[Steeplechase] [BWF Extra] A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers - 3.5 stars

[Robin P]

**Steeplechase Artificial Intelligence 83 tags
**BWF extra for Shadow & Flame team - Letter C and 22 tags for Coming of Age

I have mixed feelings about this book. I'm not one of those people who love "dark" books, but I find books by this author (I've now read 3) and T.J. Klune just too sweet. The stories of aliens, monsters, and other creatures are (very thinly) disguised messages about accepting people regardless of race, sexuality, neurotype, etc. If I were a teenager feeling like I didn't fit in, I would probably find these books very inspiring and affecting. As it is, they seem heavyhanded to me.

It's odd because most of the books I find inspiring myself are exactly about people accepting and helping each other, but more in the real world. The closest I can come to this book is John Scalzi in books like Agent to the Stars and Redshirts. I love his books and don't find them preachy. He has a less sugary tone and a lot of humor but makes the same point, that aliens, various creatures, and even fictional characters are worthy of respect and attention.

There are two coming of age stories here - Jane, a clone of some kind who grows up in a factory living a regulated existence, but whose curiosity leads her to enter the scary world, and Sidra, a ship AI who has taken on a "body kit" and tries to fit in with multiple races. Both have to navigate the confusions of adolescence.

[NancyJ]

I felt that way about some of this author's books, but not this one. Galaxy and the Ground Within felt like a diversity seminar for customer service reps in interplanetary hospitality services. I love inspiring books overall, but I also find that some just don't work for me. Repetition is effective when you're learning something new, but when you've read something in too many books, it's hard to take. I'm having that problem with a book I'm reading now (Hell of a Book).

This was my first Chamber's book, and perhaps because of that, it was my favorite. I found this book very dark at first, especially with the young girl wandering alone in the wilderness (with all the hungry wild dogs). I loved the AI characters though, and the psychology of the development of the two main characters. I think this was the first book I read with a species that could change their gender. (I've read a few since then, but the first one was memorable.)

[Robin P]

NancyJ wrote: "I feel that way about some of this author's books, but not this one. Galaxy and the Ground Within felt like a diversity seminar for customer service reps in interplanetary hospitality services.

I..."

Ursula LeGuin may have pioneered that idea in The Left Hand of Darkness in 1969. Male SF authors of the time often wrote for magazines aimed at boys and men, and even in space they had beautiful secretaries working for them and bringing them drinks.

[NancyJ]

Robin P wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I feel that way about some of this author's books, but not this one. Galaxy and the Ground Within felt like a diversity seminar for customer service reps in interplanetary hospitalit..."

Yes, I didn't read that one until last year.

I just came across a more conventional (and older) book about gender fluidity when looking for fantasy romances. .Orlando by Virginia Wolff.

[Theresa]

An interesting SFF take on gender fluidity can be found in the first of the Tenserate Series, The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang - really a novella - set in an East Asian influenced world. The first 2 books in this series - both novellas - were written and published at about the same time, but the second, The Red Threads of Fortune was more a thriller with a theme of mourning and recovery than about gender. Both JoAnne and I rated The Black Tides of Heaven highly. Both can easily be read as standalones.

[Robin P]

NancyJ wrote: "Robin P wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I feel that way about some of this author's books, but not this one. Galaxy and the Ground Within felt like a diversity seminar for customer service reps in interplan..."

You're right, Orlando was WAAY ahead of its time.