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midsummernoodle's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This is my second read-through of this book and I have to say, I am so glad I read it again. It's been long enough that I had forgotten many of the major plot points and it felt like a new book. And I liked it better this time than before. I was able to appreciate it more as a series of events detailing the lives of a lovely found family, whereas before I was a little miffed by the lack of a satisfying ending. I was fully satisfied this time. I love this book. If you like space operas with ragtag crews, heartwarming family dynamics, and a healthy dose of adventure, read this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, War, Violence, Medical content, and Grief
Minor: Drug use, Genocide, and Xenophobia
bergha1998's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Like everything I’ve read so far by Becky Chambers this book will make you feel more understood and also expand your mind. It’s delightfully funny and lighthearted at times and then so breathtakingly deep and emotional. I didn’t know Sci-fi or any book that wasn’t self-help would make me feel so understood. Perfection.
Found Family, Romance Subplots
“We cannot blame ourselves for the wars our parents start. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is walk away.”
“You found something dark within your own house, and you are wondering how much of it has rubbed off on you.”
“The truth is, Rosemary, that you are capable of anything. Good or bad. You always have been, and you always will be. Given the right push, you, too, could do horrible things. That darkness exists within all of us.”
“All any of us can do—is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.”
“How much of me is actually you?”
Found Family, Romance Subplots
“We cannot blame ourselves for the wars our parents start. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is walk away.”
“You found something dark within your own house, and you are wondering how much of it has rubbed off on you.”
“The truth is, Rosemary, that you are capable of anything. Good or bad. You always have been, and you always will be. Given the right push, you, too, could do horrible things. That darkness exists within all of us.”
“All any of us can do—is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.”
“How much of me is actually you?”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Racism, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Colonisation, Confinement, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Police brutality, and War
maddie_can_read's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I started off really enjoying this book. I liked the writing and the characterization and thought the set-up was interesting. I was intrigued by what Rosemary did to end up with the crew. I liked the worldbuilding descriptions. I was curious what would happen on their space journey.
But then it just started to slog in the middle. I thought there would be more of a plot, more tension.. I just felt bored. I thought we'd get to know the characters better but they were all just super nice and very 2 dimensional. The vibe was very like overly happy/ juvenile? But then there was lots of sex talk/ alcohol talk/ mild drug use talk which I didn't think meshed very well.
I kept going because I thought the Rosemary reveal would lead to something. I was so disappointed by it. It was so boring and had no repercussions or consequences. It also felt like the author tricked us a bit because she hadnt even done anything! It was her dad being a war criminal and she didn't know? And then that's not examined??
I liked the diversity of the characters and the inclusion of LGBTQ references but I thought using neo-pronouns to refer to the space pirates that mug them in one scene was a little much in that it felt like it didn't really add anything to the book but it was just the author reminding the reader that neo-pronouns exist in real life .
The rest of the book just felt really disconnected, just a series of unrelated scenes one after another. Felt kind of like I was just reading a bunch of vignettes with no stakes.
This book felt too cheesy and corny for me for how long it was and the lack of a tight plot.
Like everyone on the ship is best friends, whatever tension there is, is extremely brief and resolved immediately. To the extent that any tension doesn't even feel like tension because you know everything will be ok because it's a book where the main characters have plot armor.
Characters are just pouring their hearts out to one another, even characters that just met!
The worst part about this book for me is that it took me a long time to realize what type of book this was.
I almost did not finish at about 60% but I was listening to an audiobook while sick so I just put it on fast playback.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Deportation, Infertility, Racism, War, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Drug use, Slavery, Colonisation, Trafficking, Sexual content, and Racial slurs
waqupi's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Xenophobia, War, and Terminal illness
Minor: Drug use and Sexual content
foxclcves's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality
Moderate: Animal death and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol, Racial slurs, Violence, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, War, Medical trauma, Genocide, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief
loxeletters's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
This books left me with extremely mixed feelings.
First off, there were a few things I liked quite a bit: the sort of "mixed media" approach of including emails and news articles was fun, the world and cultures the author had created were interesting, and the writing style was simple and binge read-able.
That being said, I had some major gripes and for the first 80% I thought it was gonna be a 2.5 star at best. Most prominently, while I enjoyed the prose itself (except for some genre-typical infodumps), the storytelling decisions made in this book baffled me. Most of the conflicts, relationships, and arcs set up for the characters developed and resolved quickly and/or off-page, whereas I found myself annotating over and over again: "This would have been impactful if it had been properly set up" for the conflicts that actually were explored on-page.
The time skips seriously took me out of the story multiple times, especially since there is no in-text discussion of time passing.
Since we spend so little time getting to know the characters, I was unable to connect to most of them on any deeper level, especially the (intentionally) unlikeable ones, and this eliminated any emotional impact the first 3/4s of the book should've had. It was still a fun read! But I could tell in many scenes the author was trying to make things emotional or tense, while I just did not care. Certainly not enough to read pages worth of "tragic" backstory for a character that was supposed to be unlikeable less than ten pages ago. This really irked me.
