When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past.
But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptilian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants.
Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet.
Review of 'The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
A very fun read: an interesting world, enjoyable characters. Even if the aliens can often be categorized as a sapient variety of an Earth-like animal, at least some of them come across as genuinely alien. Although I agree with the morals in this book, I found them conveyed in a too preachy manner: I know this is a YA novel, but even people within that age group must know when they're being talked down to, right?
Review of 'The long way to a small, angry planet' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
"When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The patched-up ship has seen better days, but it offers her everything she could possibly want: a spot to call home, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and some distance from her past. And nothing could be further from what she's known than the crew of the Wayfarer. From Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the chatty engineers who keep the ship running, to the noble captain Ashby, life aboard is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. That is until the crew is offered the job of a lifetime tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet. Sure, they'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years, but risking her life wasn't part of the job description."
The overwhelming sentiment that I gathered from reviews of this book is that …
"When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The patched-up ship has seen better days, but it offers her everything she could possibly want: a spot to call home, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and some distance from her past. And nothing could be further from what she's known than the crew of the Wayfarer. From Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the chatty engineers who keep the ship running, to the noble captain Ashby, life aboard is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. That is until the crew is offered the job of a lifetime tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet. Sure, they'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years, but risking her life wasn't part of the job description."
The overwhelming sentiment that I gathered from reviews of this book is that nothing much happens but it is amazing and you have to read it. I totally agree.
Rosemary is a human from Mars who is on the run from her life there. She is hired to be a secretary. She has skills with languages too that may come in handy. She's never been on a long haul ship before. The crew of the Wayfarer is different than any group she's been around before.
Captain Ashby is human. He's been looking for a way to make the Wayfarer more profitable. Now he's been selected for a huge job. They will open a wormhole between a newly settled planet in a war zone and their home galaxy. It will take over a year to get there.
Sissix is reptilian but don't say that out loud because it is rude. Her race is very affectionate. They form different families at different times in their lives. Their sexual freedom makes many humans uncomfortable.
Kizzy is human. She loves machinery and keeps the Wayfarer running with help from Jenks. She reminded me of Kaylee from Firefly.
Jenks is human. He works mostly with the AI system on the ship. During his time on the ship, he has fallen in love with her. They are considering getting her a body so she can leave the ship.
Lovey is the AI system. Her name is short for Lovelace. She controls everything on board.
Dr. Chef is both the doctor and the chef. He's in the male phase of his life right now.
Ohan is a Sianat pair. He carries an alien parasite inside him that allows him to see in multiple dimensions and wavelengths. He understands the workings of the universe. It allows him to navigate when they are making wormholes. The pairing drastically shortens his life expectancy and he is starting to show signs of physical deterioration.
Corbin is the ship's algae specialist. The ship runs off of algae most of the time. He's grumpy and a loner but good at his job so everyone puts up with him.
The story mainly involves putting these diverse species in a ship for a long period of time and watching what happens. There are a few close escapes but mostly it is a story about making a family - the good and the bad.
Review of 'The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Meh, I had a hard time staying interested in this, mostly because the writing is extremely amateurish. The pacing is all over the place, the plot doesn't really do much, and the tone is very uninspired (the whole thing reads like "this happened, then this other thing happened" without very much richness of description or really much texture at all).
The characters are interesting-ish, but the author writes about them as if she's writing about the wacky hijinks of some dear friends of hers from college, and I just never really warmed up to them. Rosemary, very obviously the reader stand-in, is cardboard-thin as a character; the narrative technique of "she asks to have something explained to her" is overused and ultimately makes her seem kind of dull-witted. Plus she's often weirdly judgmental of alien habits even though she's supposedly an anthropologist so... okay. Her character is not at all …
Meh, I had a hard time staying interested in this, mostly because the writing is extremely amateurish. The pacing is all over the place, the plot doesn't really do much, and the tone is very uninspired (the whole thing reads like "this happened, then this other thing happened" without very much richness of description or really much texture at all).
The characters are interesting-ish, but the author writes about them as if she's writing about the wacky hijinks of some dear friends of hers from college, and I just never really warmed up to them. Rosemary, very obviously the reader stand-in, is cardboard-thin as a character; the narrative technique of "she asks to have something explained to her" is overused and ultimately makes her seem kind of dull-witted. Plus she's often weirdly judgmental of alien habits even though she's supposedly an anthropologist so... okay. Her character is not at all well-defined.
The plot is a mess -- the author keeps introducing plot points that seem like they're going to be pivotal, only to either resolve them super quickly and without very much suspense, or have them just sort of peter out.
I really wanted to like this book -- I mean, it's awesome that it normalizes a bunch of stuff like preferred pronouns, homosexuality, and alternative relationship styles. It's awesome that it features such a diverse cast of characters. It gestures in the direction of some pretty interesting philosophical questions (albeit without really following through on any of them). Ultimately I think it just isn't a very well-executed novel.
It will probably make the anti-SJW crowd angry (which in and of itself is a selling point), but it tends to pull back from concepts that would be truly challenging. For example, the character that uses "they" pronouns isn't agender or anything like that, they're two entities. Rosemary and Sissix's relationship: the conversation is just Sissix proposing a bunch of boundaries and Rosemary agreeing to everything, and then apparently it's all hunky-dory and there's never any conflict. Lovey's death: it's as if the author wasn't sure how to resolve the plot threads about personhood and wanted an easy way out.
If you haven't read Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy, I definitely recommend picking that up first. It scratches pretty much the same itch but is also far better-written!
