anni_swanilda's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful relaxing sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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scifi_rat's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Plot: 3.5★
Prose: 3★
Pace: 3.5★
Concept/Execution: 4★/2.75★
Characters: 3★
Worldbuilding: 4★
Ending: 3★

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eni_iilorak's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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lastcomment314's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Join the crew of the Wayfarer on adventures big and small as they make their way through the galaxy on their biggest job yet. The story is told mainly through the eyes of new-to-long-haul-space-travel clerk Rosemary, but gives insights into the lives of the rest of the crew as well. I really enjoyed getting to see snippets of the lives of everyone on the crew, and how it made you sympathetic to all of the characters, even those who are less likeable at the onset. And as the different pieces of their lives interact with each other, the larger things that the story wants to emphasize start to come together beautifully. It's a story that celebrates humanity, but also aliens. It's a story that celebrates diversity, in many wonderful, beautiful flavors. 

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akincses1992's review against another edition

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challenging funny lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

Great characters but too long and not worth the read. Any conflict is resolved too quick and too neat. It’s almost 500 pages and nothing happens. 

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cookiecat73's review against another edition

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lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25


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sacredgayometry's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is one of my favorite books I have ever read, and one of the best sci-fi novels of all time in my opinion. The story is compelling but the found family relationships are the real draw of the book. You will become attached to characters you didn’t expect to, and feel like part of the family yourself as the reader. The world building is fantastic and I felt like a tourist learning about strange and beautiful new places at times. I love this book.

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bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Review of A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
By; Becky Chambers, Narrated: Rachel Dulude
            Rosemary has just joined the Wayfarer crew as a clerk to escape her criminal father.  The Wayfarer crew consists of both human and alient crew.  They punch tunnels in the atmosphere to create tunnels for people to cross through.
            This reminded me of a Star Trek episode, and I’m specifically think of The Next Generation.  The Wayfarer crew go on adventures and run into a conflict they have to get out.  The stakes are medium high.  They are intense, but I wasn’t nervous for the crew.  It comes off as idealistic and has a wholesome vibe to it and Chambers comes up with a creative way to discuss how we should be open to alternative lifestyles.  One of the characters has birth parents, children she gave birth too, but she has separate group of people she considers her actual family.  Rosemary comes off as the main character, but the story deviates from Rosemary’s perspective to the other crew members.  Rosemary also has a sweet relationship with the aforementioned character.  The rest of characters are fun, likable, and feel authentic.  Foul like the F word makes feel realistic and again, authentic.  Though, the stakes aren’t high, it was an exciting to listening to.  The narrator has a nice voice and she creates some unique voices.

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maeverose's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

TL;DR: It was okay. Most of the focus is on the characters and worldbuilding, which I liked, but I still wished there was more plot.

Tropes/Themes:
-ragtag group of friends
-space adventures
-found family
-alien cultures/worldbuilding

Things I liked:
-The characters and their group dynamic/friendships. It took me a while to get attached to them, but by the end I felt really connected to their friendship with each other. (Kind of a guardians of the galaxy dynamic)
-I did actually enjoy the worldbuilding. I found it really interesting to learn about the different alien cultures, histories and locations they visited.

Things I didn't like:
-sounds like a silly complaint, but there's a brief moment in the beginning where Corbin's clammy hands are essentially described as gross, and as someone with hyperhidrosis it doesn't feel good reading that. Especially when I was hoping this would be another comfort read, coming from ‘a psalm for the wild built’. It just kinda put a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the book. I wish authors would stop describing a character’s physical traits as something that adds to their bad attitude or whatever. It’s offensive and often ableist.
-I wish there'd have been a little more focus on the story. I kept getting confused about how much time had passed and how far along they were on their journey, because each chapter felt like a side quest or filler episode of a tv show or something. Which I didn't totally mind, but as I said a little confusing as to where they were on their journey. It felt a little disjointed. I also felt like some of the times they got into trouble during the trip they moved on from it really quickly. Like the tone was a bit all over the place, going from tense and kinda dark to happy fun times with friends a bit suddenly.
-In this book they/them pronouns are treated exclusively as plural pronouns. I know this was written a few years ago now and in ‘a psalm for the wild-built’ Dex uses they/them pronouns, and even in this book neopronouns are used here and there, so I know the author understands that they/them isn't only plural and understands non binary identities, but just a heads up that that’s in this book. There also aren't any actual non binary characters in this book, only alien species that change sexes throughout their life as part of their biology. But that isn’t trans rep. Sex does not equal gender, and this series doesn’t seem to get that.
-
I didn’t really buy the romance between Rosemary and Sissix. They didn’t feel like they had any romantic chemistry up until right before Rosemary made her move, and even then Sissix didn’t seem to have any feelings for Rosemary. Even after that scene their relationship wasn’t really explored or shown hardly at all.
-Lastly, even though he's an ass, I wish we got more of Corbin's perspective throughout the book. I felt like he was a bit neglected until the very end, whereas every other character had a lot more focus. Except Ohan, I guess, but they still had more than Corbin.

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naomi_k's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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