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.
I fell in love with the characters in Becky Chambers' first book of the Wayward series. When I realized the second book didn't include (most of) them, I almost stopped reading.
Thank goodness I didn't. I fell in love with these characters too. Which made picking up the next book even easier.
Chambers writes intelligent, insightful stories that are so smooth, I flow through them like talking with a good friend.
And I loved the first book. This one for me benefitted heavily from having less characters, so you were able to get a better feel for everyone overall and learn about them on a deeper level.
Pepper's background story was great to go through. Even with the time jumps, you felt like you were actively watching her grow and mature in the storyline. It also heavily covers the reasons that Pepper is so keen on people being more accepting of AI as being close enough to human to care about.
Lovey trying to figure out how to be ok being in a body that she did not pick out was an unexpected twist that I would not have thought about. Chambers really made me look at a lot of things from a different angle with this book and that's always a good thing.
My one complaint would likely be that …
And I loved the first book. This one for me benefitted heavily from having less characters, so you were able to get a better feel for everyone overall and learn about them on a deeper level.
Pepper's background story was great to go through. Even with the time jumps, you felt like you were actively watching her grow and mature in the storyline. It also heavily covers the reasons that Pepper is so keen on people being more accepting of AI as being close enough to human to care about.
Lovey trying to figure out how to be ok being in a body that she did not pick out was an unexpected twist that I would not have thought about. Chambers really made me look at a lot of things from a different angle with this book and that's always a good thing.
My one complaint would likely be that the ending just felt a little rushed. I didn't really feel like I was lacking any story, it just felt like a little too much happened in too short of a time.
Another great science fiction read from Becky Chambers
5 stars
I really liked "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet", and so decided to pick up this one. I'm so glad I did. It is basically two story lines that make you think about sentience and life purpose. I'll have to pick up another book in the Wayfarers series.
The books from the Wayfarers series can be read standalone, but I recommend reading them in order so you get a feel for the universe and an introduction to the characters (ok, I've only read the first two right now). Things will make a little bit more sense.
Anyways, this was another really nice, character-driven book.
Two stories, a young girl trying to survive and a synthetic "person" looking for it's purpose, and how they are both trying to fit in with society.
I think I enjoyed the young girls story more and was more engaged in her "plain" survival and how she tried to repair a space shuttle. For the synth not so much, it's story felt like it was a simple "confused teenager messing around" drama.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Loved the concept, but the story kept hitting the same plot beats. I liked it overall, but it still felt a little disappointing coming off of the first Wayfarer book.
Le tome 2 des Voyageurs. Du coup je m’attendais à retrouver l'équipage du tome 1. Pas du tout ! Par contre l'histoire est centrée sur des personnages déjà présent dans le tome 1.
L'histoire est la quête d'identité et de sens de deux personnes, l'une humaine et l'autre IA. Comme le premier tome c'est bien écrit, et on attend qu'une chose : lire le tome 3 !
Thoroughly enjoyed the worldbuilding and the story, but I felt like I had to do the work to relate to the characters. They both start off at points in their lives that are unique, interesting - and hard to wrap my head around. The author does a great job giving them distinct voices and letting them grow over time, but I just found them too far removed to really get into the book.
The secondary characters, however! I really loved reading about them from the perspectives of the protagonists, and as always, the interactions are wonderfully crafted.
Druha cast navazuje volne na predchozi dej, kdy Sidra, byvala lodni UI Lovelace, obyva lidsky telo. Je to opet poklidny, pohodovy cteni a plyne nak tak samo.
Kdyz se nad tim zamyslim vic, tak flashback cast je dost slusne propracovana a pride me tenhle dil o poznani kvalitnejsi.
Second story focuses on (not only) troubles of former spaceship AI moved to human body. There's also flashback to Chilli's childhood, painting careless society growing genetically modified kids for labor. It's somewhat more complex than first part and I like different timelines, despite being it a bit predictable.
Using the trope of a computer or AI to discuss about what it means to be a human is not new, but Chambers does something interesting with it. It's more about human as a social animal than the question of consciousness. I think that was a far more interesting question anyway.
I found Pepper's story to be really engaging as well, and this time it felt like the author did develop her skills writing plot driven as well as character driven. Chambers has become one of my favourite writers.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
Closed & Common Orbit certainly chimed with my dysphoria through its representation of Sidra disassociation and Pepper’s trauma. I’m definitely going to continue reading more of these when it comes to adding more to my list, not least because the change in perspectives keeps things very fresh.
Closed & Common Orbit certainly chimed with my dysphoria through its representation of Sidra disassociation and Pepper’s trauma. I’m definitely going to continue reading more of these when it comes to adding more to my list, not least because the change in perspectives keeps things very fresh.
Der Fokus liegt hier auf den zwei Hauptprotagonistinnen, deren Charakterentwicklung und einen konsistenten Handlungsstrang mit merklich steigendem Spannungsbogen. Somit ist der Erzählstil anders, als in Teil eins, dennoch ist das Buch mindestens genauso gut, wenn nicht sogar besser!
Die Story fand ich wunderschön und die Protagonistinnen und die drei Nebencharaktere durch und durch sympathisch und liebenswert. Auch dieses Mal habe ich während des Lesens mehrfach in Emotionen geschwelgt. Wie sehr habe ich mit ihnen mitgefiebert, wie sehr mitgefühlt, wenn sie es schwer hatten, wie sehr ging mir das Herz auf, wenn sie schöne Dinge erlebt hatten.
Und letztere sind zum Glück auch in diesem Teil wieder in der Mehrzahl, auch wenn diesmal ein bisschen häufiger auch etwas bedrückendere Momente stattfinden, was die Bindung an die Charaktere aber umso mehr verstärkt.
Besonders angetan hat es mir Protagonistin Sidra. Nicht nur, weil ich es interessant …
Hach, was für ein wunderbares Buch. 🥰
Der Fokus liegt hier auf den zwei Hauptprotagonistinnen, deren Charakterentwicklung und einen konsistenten Handlungsstrang mit merklich steigendem Spannungsbogen. Somit ist der Erzählstil anders, als in Teil eins, dennoch ist das Buch mindestens genauso gut, wenn nicht sogar besser!
Die Story fand ich wunderschön und die Protagonistinnen und die drei Nebencharaktere durch und durch sympathisch und liebenswert. Auch dieses Mal habe ich während des Lesens mehrfach in Emotionen geschwelgt. Wie sehr habe ich mit ihnen mitgefiebert, wie sehr mitgefühlt, wenn sie es schwer hatten, wie sehr ging mir das Herz auf, wenn sie schöne Dinge erlebt hatten.
Und letztere sind zum Glück auch in diesem Teil wieder in der Mehrzahl, auch wenn diesmal ein bisschen häufiger auch etwas bedrückendere Momente stattfinden, was die Bindung an die Charaktere aber umso mehr verstärkt.
Besonders angetan hat es mir Protagonistin Sidra. Nicht nur, weil ich es interessant fand, einen Großteil der Handlung aus der Sicht einer KI zu erleben. Sondern auch, weil ihre Persönlichkeit einfach lieb und herzlich gezeichnet ist.
Außerdem fand ich es bewegend, mitzuerleben, wie sie sich als empfindungsfähige KI in einem Bodykit unter Organischen anfangs schwer tut, sich in der Situation entwickelt und dabei liebevolle Freundschaften schließt.
Wie schon Band 1 ein wirklich optimistisches und wohltuendes Buch. 😌
