The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is the 2014 debut science fiction novel by Becky Chambers, set in her fictional universe the Galactic Commons. Chambers originally self-published it via a Kickstarter campaign; it was subsequently re-published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Cozy sci-fi with a whole lotta heart.
I really needed a fun little sci-fi road trip story, and this delivered quite well! The characters are all quite likable, and the world building with such a diverse array of alien species made for a lot of fun scenarios.
There is a romance later on that comes seemingly out of nowhere, and I wasnât a big fan of how Ohanâs they/them pronouns are treated as a symptom of a disease. It kind of nearly crosses the border into demonizing plurality, but I know for sure that wasnât the authorâs intention.
Bien heureuse de ne pas avoir lu la 4Ăšme de couverture avant de terminer, elle raconte presque toute lâhistoire !!
Câest assez rare les livres de SF et les spaces opera oĂč lâon est agrĂ©ablement confuse presque tout le long de lâhistoire sur lâapparence, origine, us et coutumes des diffĂ©rentes espĂšces (au point que je me disais quâil y avait un tome Ă lire avant celui-ci).
Jâai entendu parler de ce livre grĂące au podcast Les couilles sur la table oĂč il a Ă©tĂ© recommandĂ© comme alternatif Ă la science-fiction classique masculine avec beaucoup dâarmes et de guerres dans lâespace. Ă la place, cette histoire se concentre beaucoup plus sur les personnages et leurs interactions entre eux. Je suis complĂštement dâaccord avec cette analyse, et jâai adorĂ© tous les personnages. Jâai eu lâimpression de passer un bon moment avec des potes en lisant le livre. Tout le monde a une histoire et une personnalitĂ© bien distinctes. Jâai aussi apprĂ©ciĂ© que lâautrice a rĂ©ussi Ă crĂ©er des personnalitĂ©s pour les personnages non-humains et elle a pu Ă©viter le raccourci qui se trouve dans beaucoup de science-fiction que tous les ĂȘtres dâune mĂȘme espĂšce non-humaine aient les mĂȘmes caractĂ©ristiques et ne soient pas vus comme des individus. Le livre parle avec douceur des sujets comme la diversitĂ© et âŠ
Jâai entendu parler de ce livre grĂące au podcast Les couilles sur la table oĂč il a Ă©tĂ© recommandĂ© comme alternatif Ă la science-fiction classique masculine avec beaucoup dâarmes et de guerres dans lâespace. Ă la place, cette histoire se concentre beaucoup plus sur les personnages et leurs interactions entre eux. Je suis complĂštement dâaccord avec cette analyse, et jâai adorĂ© tous les personnages. Jâai eu lâimpression de passer un bon moment avec des potes en lisant le livre. Tout le monde a une histoire et une personnalitĂ© bien distinctes. Jâai aussi apprĂ©ciĂ© que lâautrice a rĂ©ussi Ă crĂ©er des personnalitĂ©s pour les personnages non-humains et elle a pu Ă©viter le raccourci qui se trouve dans beaucoup de science-fiction que tous les ĂȘtres dâune mĂȘme espĂšce non-humaine aient les mĂȘmes caractĂ©ristiques et ne soient pas vus comme des individus. Le livre parle avec douceur des sujets comme la diversitĂ© et la comprĂ©hension entre les gens. Mais il sâagit non seulement des diffĂ©rences entre les espĂšces fictives mais aussi des diffĂ©rences causĂ©es par de vrais handicaps. Il peut mĂȘme y avoir de la neurodiversitĂ© entres les individus dâune espĂšce non-humaine par exemple.
Jâai lâimpression que le livre a Ă©tĂ© Ă©crit comme une sĂ©rie de tĂ©lĂ©vision. Les chapitres sont comme des Ă©pisodes de la sĂ©rie avec des histoires sĂ©parĂ©es qui nâont pas toujours un grand rapport avec lâhistoire centrale du roman.
La description sur le dos du livre fait croire que Rosemary est la protagoniste et que lâhistoire va se dĂ©rouler autour dâelle. Mais finalement elle nâest pas plus importante que les autres membres de lâĂ©quipage et la narration change souvent de point de vue pour se concentrer sur un autre personnage, ce qui donne encore plus lâimpression de regarder un soap.
Bien que la description du livre dise que lâhistoire Ă©vite les guerres de la science-fiction classique, il y en a quand mĂȘme dans lâunivers du livre ainsi que des politiques intergalactiques. On pourrait bien se croire dans lâunivers de Star Wars. La diffĂ©rence principale est juste que tout ça est Ă lâarriĂšre-plan de lâhistoire et on le voit du point de vue des gens ordinaires qui ne sont pas des hĂ©ros et qui ne peuvent pas beaucoup lâinfluencer.
Du coup, je recommande fortement le livre.
This is a lovely book. Well written and lovely characters. I want this future to happen. So real and optimistic!
Sterne, wie habe ich dieses Buch geliebt. đ€©
Sympathische Charaktere, die alle auf ihre Art liebenswert sind, als Crew und Freund*innen aufeinander aufpassen und einen liebevollen Umgang miteinander pflegen. Gemeinsam erleben sie herzerwÀrmende und zugleich unterhaltsame Geschichten auf ihrer Reise zu diesem kleinen, zornigen Planeten.
