A Closed and Common Orbit

Wayfarers, #2

by Becky Chambers

Paperback, 364 pages

English language

Published Oct. 28, 2017 by Hodder & Stoughton.

ISBN:: 978-1-4736-2147-3

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(22 reviews)

Once, Lovelace had eyes and ears everywhere. She was a ship's artificial intelligence system - possessing a personality and very human emotions. But when her ship was badly damaged, Lovelace was forced to reboot and reset. Now housed in an illegal synthetic body, she's never felt so isolated. But Lovelace is not alone. Pepper, an engineer who risked her life to reinstall Lovelace's program, has remained by her side and is determined to help her.

4 editions

Chris reviewed A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #2)

None

5 stars

An excellent and moving story of people discovering what it is to be human, or something beyond it. Set in a spacefaring world where humans are far from the dominant race, it's in a way a low-key story but also one full of incident and character. The various races/species are well and amusingly drawn - the exploration of alternative biologies and e.g. a five-sexed species is entertaining.
Didn't really see that it was an 'LGBT' etc. novel but there is the multiply-sexed species who can change sex, and Blue is asexual which I liked. Not every relationship between a man and a woman has to involve sex.
I had this on my (electronic) shelves since 2017, and somehow managed not to read it until now. I'm glad I finally opened it.

SeaFury reviewed A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #2)

Enjoyable

No rating

Yes, I liked it!

scienced@books.theunseen.city reviewed A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #2)

Better than the first one in the Wayfarer series

5 stars

This is a relatively short book using two narrative threads focused on how interactions of humans with self-aware artificial intelligence systems could look like in a very distant future. While the first Wayfarer story introduced well the universe and alien species, this second book has a better pace and was more enjoyable overall. Still, it is probably better to read them in order.

ansate reviewed A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #2)

Review of 'Wayfarers.' on Goodreads

4 stars

I'm still so mad about consent. so mad.

Enno reviewed A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers, #2)

Review of 'Wayfarers.' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This book was surprisingly different from the first one, but I loved it nonetheless. Interesting structure with two parallel stories told in alternating chapters. Could not put it down once I got past the halfway point.