meditation on the wonder of space and discovery, both without and within.

I’ll say right off the bat that I’m not a science fiction reader, and initially I struggled to get into this. There’s not much in the way of a traditional ‘story’ beyond following four explorers as they leave Earth to investigate specific planets. These planets are varied, some teeming with life, some none. All have differing environments too, and the book explores how we humans can ‘change’ to adapt to that environment - which was interesting, as well as the moral dilemma of interfering with li
...more

Space exploration SF that sets its focus on science, biology in particular, instead of adventures on far away worlds.
This novella is written as an account of the survey mission the main character and her three fellow astronauts are on, sent back to Earth fifty years after they left the planet on their way to the four habitable worlds in orbit around the red dwarf star Zhenyi. All four worlds (Aecor, Mirabilis, Opera and Votum) are either known or suspected to harbour life. Ariadne and her collea ...more
This novella is written as an account of the survey mission the main character and her three fellow astronauts are on, sent back to Earth fifty years after they left the planet on their way to the four habitable worlds in orbit around the red dwarf star Zhenyi. All four worlds (Aecor, Mirabilis, Opera and Votum) are either known or suspected to harbour life. Ariadne and her collea ...more

Sigh. This is a case of managing your expectations. If you are coming into this book expecting what you've already read by Becky Chambers, well... Maybe don't read it (or don't have those expectations).
This book is basically a big metaphor. I would call it literary, not the typical scifi. Not a bad thing, and in another context on its own, I would have enjoyed it. But that's not what I was expecting. Not the author's fault at all! But I feel like this might happen to a lot of fans when it comes ...more
This book is basically a big metaphor. I would call it literary, not the typical scifi. Not a bad thing, and in another context on its own, I would have enjoyed it. But that's not what I was expecting. Not the author's fault at all! But I feel like this might happen to a lot of fans when it comes ...more

Mar 21, 2020
April (Aprilius Maximus)
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2020,
favourites
“It is difficult to give thought to the stars when the ground is swallowing you up.”
★★★★.5
representation: queer characters, asexual rep, trans rep, polyamorous relationship, characters of colour (Mexican and Zambian).
[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]
A lovely, quiet novella that is quite thought-provoking and packs quite a punch. Becky Chambers is a master at writing heartbreakingly human stories that just happen to be set in space.
“I kno ...more
★★★★.5
representation: queer characters, asexual rep, trans rep, polyamorous relationship, characters of colour (Mexican and Zambian).
[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]
A lovely, quiet novella that is quite thought-provoking and packs quite a punch. Becky Chambers is a master at writing heartbreakingly human stories that just happen to be set in space.
“I kno ...more

2.5 stars
I am in the minority on this one, but I did not care for this at all. I loved all of the Wayfarer books, and this novella was certainly well written, but the ending just felt so contrived and unrealistic that I can't move past that.
I liked the idea of a long-term scientific mission of exploration, with significant chunks of time spent on each planet to catalogue all the amazing finds. I liked the idea that the mission was essentially funded by a bunch of interested individuals after go ...more
I am in the minority on this one, but I did not care for this at all. I loved all of the Wayfarer books, and this novella was certainly well written, but the ending just felt so contrived and unrealistic that I can't move past that.
I liked the idea of a long-term scientific mission of exploration, with significant chunks of time spent on each planet to catalogue all the amazing finds. I liked the idea that the mission was essentially funded by a bunch of interested individuals after go ...more

I really enjoyed this read and I'm glad I finally got around to it as it's a shortlisted item on the #Booktubesff awards. I know I've loved all of Becky Chambers' other work, but as this is the first short by her I hoped I'd enjoy this one too, and it did not disappoint!
This story tells the tale of 4 astronauts (Ariadne being the main character) and their journey to four planets to discover more about them. The project is a crowdfunded expedition which is a big factor in the mentality of the cr ...more
This story tells the tale of 4 astronauts (Ariadne being the main character) and their journey to four planets to discover more about them. The project is a crowdfunded expedition which is a big factor in the mentality of the cr ...more

I loved Becky Chambers’ trilogy and was hoping for more of the name with this one. I enjoyed the new worlds and the geeky stuff, but I was disappointed that it was so short! There was enough interesting here to have been a longer story and I was frustrated by this. I really wanted more detail about the characters and their voyage. I would recommend reading her trilogy before reading this one.
I think that the thing that I learned that was perhaps most interesting was the "handedness" of our genes ...more
I think that the thing that I learned that was perhaps most interesting was the "handedness" of our genes ...more

To Be Taught, if Fortunate by Becky Chambers is one of the books I bought since all the stay at home orders (support your local bookstores through bookshop.org) - it is novella length and is about a small crew of scientists doing science on four different exoplanets, using somaforming to adapt to the new environments. I loved the info at the end about the science this is based on (and the scientist the author works with most often.)

This was just such a lovely novella about everything. I'd be laying if I said it didn't leave me wanting more, but isn't that what a good book is supposed to do?
...more

So, I think Becky Chambers is brilliant at finding the kindness in collective humanity and making it interesting, and that her ability to imagine alien life is phenomenal. But I don't think she played to her strengths here.
CONTENT WARNINGS: (view spoiler)
Things I liked:
-The description of the worlds. I think it's inarguable that the worlds she's imagined are so cool and fascinating. The imaginative bits are great.
-Some of the sci ...more
CONTENT WARNINGS: (view spoiler)
Things I liked:
-The description of the worlds. I think it's inarguable that the worlds she's imagined are so cool and fascinating. The imaginative bits are great.
-Some of the sci ...more

While I feel the ending of this novella is a bit of a cop-out (view spoiler) , I fully acknowledge that viewpoint comes from my own particular bias toward life due to who I am and my generation. Chambers is different from me in many important ways, some of which are fundamental, so I get that her solutions
...more
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Play Book Tag: {pb}To Be Taught if Fortunate, by Becky Chambers, 4 stars | 1 | 6 | Oct 28, 2020 09:28PM | |
SFF Hot from Prin...: June 2020 -- To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (Spoilers Allowed) | 97 | 36 | Jul 12, 2020 11:33PM | |
Fantasy Buddy Reads: Chambers - To Be Taught, If Fortunate [Feb 2, 2020] | 14 | 26 | Feb 11, 2020 10:27AM | |
Play Book Tag: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers - 4 stars | 1 | 8 | Jan 10, 2020 10:33PM | |
Play Book Tag: To Be Taught, If Fortunate - Becky Chambers (4 stars) | 1 | 10 | Jan 05, 2020 12:54PM | |
SciFi and Fantasy...: "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers (BR) | 66 | 128 | Dec 29, 2019 12:24AM |
Becky Chambers is a science fiction author based in Northern California. She is best known for her Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series, which currently includes The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, and Record of a Spaceborn Few. Her books have also been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the Women's Prize for Fiction, among others. Her most
...more
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“We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship – to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.”
—
43 likes
“We celebrate the tree that stretches to the sky, but it is the ground we should ultimately thank.”
—
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