The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rating: 4/5

Wonderful! This is a book that appeals to anyone with a heart (in the metaphorical sense).

This book is what I always wanted scifi to be, but it never was… aliens who are really alien, but not othered by the narrative. The various alien races of the Galactic Commons have their differences, but with patience and generosity, they always find a way to bridge those differences and connect. Most of the aliens speak a common language called Klip, but some need accommodations like the Aeluons, who communicate via telepathy with their own species and require hearing and speech implants to talk to other species.

The accommodations made for different races with different physical attributes were the most interesting part of the book for me. Usually I don’t give much thought to whether things are accessible because I don’t have a disability, but this book convinced me that it is really people that don’t have disabilities that should be making sure things are accessible for those who do have disabilities. It must get really frustrating for people with disabilities to have to go through the constant hassle of self-advocating. I was really moved in particular by Kizzy’s carpeting the stairs so that Sissix wouldn’t get her claws caught in the grating, but there are many many other examples I could cite, which makes sense for a society with so many different species living together.

In my scifi book group, a lot of people were saying that there wasn’t much plot in this book, but there was enough tension to keep me going through most of it. The only part that I thought was really boring was the part on Cricket, an outsider planet where they basically go hunting and eat dinner and hang out. That part seemed to go on forever… but other than that one chapter or so, I felt pulled through the rest of it by caring about the characters and their problems.

There’s a lot more emotional character-to-character tension than physical-danger tension, but I really prefer that, as I get bored with the same good-vs-evil, beat-the-bad-guy conflict all the time. While I was reading this book, I often thought “This couldn’t have been written by a man”. I’ve read a lot of mediocre scifi books written by men and they tend to be more technically-oriented, treat characters like story pawns, and don’t explore their characters’ interior worlds except in the most basic want-fear matrix. The dialogue in this sounds like real conversation, which is sadly something that I rarely come across in science fiction.

While I did enjoy the touchy-feelyness, it did get a little too much even for me at some points. Some parts felt a little preachy, especially the part where they’re talking about why AIs should be considered people. It seemed like it kept repeating “AIs should be considered people” without giving much of a logical argument.

I was told that this book had good LGBT representation, but I wasn’t super impressed. Two female characters get together, but their relationship doesn’t evolve much and doesn’t get much focus (at least not in this volume… maybe in future ones). There is a character that goes by they pronouns, but they’re not really nonbinary, they just have two consciousnesses, one of which is male and one of which is a sentient virus, so it’s really more of a plural use of they than a nonbinary-gender they. There’s also a species that starts as female and becomes male as they age, but it’s not analogous to transgender because they don’t experience dysphoria and changing genders happens to everyone in the society. However, I think it’s better for the story if the complexities of alien species don’t have real-world analogues because it makes the fictional world more interesting in its own right.

So, yeah, I really enjoyed this one! It might be a little too slow for everybody, but if you want to take a break from a lot of violent, action-oriented media, this is a good choice. I’d highly recommend it if you want to read more women-authored science fiction as well.