Audiobook, 336 pages
Published April 19, 2021 by HarperCollins B and Blackstone Publishing.
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.
At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.
When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to …
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.
At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.
When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.
This book is like an Agatha Christie novel where an ensemble cast of characters gather together, but instead of someone getting murdered they just form bonds and make each other happy.
Content warning minor ref to stuff that happens near end
This was my favorite of the series! Its between this one and the first one, they both do close up interpersonal relationships so well. I wanna hang out with them all!! I kinda wish the conflict between speaker and pei was explored a bit more, it felt like it was just left to simmer on the side due to emergency, but that gives it a bit of messy realness. Excited to see what comes next!
When it came to the Wayfarers series, I used to believe A Closed and Common Orbit would never be topped for me. I'm happy to report I was very wrong. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is an absolute triumph, the ultimate torchbearer for the particular brand of optimistic, heartwarming, humanist sci-fi that Chambers has championed throughout the whole series, and a new personal favorite, without a doubt. I got more than teary eyed at multiple times throughout this book, as it weaves a tale of personal drama, all-too relatable themes of normalized oppression, cultural identity, found family... it's a doozy. It's outstanding science fiction, it's everything I could've wanted from its premise and more. I couldn't have clicked that 5 star rating any faster.
Love (loved?…I hope this isn’t the end of this universe) this series. The good folk are good, the bad folk are bad and everyone just gets along. With well defined and distinct alien species, any differences a/o pain points are worked out to everyone’s satisfaction by the end.
Explores belonging and friendship. A little sad that this is the last book in the Wayfarers series, but glad that, as books, I can reread them and experience them again.
I'm looking forward to what else Chambers releases. What other worlds or topics will we explore?
A beautiful ending to a series I've loved
Alysa Winans’s Instagram post of her endpaper design
This is a beautiful ending to a series I’ve loved, being the 4th and final book in her Wayfarers series‚ which won Chambers the Best Series Hugo in 2019.
A handful of sapients, from a handful of species, are forced together for longer than expected. And, as a result, Becky Chambers has made me weep again with joy, several times.
This one only just fits into my self-imposed category of queer lit — while Chambers is herself queer, the characters of this novella aren’t really, beyond an adolescent of a species who don’t decide on their gender until adulthood. That said, there is discussion of gender, including non-binary and trans identities — and with a beautifully dismissive line where 2 characters (neither of which is human) are discussing the post-adolescent gender-reveal customs of a …
A beautiful ending to a series I've loved
Alysa Winans’s Instagram post of her endpaper design
This is a beautiful ending to a series I’ve loved, being the 4th and final book in her Wayfarers series‚ which won Chambers the Best Series Hugo in 2019.
A handful of sapients, from a handful of species, are forced together for longer than expected. And, as a result, Becky Chambers has made me weep again with joy, several times.
This one only just fits into my self-imposed category of queer lit — while Chambers is herself queer, the characters of this novella aren’t really, beyond an adolescent of a species who don’t decide on their gender until adulthood. That said, there is discussion of gender, including non-binary and trans identities — and with a beautifully dismissive line where 2 characters (neither of which is human) are discussing the post-adolescent gender-reveal customs of a 3rd (non-human) culture:
And I have always thought the party sounds like a lovely custom.
Quelin don’t have anything similar, right?
No, not at all. If your parents got it wrong, you let them know, you update your records, and everybody gets on with their lives. It’s a casual matter. Nobody hires a band. Which is our loss, really.
