eBook, 336 pages
English language
Published Feb. 17, 2021 by Hodder & Stoughton.
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.
Well that was quick - three days from start to finish while on holiday! Largely nothing much happens in this book but that's kind of the point. Becky drops you in an alien place with alien people and you just enjoy being there and finding out about the world you're now sharing for a few tens of hours. Great holiday read in the best sense.
Hach, was soll ich sagen, auch dieses Buch war wieder einmal hinreißend schön. 🥰
Drei Aliens unterschiedlicher Spezies, die sich alle nicht kennen, stranden aufgrund technischer Schwierigkeiten zusammen mit ihren beiden Gastgeber*innen in einem Hotel auf einem unspektakulären Planeten namens Gora. Alle bringen sie ihre eigenen inneren Konflikte und Hintergründe mit, doch sie nutzen die Zeit, um aufeinander zuzugehen, sich gegenseitig zu helfen, für einander da zu sein und dabei enge Freundschaften zu schließen.
Die Art, wie diese neuen Bindungen geschlossen werden, wird von Becky Chambers wiedermal herzerwärmend und positiv rührend erzählt. Ich fühlte mich, als wäre ich Teil dieser liebevollen Truppe gewesen und finde es schade, dass die Zeit auf Gora nun zu Ende ist.
Sehr erfrischend fand ich auch, dass in diesem Buch Menschen so gut wie keine Rolle spielen und wir die Geschichte stets aus Sicht der Aliens erleben. Zudem handelt es sich fast nur um Spezies, …
Hach, was soll ich sagen, auch dieses Buch war wieder einmal hinreißend schön. 🥰
Drei Aliens unterschiedlicher Spezies, die sich alle nicht kennen, stranden aufgrund technischer Schwierigkeiten zusammen mit ihren beiden Gastgeber*innen in einem Hotel auf einem unspektakulären Planeten namens Gora. Alle bringen sie ihre eigenen inneren Konflikte und Hintergründe mit, doch sie nutzen die Zeit, um aufeinander zuzugehen, sich gegenseitig zu helfen, für einander da zu sein und dabei enge Freundschaften zu schließen.
Die Art, wie diese neuen Bindungen geschlossen werden, wird von Becky Chambers wiedermal herzerwärmend und positiv rührend erzählt. Ich fühlte mich, als wäre ich Teil dieser liebevollen Truppe gewesen und finde es schade, dass die Zeit auf Gora nun zu Ende ist.
Sehr erfrischend fand ich auch, dass in diesem Buch Menschen so gut wie keine Rolle spielen und wir die Geschichte stets aus Sicht der Aliens erleben. Zudem handelt es sich fast nur um Spezies, die in den früheren Büchern immer nur Nebenauftritte hatten und die wir damit nun endlich einmal besser kennenlernen dürfen.
Ein wirklich gelungener Abschluss einer insgesamt wundervollen und herzerwärmenden Serie. 😌
I’m really not sure what to feel about this book. It was easy to read, the characters were varied, and there’s enough world building to get a sense of the wider universe. But nothing really happens. The characters get to know each other, have some arguments, eventually come to a better understanding etc. (reminding me of 12 Angry Men in a way) but there’s no threat, no danger, no one is really at risk.
If you want a book to make you feel good, where all the characters (eventually) get along, and you don’t have to think too much about what’s going on, then I can see the appeal here. If you want plot, action, and things to Happen in general, then you might be disappointed.
My only complaint about this is that it's the last of rhe Wayfarers series. Becky Chambers has an amazing talent for creating characters and I want to know more about what happens to the characters from this and the other three books. This book is a perfect example of how story and plot come from character. There's a big exciting event here, but the main purpose of that is to bring these five characters together and explore how each of them affects the others. However, through these characters - none of whom are human - we get a sense of this universe, how it works, and the frustrations that brings to each character's life. There's even a discussion about politics that captures the realities of it and how people deal with it.
A great read, and eager to see what she does next.
Disgustingly heartwarming, everyone respects each others' pronouns and cultures. Any tension is either sorted out or an "agree to differ" affair.
And the series comes to an end.
I have really enjoyed these very gentle books. There is bad stuff but is at the periphery of these stories and it is a refreshing change to have a gentler amble through some slice of life of stories. Alien slices of life, largely, but still.
These books have not been 'accurate' hard sci-fi. The aliens are very anthromorphised but they are well executed so you don't really care. Further, this just highlights that the stories are actually about us, now, told through a science fictional lens.
This one is a lockdown parable. It must have been written before the current pandemic in one of those lucky hit things but it feels very fresh and apt because of that.
This gets 5 stars on its own but that rating is also a reflection of my view of the series as whole. Highly recommended.
This didn’t feel like an ending. SO whilst I’m looking forward to Becky Chambers moving on, I’m sad to hear that she’s stopping here. There are so many more stories I am sure. This was beautifully told, completely in character, full of the spark and vitality that makes her characters both less Human, but more people, than many other science fiction writers can manage. I have enjoyed all of these and will very much enjoy rereading them all together one day.
Purchasable
Purchasable
Purchasable
https://www.litalist.com/book/9781473647664.https://www.litalist.com/book/9781473647664.https://audiobookstore.com/audiobooks/the-galaxy-and-the-ground-within.aspx.