Chambers, Becky - A Closed and Common Orbit informal buddy read (starts 1 June)

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

This thread is open to discuss A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers



Synopsis
Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who's determined to help her learn and grow.

Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced readers to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for - and learned to live with, and love, her rag-tag collection of crewmates.

A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to Becky Chambers' beloved debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect and Star Wars.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

BR thread for book 1 in the series, is HERE

BR thread for book 3 in the series, is HERE

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

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[Devann]

soooo i accidentally listened to like 60% of this today lol i am enjoying it although like the first one it is fairly light on action. although this time i'm minding it less, either because i'm used to it or because there isn't some big action i feel like we SHOULD be focusing on like the tunnel in the first one. also i like that it only focuses on a few characters. it makes things easier for me and when there are two alternating POVs taken from different time periods that mirror each other that is like ...my jam lol

anybody else still planning on reading this? ;)

[Sophie, The other one]

I'm going to join in with the audiobook so might be a little slower to get going.

[Deanna]

Devann wrote: "soooo i accidentally listened to like 60% of this today lol i am enjoying it although like the first one it is fairly light on action. although this time i'm minding it less, either because i'm use..."

I'm here. Yesterday was a bit crazy, but I'll start this afternoon.

[Devann]

@Sophie i think that's a good choice, i really enjoy the narrator for the audiobook for this series

[Deanna]

I wish my library had the audiobook. I'd love to try it.

I've made it about 25% so far. It's been a crazy start to the month.

Sidra - I think the author is doing an excellent job of working through a realistic scenario of what difficulties an AI would have going from a multi-input, omniscient location on a ship to a limited input body. I love that Blue(view spoiler)[ got her a bot pet. It was so sweet. (hide spoiler)]

Pepper (Jane) - (view spoiler)[I found the early almost sweatshop like condition with the children hard to get through. It just made me mad. I'm glad that Jane is out now and am looking forward to learning more about Owl. (hide spoiler)]

[Devann]

i finished it a couple days ago but then i guess i kind of forgot about the BR. i really like it overall, and especially how it showed Sidra and Pepper had very similar journeys but also turned out to be very different people. also i thought the end was super cute.

[Sophie, The other one]

I've just got started. Enjoying the audiobook so far.

I know what you mean about the conditions that Pepper/Jane starts off it.

I sometimes think forgetting about the buddy read and devouring the book is a good sign for the book. Glad you enjoyed it so much Devann

[Sophie, The other one]

I'm enjoying the alternating perspectives and the similarities they both had adjusting to their new worlds.

The discussion with the Aluons (? how you spell that) about parenting and the qualifications you need to be a parent was interesting. Made me think about how we trust that people will some how manage to bring up children with very little input and guidance - the time of a whole community being involved seems to have gone past.

[Devann]

yeah i think she is very good at presenting different cultural viewpoints in a way that makes a lot of sense on both sides, which i appreciate because there are so many sci-fi books where it's like 'oh look there are the aliens who are just like us except they have some feathers' lol. but she clearly put a lot of thought into her world-building

[Sophie, The other one]

You're right - there a lot of authors who go for different for different's sake without thinking the world through more than that.

I've just finished this. Once I got sucked into the world I really didn't want to leave it so kept listening while doing jobs round the house. While there's not a lot of action, the characters are so good that it doesn't matter.