The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)

by Becky Chambers

“You are unusually small.” “And you have a shitload of legs,” Jenks said,

Dammit, he thought. How much of me is actually you?

“What you wanted,” Corbin said slowly, “was for me to improve upon all the mistakes that you had made yourself. You didn’t want me to be my own person. You wanted me to be a better version of you.”

Scholars of sapient life note that all young civilizations go through similar stages of development before they are ready to leave their birth planets behind. Perhaps the most crucial stage is that of “intraspecies chaos.” This is the proving ground, the awkward adolescence when a species either learns to come together on a global scale, or dissolves into squabbling factions doomed to extinction, whether through war or ecological disasters too great to tackle divided.

“Sissix, this is not a matter of someone refusing medical treatment. This is their entire culture we’re talking about. This is their religion.” “This is so fucking Human of you. Lie back and let the galaxy do whatever it wants, because you’re too guilty about how badly you fucked up your own species to ever take the initiative.”

“You are the family I need, Ashby. I wouldn’t have chosen you otherwise.”

How many clans they could destroy with such weapons. How many false ideas they could erase.

every sapient species has a long, messy history of powers that rise and fall.

The people we remember are the ones who decided how our maps should be drawn. Nobody remembers who built the roads.”

“Stop trying to not be scared. I’m scared, Sissix is scared, Ashby is scared. And that’s good. Scared means we want to live. Okay? So be scared. But I need you to keep working, too.

Incident report.’ That sounds so . . . I don’t know.” “Inadequate?” “No kidding. I like what Kizzy called it better.” “What was that?” “A ‘monstro clusterfuck.’”

I don’t pretend to understand. Frankly, I find the whole notion absurd. But you know what I realized? It doesn’t matter what I think. Jenks thinks something different, and his pain is very real right now. Me knowing how stupid this whole thing is doesn’t make him hurt any less.”

But brothers. Brothers never go away. That’s for life.