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.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
(Clarification first: this is not a sequel to [b:Angry Planet|22733729|The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)|Becky Chambers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532474l/22733729.SY75.jpg|42270825]. There’s a connection, but it’s tenuous at best. Don’t expect any of the same characters or situations.)
And, with that out of the way, squee again! Not at first — I was slow to catch feelings for these characters — but catch them I did, and it all just kept getting better and better up to the very end. In this book, Chambers speaks to the Broken Ones: those of us with physical and/or psychic trauma, different, weird, hurting. And she writes about grit, compassion, caring, finding one’s tribe, one’s purpose, one’s self. There’s a whole lotta love in these books, and okay it can be a little thick at times, but right now I’m A-OK with that.
I found this much more emotional of a read than I expected. The questions about what makes a person a person, and a home a home, and a family a family, not to mention what is the relationship between ourselves and our physical bodies— it’s a lot to handle! And the book does is so gently even as it’s really fierce on valuing lives and loves. Anyway. She’s so good, Becky Chambers.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Lovelace is the AI that manages the Wayfarer — until she finds herself freshly rebooted, no memories, and migrated to a human body. Pepper, my favourite character from Long Way, finds herself playing mother-figure to Lovelace.
Becky Chambers is the supreme ruler of character-driven science fiction. No one else creates characters that readers get deeply invested in quite like she does. She gives us the very best of found family.
My one complaint about The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was the lack of a clear, cohesive plot. The characters in this book are every bit as compelling — possibly even more so. But what separates the two books is that this one follows a more traditional story arc.
If you’re someone who lives for action-heavy, bang-bang-pew-pew science fiction, this might not be your bag. But if you (like me) love story that puts the focus on the …
Lovelace is the AI that manages the Wayfarer — until she finds herself freshly rebooted, no memories, and migrated to a human body. Pepper, my favourite character from Long Way, finds herself playing mother-figure to Lovelace.
Becky Chambers is the supreme ruler of character-driven science fiction. No one else creates characters that readers get deeply invested in quite like she does. She gives us the very best of found family.
My one complaint about The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was the lack of a clear, cohesive plot. The characters in this book are every bit as compelling — possibly even more so. But what separates the two books is that this one follows a more traditional story arc.
If you’re someone who lives for action-heavy, bang-bang-pew-pew science fiction, this might not be your bag. But if you (like me) love story that puts the focus on the people, you’re going to love this one.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Was expecting further adventures of the Wayfarer crew, and was at first sort of bummed to be reading a mostly unrelated story featuring a minor character from the first book and a character that was literally born in the last few pages of that book, but got over that pretty quickly. You can't really call this a sequel, as it shares almost nothing with the first book other than being set in the same universe and sharing the original's fascination with characters who have non-human psychologies while still being fully realized persons.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Sentience, a near-and-dear topic for me, as with the value of same. Absolutely lovely read, from characterization to world-building. Best thing I've read in ages.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Loved the first book, enjoyed this one even more. At first I was sad we left the main cast of book 1, but came to love this new crew just as much. What an amazing story.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Becky Chambers specializes in cozy scifi. This lost the lovely family of choice of the first Wayfarers book, but I found the exploration of humanity between the AI and the clone pretty compelling. Equally homey is them slowly find their way to make a home, life and family with each other.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
I loved this book for the same reason I loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. The world building that is so well thought out that everything seems obvious, though it’s very different to our own world. It’s a world that is lived in by multiple alien species, all of which are very original but still entirely believable. But all of this—a finely wrought world and the aliens that inhabit it—is merely background to the characters that live in this world and the relationships between them.
This novel explores what it means to be a person through the lens of two AIs. Each is slowly shown to be a person in their own right. Chambers is so effective at this that she had me near tears toward the end of the novel.
I really can’t recommend the Wayfarers novels enough.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A Closed and Common Orbit is a great exploration on how civilisation will handle sentient AI's and how these beings (are they?) think and search for meaning. If you are only slightly interested in our AI future, this is a must read.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
What would happen if you gave an AI a body?
This is the question which basically is at the heart of this book when deceased Lovey's new installation Lovelace is downloaded into the artificial body once supposed to hold Lovey's consciousness and taken to Port Coriol by Pepper. In this case, the AI, now an illegal entity, isn't happy and excited about it. Sidra, as she now calls herself, is frightened, insecure, and even angry because she was ripped out of what she felt was her place. At first, she is sure she'll never fit in - and falls into something very closely resembling puberty. But then she makes her first very own friend, and finds out that there are others who also weren't meant for the life they lead. Like Pepper and Blue, both genetically edited: one to work in factories sorting and repairing discarded thecnical devices until they …
What would happen if you gave an AI a body?
This is the question which basically is at the heart of this book when deceased Lovey's new installation Lovelace is downloaded into the artificial body once supposed to hold Lovey's consciousness and taken to Port Coriol by Pepper. In this case, the AI, now an illegal entity, isn't happy and excited about it. Sidra, as she now calls herself, is frightened, insecure, and even angry because she was ripped out of what she felt was her place. At first, she is sure she'll never fit in - and falls into something very closely resembling puberty. But then she makes her first very own friend, and finds out that there are others who also weren't meant for the life they lead. Like Pepper and Blue, both genetically edited: one to work in factories sorting and repairing discarded thecnical devices until they vanish, raised first by unfeeling robot "mothers", then by Owl, a spaceship's AI, with whom she flees this harrible planet; the other designed to become part of the same planet's elite but perfect enough for his speech impediment.
