The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet Wayfarers #1

Every good thing that's been said about this book is absolutely true . I just wish my brain could comprehend some of the technical parts but that's my own fault. I understood the politics well enough and the different species culture is unique. I'm used to more Earth-centric multispecies stories so this was a great intro for me. Reading the next book in the series for sure 🤞🏽

From the first page I knew I was going to love this book. I do love a space opera!

An exciting kaleidoscope of characters, a high stakes mission, a couple dashes of romance. Everything you want in a space opera.

The world (or rather universe) building is brilliant, real consideration for the political impact of the interspecies relations. Fleshed out back stories and histories for the different species.

Strongly recommend to everyone!

exactly the book i needed

space found family,, i’m happy this book exists

Rounding up from 3.75, because I genuinely don’t know how to “rate” this. I am extremely glad it exists. As a longtime Vonnegut obsessive it is encouraging to see someone sink his “You’ve got to be kind” ethos into every fibre of a unique science fiction story. However, I’m still not sure that makes for a scintillating narrative. I was frustrated at the lack of narrative momentum made in the first 200 pages, where a lot happens but not a lot of consequence; it’s just a lot of beings acting very nicely and respectfully and telling each other the truth. Which is very nice, but not as compelling as conflict and stakes and other traditional drivers of story. Then in the last hundred pages EVERYTHING happens. It’s interesting, you can pretty much see (I’m guessing) where the author had stalled in her progress and then went real hard for the last bit. I did get into it more in the last half but I’m not sure if it’s enough to compel me to go on with the series. But regardless I’m so glad it exists and I can see how impactful it is for people who want to see a certain kind of story.

Feels very similar to The Expanse, in a good way. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

becky chambers does it again !!! i’m so relieved there are 3 more books to read in this series because i did not want it to end

Science fiction is not my genre of choice, but Becky Chambers write in a way that makes chapters on the cultural norms of alien species, details about a spaceship and space treaties seem interesting. She has created a world that is rich with diversity and full of mind blowing details. But at its heart, it is a very human story of race, gender, war and the things we are confronted with even though we are not in a spaceship headed towards a far off planet.

This book almost didn't exist, and I am so grateful to the few dozen strangers out there who helped it come into being because it is an incredible book. I went into it going "Ooh, Firefly-esque story, nice" and it is so much better than anything I could have imagined. While it does have a ragtag crew on a ship patched together by a loyal tech who loves the ship (and its AI), it has a world-building with aliens beyond anything I could have ever dreamed up, a central government that is trying its best to handle the politics of a variety of cultures and creatures that have competing needs, the crew is what breathes so much life into the story. I love all of them, and I'm sad to see them go, but they end on such a great note. I can't wait to read the next one.

I'd seen a lot of praise for Wayfarers, so after reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, I had to try it by myself. Wayfarers 1 is not a perfect book, but it is deeply enjoyable, and the ending left me feeling very satisfied and moved. I did think that some things, particularly what happens to Corbin, were brushed away too quickly. I also think the romance in it wasn't developed really well, and just. Happened. Which may be just a consequence of me not being very sure about who Rosemary is, what makes her tick, etc, even at the end of the book. Maybe it's just that when you are working with an ensemble cast, some characters are going to be left feeling a little emptier than others. Other things, like Sissix' and Jenks and Lovey storylines were wonderful, as was the worldbuilding. The book may feel a little slow to start, but I think it's natural as it takes time to establish the universe, with all the different space species, and slotting things in place so that the plot may begin properly.

Delicious found family, I love sci fi legal drama and the interpersonal drama had me giggling

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a breath of fresh air in the space opera genre. I loved everything about it, it's characters, the planets and societies everything. It's a book about a group of beings of different races who are on a journey to a planet. and although the destination is important, the book shines in the journey. the journey is told from different povs in random snapshot of time. sometimes because one of the characters wanted to tell a story of their childhood, or maybe they stopped to replenish their food stock and something interesting happens. It's just light-hearted fun set in a interesting world. Just what you need in a rainy day.

In this space opera, we follow the haphazard but competent crew of a spaceship that creates wormholes in space, connecting humans and aliens in a galaxy-spanning inter-species civilization. The main character is, to begin with, a human everywoman who enlists on the crew to escape her secret past. However, as the book progresses, we spend as much (or little) time inside her head as we do inside the other crewmembers’ heads; her secret ends up not being very juicy after all (neither to us nor the crew), especially not in comparison to some of the other secrets aboard the ship. I immediately thought much of the book was inspired by Mass Effect. Like in Mass Effect 2 especially, we follow a spaceship run by humans but with a tightly knit multi-species crew. There is an over-arching plot, but the story is basically broken down into separate stories about each of the crewmates, like Mass Effect 2’s loyalty missions. ((view spoiler)[One of the stories even concerns the romance between a human and the ship’s AI, who wants to be transferred to a robotic body. (hide spoiler)]) As for the world: The galaxy is controlled by a trifecta of species, and there are similarities between species too – both have a species that looks universally attractive to all other species (asari/Aeluon), and both have a species that looks like a giant blob (hanar/Harmagians). That’s not to say I think the author has plagiarised Mass Effect, even though I know she is a fan of video games and writes about them in several online columns. Like in Mass Effect (or Star Trek, for that matter), the alien species aren’t necessarily truly “alien”. They’re sentient in similar ways to humans, and as a result – as is not uncommon for science fiction – they’re described as “sapient”. The alien cultures are, however, different from human cultures in interesting ways, even though their biology isn’t. The book is a great example of world-building, and it’s not surprising that the author is currently writing a new novel set in the same universe (about a minor character in this book, who has an interesting backstory). Besides learning about these alien cultures, and getting to know their representatives aboard the spaceship we learn to love intimately through the novel, the actual story is about a journey that the crew must make to the titular “small, angry planet”, where they will perform the job of creating a wormhole to connect the planet to the civilization at large. However, the planet houses the most alien species in the book, who have entered a recent and fragile alliance with the civilization, and the plot does take some exciting turns near the end of the book. All in all, though, this book is about different cultures, and mostly about friendship and family in all its various forms. Reading the book I thought of this saying: “Friends are the family you choose for yourself.” I’ll close off with a kind of non sequitur: The YA-esque writing style is a bit reminiscent of another indie science fiction author I like, Hugh Howey. The main spaceship of the book is called the Wayfarer, which actually also reminds me of Hugh Howey, who currently sails the seas in his boat the Wayfinder. As Hugh puts it in his Wayfinding Part 1: Rats and Rafts: “Wayfinding is the ancient art of navigating by paying attention to the natural signs all around us. Ancient wayfinders used the stars, the wind, the currents, the migration of birds, and much more in order to settle the islands of the Pacific.” This has little to do with the book I’m reviewing, but I think the art of wayfinding suits the spacefaring in its universe.

I would too leave my family to go join the wayfarer crew

A really nice cozy read :)

3.5 stars. Calming, easy read. Things go along just as you expect them to. Not a novel to shake up your perception of anything, it's just pleasant. Strong Firefly influence? I didn't form an attachment to any of the characters, but that's not essential. I was happy to sit back and read this languid story play out.

I enjoyed this book, which was one of my first incursions in the world of science fiction. I liked the characters but maybe next time I would like to try an SF book with more action, since this was more about the journey and less about specific events.

If you had asked me at the start of 2023 if I was going to read a Science Fiction book this year I would have said no, However after hearing a friend rave about this one and loving other books recommended by them I know that I needed to put my fear aside and pick this one and safe to say that I’m glad that I did because this is one amazing book & I devoured the last 50% of the book whilst the rain was pouring outside it made for a great Sunday Afternoon!

The Long Way to a Small Angry, Planet is a space opera book that follows a motley, interspecies, crew aboard the Wayfarer. Rosemary Harper is a young, quiet woman who joins the crew of the Wayfarer as their clerk. Aboard the ship, Rosemary meets a group of individuals like none other. And along the journey they take to the far reaches of the universe, she learns the meaning of family.

Honestly this book has such an amazing level of imagination, characterisation and detail that makes this book truly extraordinary, I’m a little lot of words of what to put in this review; this book is like a cosy Sci-Fi and was what I needed. I’m finding a love for this cosy type of books.

It’s safe to say that this book has some amazing characters This is very much a character-driven story! As big as this cast is, every single crew member matters, every single one has a story, every single one is interesting and memorable. I’m normally a little lost with books with lots of Characters but every character in this book has a place in my heart and the book needed each and every one of them.

“…All any of us can do – is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.”

The only flaw I had was the time jumping and working out what had happened in-between the time jumps as its not instantly clear and at times you find out through conversations, but this did not take away from my enjoinment.

 I literally cannot say enough good things about this book. It is 100% one of my new all-time favourite books, ever. Please go read it!

Perfect holiday reading. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve immediately started book two.

At times I found this book annoying because of how *nice* it was, how "everything is awesome, everything is cool when you're part of a team," but like, what is actually wrong with niceness? Why do I always think something really fucked up has to happen for a book to be interesting? This is a nice book and I liked it.

I loved this book so much!!! Kind of slice of life of what its like to live on a spaceship, and found family, and exploring the cultures and views of other alien species. But they drink Happy Tea and Boring Tea! lol Im looking forward to book 2

An interesting idea: a diverse spaceship crew largely getting along with little to no conflict. Unfortunately, conflict is typically the heart of good storytelling.

A lovely, empathetic take on the intersection of species and cultures. It's nice to read an alien story where the message isn't about conquest or stoicism, but about compassion. The insights from Sissix and Dr. Chef in particular make the ship feel warm and safe. The episodic nature was nice to provide little vignettes, but meant that quite a bit happened "off screen" that needed to be explained in — it often felt like "Drama is introduced! Now here's after the drama got resolved." This meant that some important character beats end up feeling missed and just talked around. This also meant that parts of the ending felt a little rushed, and some characters end up not quite getting enough room in the narrative to properly feel.