Nataliya’s Comments (group member since Sep 01, 2016)

Nataliya’s comments from the The Long Way... To a Common Orbit flash group group.

“The idea of Humans as conquerers had always been a laughable one. Not just because they had meager resources or because the Diaspora could never get anything done, but because the Humans she knew personally were so unassuming.”

I love this quote. It's so interesting thinking of humans having been taken down a notch and because of that learning some humility.


I also found it interesting how irrelevant Earth (or what's left of it) is even to humans in this universe where they basically became a species living in space. Not any ties or loyalty to the old planet, just annoyance at those still thinking of it as something special. I'm not sure whether I like that or not, but it's interesting nevertheless.

I love that you bring up Pratchett! Yes, he managed to get his message clearly across without ever resorting to preachiness - but his writing skills are (were, sadly) indeed supreme. Chambers definitely does not have such skills but overall she does alright, I think.

I did appreciate the strong pacifism in this story. Yes, war is quite natural to most if not all species we know, and perhaps that's why most stories this sort not only have armed conflicts but has main characters being quite well-skilled in combat (Ketty Jay comparison comes to mind again). I just can't think of many books where the characters are not only not good at combat but are that way by choice. It's an interesting approach, isn't it?

So I just finished my second read of this book (read it again for this group). The second read was a bit more critical than the first, but I still loved it. I actually quite enjoyed the episodic feel of the story, the fragments that felt largely self-contained. Toremi really felt like little more than a plot device to justify the long journey, and the lackluster resolution to that plotline therefore was not surprising - but I was ok with it; as was mentioned above our characters are just the ordinary bunch of people, not much to do with military or politics, and thus their involvement was justifiably limited.

I did love the whole 'feather family' and 'hatch family' concepts, and the acknowledgment that the human fixation on the unrealized potential children as opposed to the already realized potential of adults would be unique to mammals. Loved those concepts, loved how different it made Sissix.

Ohan's plotline left me conflicted. On one hand, that whole virus-religion was clearly bonkers. On the other hand, Corbin's actions were pretty much assault - and done not for Ohan's benefit but for the rest of the crew. Good outcome but quite questionable way to get there.

Still loving it overall even on the second read-through, however. I'm quite excited for future works by Chambers.

It reminds me of Wooding's Ketty Jay as well. I have never seen 'Firefly' but I have seen this comparison a few times by now. Makes me want to find time to watch that show.

I read it last month and loved it - and now have an excuse for a re-read!
Sending virtual chocolates to you all.