There are many crucial moments in this book that one day humankind might have to face in daily life, such as: Do you really have to feel cheated when an AI clearly passing the Turing Test befriends you but hasn't "come out" to you about what they are right away? If you gene-tweak a population, are they then your product to do with as you please? And can you be allowed to sell and buy AIs at all? Other than in many books dealing with the "uncanny valley" and AIs passing the Turing Test, Chambers allows to let the reader see multiple perspectives on theh topic: not only that of the AI's "caretakers" who are quite prepared to accept it as a person, not only that of the unknowing outsider who has to sort their feelings out once they are let in on the secret and find whether they can deal with it - but also from the point of view of the AI who never asked for any of this and has to deal with it anyway, or be deleted. Sidra's struggle with who she is is so very "human" that the reader cannot but feel with her. Of course, the reader also feels with Pepper who is basically one of Huxley's ananymous work forces who never get a word in within Brave New World, one the underdogs of her home world. And she also is a Robinson Crusoe, stranded in a world of junk and aggressive dogs, building herself a float to leave her island and see the stars. The difference being, her Friday is inbuilt into her float. It is amazing to see how this sad little runaway grows into the tough, outgoing techy the reader sees taking care of Sidra - all thanks to being raised by an AI herself who didn't even have a body. Pepper's pain in loosing Owl because others fail to recognise her as a person and thus discard her as tech-trash is real, as real as the crew's grief upon Lovey's death.
In the end, Sidra manages to find her place in Port Coriol, together with Owl who is reunited with her adoptive daughter Pepper - who never gave up looking for her.
I find that I can't explain the thoughtful magic of this book properly. It has to be read and engulf the reader on its own.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I :: liked :: "A long way to a small, angry planet", but it didn't blow me away. It was a fun read, but it left me sort of luke warm. By chance, I decided to read this sequel, and I'm so glad I did. I loved it. Maybe I was just in the right mind-space for this book, or maybe it's that Becky Chambers found her stride with the second book in the series, but somehow it all hung together much better for me.
It was great reading about FRIENDSHIP and not romantic love. This really is about that idea of the found family.
I found the various characters' stories gripping and believable, and I cared what happened to all of them. I loved the way they look after one another, and still have believable disagreements and frustrations. The whole thing about what it must be like for an …
I :: liked :: "A long way to a small, angry planet", but it didn't blow me away. It was a fun read, but it left me sort of luke warm. By chance, I decided to read this sequel, and I'm so glad I did. I loved it. Maybe I was just in the right mind-space for this book, or maybe it's that Becky Chambers found her stride with the second book in the series, but somehow it all hung together much better for me.
It was great reading about FRIENDSHIP and not romantic love. This really is about that idea of the found family.
I found the various characters' stories gripping and believable, and I cared what happened to all of them. I loved the way they look after one another, and still have believable disagreements and frustrations. The whole thing about what it must be like for an AI who used to inhabit a ship, to now inhabit a body was fascinating and beautifully handled.
A great book to read if you're feeling a little bit bruised by the world.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The second book in this series by Becky Chambers, I was much more taken with the first book than by this one. The alien species she has come up with, the universe she has constructed is wonderfully interesting, I love how she plays with gender with the aliens both in the first book and in this one. But where the first book had a sense of adventure -- even though the main Task of the book wasn't really what the book was about -- this book feels more like two novellas linked together at the end. Of the two, I found the story of Jane way more interesting; I'd hit a chapter break and be back in the Sidra story line and be impatient to get back to Jane. It's definitely not in the "scifi adventure" style! I can see from the other reviews that other people are thrilled with …
The second book in this series by Becky Chambers, I was much more taken with the first book than by this one. The alien species she has come up with, the universe she has constructed is wonderfully interesting, I love how she plays with gender with the aliens both in the first book and in this one. But where the first book had a sense of adventure -- even though the main Task of the book wasn't really what the book was about -- this book feels more like two novellas linked together at the end. Of the two, I found the story of Jane way more interesting; I'd hit a chapter break and be back in the Sidra story line and be impatient to get back to Jane. It's definitely not in the "scifi adventure" style! I can see from the other reviews that other people are thrilled with the focus on the human elements in these two stories, I'm guessing mostly the Sidra one, but that really didn't grab me here. I don't think I'd recommend this second book to friends, to be honest, but I'm definitely reading the next in the series if there is another. I can see a lot of room for interesting stories in the universe she has constructed.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I tore through the paperback in only two days as it combined two genres I really like: sci-fi and the upbringing of "feral" children. At first I was a bit disappointed that this book was not about the crew of the Wayfarer (or at least not all of them) but that quickly wore off because, like the first book, it was such an engaging read. It is told from two changing perspectives in two different times and still manages to keep up a steady pace and not get confusing. Again I was impressed by Chambers' skill in worldbuilding and character composition. And am looking forward to her next work, wherever it will take place!