The last 20% or so did kind of throw me for a loop, in that I suddenly did really connect with one emotional event, which I didn't expect. That is what made this book 3 stars for me, in the end. I did also appreciate the final ending, which wrapped up some ties very neatly.
Tldr: while this was an enjoyable and fun read, the narrative structure was bizarre and undermined the emotional impact of many scenes. However, the final conflict and ending surprised me positively in this regard.
First off, there were a few things I liked quite a bit: the sort of "mixed media" approach of including emails and news articles was fun, the world and cultures the author had created were interesting, and the writing style was simple and binge read-able.
That being said, I had some major gripes and for the first 80% I thought it was gonna be a 2.5 star at best. Most prominently, while I enjoyed the prose itself (except for some genre-typical infodumps), the storytelling decisions made in this book baffled me. Most of the conflicts, relationships, and arcs set up for the characters developed and resolved quickly and/or off-page, whereas I found myself annotating over and over again: "This would have been impactful if it had been properly set up" for the conflicts that actually were explored on-page.
The time skips seriously took me out of the story multiple times, especially since there is no in-text discussion of time passing.
Since we spend so little time getting to know the characters, I was unable to connect to most of them on any deeper level, especially the (intentionally) unlikeable ones, and this eliminated any emotional impact the first 3/4s of the book should've had. It was still a fun read! But I could tell in many scenes the author was trying to make things emotional or tense, while I just did not care. Certainly not enough to read pages worth of "tragic" backstory for a character that was supposed to be unlikeable less than ten pages ago. This really irked me.
The last 20% or so did kind of throw me for a loop, in that I suddenly did really connect with one emotional event, which I didn't expect. That is what made this book 3 stars for me, in the end. I did also appreciate the final ending, which wrapped up some ties very neatly.
Tldr: while this was an enjoyable and fun read, the narrative structure was bizarre and undermined the emotional impact of many scenes. However, the final conflict and ending surprised me positively in this regard.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Drug use, Suicide attempt, Violence, Terminal illness, Confinement, War, and Xenophobia
mobymaize's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
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
Damn this shit is so good. I really like a sci-fi universe that is built around the people in it, and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet provides. :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Religious bigotry, War, Xenophobia, Chronic illness, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Outing, Animal death, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Torture
Moderate: Blood and Child death
melodyseestrees's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
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
This story is best described as Cozy Sci-Fi. The vast majority of species' differences in cultures and believes are handled in a respectful manner. A character has a judgment about another species and then reminds themselves that they are holding this other character to standards that weren't made for them. There is one character who is the most unforgiving towards differences. There is not quite a justification for it but there is a reveal that this character had a difficult homelife.
There is an upsetting but realistic terminal illness scene towards the last 20% of the book where one character is actively dying, the others are pressuring them to forsake their culture in order to live, and ultimately another character forces the choice upon them in misguided well-meaning. This is met with anger and indignation but ultimately treated as a good thing as the healing character decides to stay with the crew regardless of what their culture dictates they should do.
I do wish three of the characters had been a little more present throughout the whole story but two of them become way more involved at the end of the story. The other one is removed entirely after an event and while I understand why I do wish they had been able to stay.
The ending of this story is solid enough you could treat it as a standalone, even though it is part of a series.
There is an upsetting but realistic terminal illness scene towards the last 20% of the book where one character is actively dying, the others are pressuring them to forsake their culture in order to live, and ultimately another character forces the choice upon them in misguided well-meaning. This is met with anger and indignation but ultimately treated as a good thing as the healing character decides to stay with the crew regardless of what their culture dictates they should do.
I do wish three of the characters had been a little more present throughout the whole story but two of them become way more involved at the end of the story. The other one is removed entirely after an event and while I understand why I do wish they had been able to stay.
The ending of this story is solid enough you could treat it as a standalone, even though it is part of a series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, War, and Physical abuse
Minor: Sexual content, Drug use, and Genocide
the_reading_wren's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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? Yes
5.0
The quote on the front of this book says it’s “quietly profound” and I think that sums it up perfectly.
I wasn’t expecting it but I liked the episodic style of storytelling because it made every chapter satisfying. I could tell this was Chambers’ debut novel due to pacing and some lack of clarity in the messages (which in her more recent books are more honed), but the fact I still gave it 5 stars shows just how much I love her world building, and the wisdom she shares through her characters.
I wasn’t expecting it but I liked the episodic style of storytelling because it made every chapter satisfying. I could tell this was Chambers’ debut novel due to pacing and some lack of clarity in the messages (which in her more recent books are more honed), but the fact I still gave it 5 stars shows just how much I love her world building, and the wisdom she shares through her characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Grief, and War
Minor: Blood, Murder, Ableism, Vomit, Confinement, Drug use, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Torture, Alcohol, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Slavery, and Violence
yikeslou's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
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
i love this book too much for words so i'm simply going to say slayyyy bc it's what kizzy would want
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Grief