Sunday, April 29, 2018

40. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

read on my iPhone & Kindle
2015 Harper Voyager
460 pgs.
Adult Science Fiction
Finished  4/29/2018
Goodreads rating: 4.18- 32,685 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:  Waaaaay outer space, somewhere in the distant future

First line/s: "As she woke up in the pod she remembered three things.  First, she was traveling through open space.  Second, she was about to start a new job, one she could not screw up.  Third, she had bribed a government official into giving her a new identity file.  None of this information was new, but it wasn't pleasant to wake up to."

My comments:  Did I just read a scifi novel set waaaaaaay in the future in outer space and LOVE it?  I did!  Ms. Chambers wrote this book with all sorts of wild and crazy species and all sorts of weird technology (both of which I usually give up on) - and wrote it in such a way that I understood it all! And I couldn't put it down, reading it in two days (and I'm a really slow reader).  What pictures I had in my head, I wish I could draw.  The setting, the characters, the plot ... all were so well created that this piece of literature - in a genre that is usually hard for me to complete - drew me in and captivated me. A true story of "family."  Loved it.

Goodreads synopsis: Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
          Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
          Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.
 

No comments: