Jim's Books

A Closed and Common Orbit

Becky Chambers

A Closed and Common Orbit
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ISBN: 9781473621473

Description

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 to start over in a synthetic body, in a world where her kind are illegal. She's never felt so alone. But she's not alone, not really. Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over.

Reviewed on 27th November 2022

The second Wayfarers novel loosely continues from the end of the first. While I don’t think it’s necessary to read the first novel to read this one, this probably does carry spoilers from some events from the first novel, so it likely makes sense to read them in order.

This then is a novel about relationships, romantic, friendly, family, and parent-child. It’s a galaxy where these particular examples are outliers though, due to some of the participants in each being seen as undesirable by the current civilisation. And these relationships we experience serve to underline the absurdity of considering some of the characters as lesser members of society.

What I love about this series is that the stories are totally about the characters. There’s no big epic arc going on that means it’s a plot driven saga. There’s no focus on the technology and the sci-fi elements to drive the narrative. The sci-fi setting is just that - a setting in which it’s possible to tell the story of the lives of this small group of characters, and how they weave together.

I’m really happy to have found these novels, and already have the next two lined up ready to read soon.

More books

  1. The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet
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  2. Record of a Spaceborn Few
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