At the heart of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a crew of the most lovely, amazing characters ever to set foot on a spaceship. Rosemary might set off on the wrong foot, being given the tour by the grumpiest member, and worrying that her past will catch up with her, but this isn’t setting the scene for strife. This is a ship of good people.

In the future, the human race isn’t at the top of the hierarchy. Quite the opposite, they were only just allowed to be let into the GC, what with many other species looking down on them. As Wayfarer travels towards Hedra Ka, the readers learns about different cultures and quite how absurd some of the things we take for granted might seem to another sentient species.

Why would social structures be the same as 20th century Earth’s in cultures that have evolved independently to ours? Of course they wouldn’t, and we see a variety of different identities and ways of living. The key thing to note about this story is the overarching acceptance of differences. It’s just lovely. The writing uses a variety of pronouns, for those species that are genderless, or to be polite when you don’t know what gender someone identifies as. There is also the use of they for Ohan.

Oh Ohan. I cried over pretty much every part of their story. For some reason I had them pictured as a sort of blue orang-utan though, anyone else? How hard to watch friends waste away, but knowing it’s their own choice, their own beliefs sending them to their grave.

Lovey has got to be the best AI ever. I’m not sure I’ve ever cried over a fictional computer before. Whilst the universe seems so liberal in many ways, there are still prejudices. What about life artificially created, does that not deserve the same rights as anyone else? It’s not just AIs that have this problem, as little glimpses into the characters’ lives will tell.

This book is as far from angry as you can get. It is full of love and emotion, and an endearing loyalty. More please!

Review copy provided by publisher.