Wer einen stringenten, zusammenhĂ€ngenden und sich aufbauenden Plot erwartet, wird hier zwar nicht fĂŒndig (auch wenn ein Plot durchaus exisitert). Wer sich hingegen an herzlichen Charakteren, mitfĂŒhlendem und freundschaftlichem Zusammenhalt und optimistischen emotionalen ErzĂ€hlungen erfreuen kann, wird dieses Buch lieben, denn davon enthĂ€lt es eine Menge. Ich jedenfalls musste das Lesen mehrfach kurz pausieren, um vor RĂŒhrung und positiver Ergriffenheit zu seufzen. đ
Kurzum eine wirklich wunderschöne, herzerwÀrmende und optimistische Space-Opera mit bewegendem, spannendem und emotionalem Finale. Absolute Leseempfehlung!
On suit le quotidien d'un Ă©quipage multi-espĂšce d'un vaisseau spatial. Loin d'une SF oĂč l'humanitĂ© guerroie et triomphe, l'univers de l'autrice nous prĂ©sentent comme faibles, divisĂ©s, sous le patronage d'autres espĂšces plus avancĂ©es.
L'autrice décrit de maniÚre trÚs sensible cet équipage qui est un peu comme une famille, avec ses joies, ses amours et ses peines.
This book is the best season of Star Trek
The basic storyline of this book is nothing entirely out of the ordinary: Space crew gets dangerous but lucrative job offer, travels to their destinations, stuff happens there and along the way. You can take the title literally: it's a long way but only a small planet (episode).
I liked the world building, but especially the way the protagonists interact with each other. It's a story that is, for once, not driven by toxic behavior and the inability to communicate, but instead based on empathy and mutual support. The characters belong to different alien and human races, they do sometimes face conflicts over their specific needs, but frequently try to find solutions that work for everyone. In some ways, it seemed like an enhanced and more diverse version of the "Firefly" crew to me (which I loved).
This is a read leaves you with more positive than negative emotions, while âŠ
The basic storyline of this book is nothing entirely out of the ordinary: Space crew gets dangerous but lucrative job offer, travels to their destinations, stuff happens there and along the way. You can take the title literally: it's a long way but only a small planet (episode).
I liked the world building, but especially the way the protagonists interact with each other. It's a story that is, for once, not driven by toxic behavior and the inability to communicate, but instead based on empathy and mutual support. The characters belong to different alien and human races, they do sometimes face conflicts over their specific needs, but frequently try to find solutions that work for everyone. In some ways, it seemed like an enhanced and more diverse version of the "Firefly" crew to me (which I loved).
This is a read leaves you with more positive than negative emotions, while being interesting enough to always keep you engaged.
The basic storyline of this book is nothing entirely out of the ordinary: Space crew gets dangerous but lucrative job offer, travels to their destinations, stuff happens there and along the way. You can take the title literally: it's a long way but only a small planet (episode).
I liked the world building, but especially the way the protagonists interact with each other. It's a story that is, for once, not driven by toxic behavior and the inability to communicate, but instead based on empathy and mutual support. The characters belong to different alien and human races, they do sometimes face conflicts over their specific needs, but frequently try to find solutions that work for everyone. In some ways, it seemed like an enhanced and more diverse version of the "Firefly" crew to me (which I loved).
This is a read leaves you with more positive than negative emotions, while âŠ
The basic storyline of this book is nothing entirely out of the ordinary: Space crew gets dangerous but lucrative job offer, travels to their destinations, stuff happens there and along the way. You can take the title literally: it's a long way but only a small planet (episode).
I liked the world building, but especially the way the protagonists interact with each other. It's a story that is, for once, not driven by toxic behavior and the inability to communicate, but instead based on empathy and mutual support. The characters belong to different alien and human races, they do sometimes face conflicts over their specific needs, but frequently try to find solutions that work for everyone. In some ways, it seemed like an enhanced and more diverse version of the "Firefly" crew to me (which I loved).
This is a read leaves you with more positive than negative emotions, while being interesting enough to always keep you engaged.
Edit: I got a lovely brother who encouraged me to finish this book. Well, it was more of a "read this, I like it, so you need to like it, too. I know better" thing. And he was right, it got better after all. It still has no real plot, but the characters make up for it. I think that's the same for everyone who also loves firefly. There is no way to not like this crew. Some of the ideas were also real fun. And it's totally easy to read, you just flow over the pages. It's a feel good book, with some philosophical mark.
Not for me, dnf @ 33%
basically no plot and I felt i was reading about about Work or something, because all this non-violent communication kind of freaked me out. If I want to read a book about gender, race and culture i go âŠ
Edit: I got a lovely brother who encouraged me to finish this book. Well, it was more of a "read this, I like it, so you need to like it, too. I know better" thing. And he was right, it got better after all. It still has no real plot, but the characters make up for it. I think that's the same for everyone who also loves firefly. There is no way to not like this crew. Some of the ideas were also real fun. And it's totally easy to read, you just flow over the pages. It's a feel good book, with some philosophical mark.
Not for me, dnf @ 33%
basically no plot and I felt i was reading about about Work or something, because all this non-violent communication kind of freaked me out. If I want to read a book about gender, race and culture i go and get myself a scientific book about it, which gives me best practice examples for the real world that i can incorporate into my work, not a scifi utopia novel. Political correctness doesn't make a good book, if it is not shown how people overcome conflicts and difficulties.
But if you are totally into this political correctness thing, and you have read like the 100 Book were it's done wrong, you might like The long way to a small angry planet.
Full of humour, friendship, wonder and joy. So refreshing.
This was strangely engaging. Reminded me of a modern James White in the liberalism of form (see Sector General), an idealised, multispecies Roddenberry of alyaunte cohesion. Fascinating that Humans weren't any more centric than anyone else, that really worked well. An author worth keeping an eye on for certain, one of those books where, even though action scenes clearly aren't the idea, the progression of the story comes through loud and clear.
