Book Review: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

Title: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

Author: Becky Chambers

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Year: 2015

Pages: 404

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 4 stars

One sentence summary: A wormhole construction crew aboard the spaceship Wayfarer bands together to get to their destination.

A full synopsis of this book can be found on Goodreads.

Spoiler Level: None

This was a great book to start off the year. This is one of the only sci-fi books that I've read in recent memory, other than The Martian, and while it's not my go to genre, I really enjoyed it. Writing wise, this book was lovely, well written, quirky, fun, and heartwarming. The sci-fi elements were very accessible, even the more technological parts. While some of the messages were a bit heavy handed at times, they were delivered in such a charming and innocent way that it didn't really bother me. I just enjoy the theme of humanity as a whole and I liked the questions that were asked about it. I also like how we got to see from each character's perspective, in the third person, so we could get a closer view of their thoughts and feelings. This is definitely a character driven story, and Chambers handles her characters' unique personalities and relationships well. Each individual back story and relationship was dynamic and personal. I'm not sure I have a favourite character, but Sissix's species was quite interesting and the problems she dealt with aboard the ship had me fascinated the whole time. Jenks' story arc with Lovey was one of my favourites as well. The one arc I thought could have been better developed was Rosemary's, as the tension of her hidden secret never lead up to a climax, rather, it mostly fizzled out quickly and off camera. Her relationship with Sissix in the second half of the book was also the one that seemed least organic to me as we weren't given any hints as to how Rosemary felt towards her friend previously. Ultimately, I did enjoy their relationship though. Overall, the diversity and creativity of the cast, in species, sexuality and gender, and background, was fascinating to read about. While the story's focus is obviously more on characters than plot, I wish there had been a little more action. The action scenes we did get were great. The non action scenes were great too, I just think it did a little more wandering than I would have liked. A great read for those who like character driven stories, quirky, funny, and diverse characters, space settings, and themes about humanity.