To Be Taught, If Fortunate

A Novelle

Paperback, 176 pages

English language

Published Nov. 23, 2020 by Hodder Paperbacks.

ISBN:
978-1-4736-9718-8
Copied ISBN!
ASIN:
1473697182
Goodreads:
48657666

View on OpenLibrary

View on Inventaire

4 stars (45 reviews)

At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in sub-zero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to explore neighbouring exoplanets long suspected to harbour life.

Ariadne is one such explorer. On a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds fifteen light-years from Earth, she and her fellow crewmates sleep while in transit, and wake each time with different features. But as they shift through both form and time, life back on Earth has also changed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne …

5 editions

It's been a journey!

5 stars

When i started reading this novella, I falsely assumed it was part of the Wayfarers cycle. It's not, but it's also not important.

The book recounts the journey of four astronauts from earth. It tells of their struggles and joys, their passions and woes. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the story unfolds, the characters are painted and the way they are interacting with each other. And, without spoiling it, I really loved how the author decided to end the book.

I finished the book two days ago. I am still enchanted.

A human adventure in space, in four acts

4 stars

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago. Like all of Chambers's books, it feels as though nothing much is going on in them at any given moment, but in a good way. There are interpersonal relationships continuously developing and evolving, there's the discoveries about the planets that the explorers land on, and then there is the revelation about events back on Earth which the explorers, 17 light years away, can do nothing about.

For such a simple and shortish story, I found the revelation at the end to be suitably profound, as well as the way Chambers left unanswered, but in a satisfying way, some of the questions about what had happened back on Earth.

Exploration écologique

4 stars

Un très court roman que je qualifierais d'exploration écologique (ou scientifique). La lecture est très agréable et la science il est instillé avec délicatesse. Le ton est apaisé, nous cheminons avec bienveillance dans ces explorations, sur la pointe des pieds, planète après planète, mais également dans une forme de voyage intérieur.

Review of 'To Be Taught, If Fortunate' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A different side of Becky Chambers, but also a welcome one.

Space exploration without the lens flare: wonder, discovery, terror, danger, boredom, some questions answered, new ones posed. This was more meditative than the Wayfarers series, more solemn, more scientific, but still offering a way of thinking about the possibilities of the universe that is as gentle as it is fresh. Her curiosity and compassion resonates throughout, just as it did in Wayfarers.

what does anything mean, basically?

4 stars

I really appreciated this book as much as I enjoyed it - not the same thing. I am also a sucker for the Golden Voyage disc, so that drew me in, and all of it together got me thinking deeper than most sci-fi would lead me to do. That titular bit about learning and teaching just nails it. What we do is either important or inconsequential or some mix of both… who ever knows which?

A deeply personal plea for space exploration funding

4 stars

Unlike the super-high-tech far future of her Wayfarers series, Chambers focuses on just the near-future of the human race. Seen from a team of exoplanet explorers surveying alien life, To Be Taught paints a future where governments fail in the mission to space but the human spirit leads ordinary people to crowdfund the mission instead. And when the interstellar mission outlasts human lifespans, government lifespans and even societal lifespans, Chambers leaves us with a deeply personal question, ask from both her perspective and that of the protagonist, chronologically ancient, barely human and too distant to ever return home: how much is space exploration worth?

Review of 'To Be Taught, If Fortunate' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

What an incredible treat this novella is. It's got everything I've come to love from Chambers' brand of sci-fi; the optimism, the character-driven narrative, the beautiful descriptions of both scientific work and imaginative new worlds that intertwine with the characters' states of mind, and more; the attention to technical details and other "hard sci-fi" aspects shocked me as they're not a huge component of the Wayfarers books nor what I look for in them, but they were a pleasant surprise and a demonstration of how Chambers still has a lot to surprise with. My only complaint is I wish it was way longer!

avatar for luxon

rated it

5 stars
avatar for octo

rated it

5 stars
avatar for animalculum

rated it

5 stars
avatar for otterlove

rated it

4 stars
avatar for ZucchiniMuffin

rated it

5 stars
avatar for objelisks

rated it

5 stars
avatar for cthulahoops

rated it

5 stars
avatar for jimfingal

rated it

4 stars
avatar for bbbhltz

rated it

3 stars
avatar for AElliot

rated it

5 stars
avatar for whami

rated it

3 stars
avatar for fjordic

rated it

5 stars
avatar for JoeGermuska

rated it

4 stars
avatar for anaulin

rated it

4 stars
avatar for sansaraf

rated it

4 stars
avatar for jkwatson

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Tingenek

rated it

3 stars
avatar for annemarijn

rated it

5 stars
avatar for yallah110

rated it

3 stars
avatar for giantrobot

rated it

4 stars
avatar for johnke

rated it

5 stars
avatar for davidrperry

rated it

5 stars
avatar for Hyzie

rated it

4 stars
avatar for naota

rated it

4 stars
avatar for dmbuchmann

rated it

3 stars
avatar for laprunminta

rated it

4 stars
avatar for tsukikage

rated it

5 stars
avatar for MatthiasvW

rated it

4 stars
avatar for Minnozz

rated it

3 stars
avatar for biblio_creep

rated it

5 stars
avatar for armamix@books.infosec.exchange

rated it

4 stars
avatar for acdha

rated it

4 stars
avatar for cheziceman

rated it

4 stars

Lists