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Wayfarers #1-3
Wayfarers Series
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The ship, which has seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants.
A Closed and Common Orbit
Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in a new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has to start over, in a world where her kind are illegal. She's never felt so alone. But she's not alone, not really. Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over.
Record of a Spaceborn Few
Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.
When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The ship, which has seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants.
A Closed and Common Orbit
Lovelace was once merely a ship's artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in a new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has to start over, in a world where her kind are illegal. She's never felt so alone. But she's not alone, not really. Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over.
Record of a Spaceborn Few
Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.
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First published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
August 11, 2023
Deeply conflicted.
This series has a depth of emotional and social intelligence and empathy that is inspiring, moving, genuinely brilliant, that really transformed SciFi. Little plot, but really excellent character development and relations.
It is also feel-good and cute and comforting, I genuinely like reading it, and many of us really need feel-good books nowadays. It reminds me to be a kind person.
But what keeps having me stumble is the fact that on a hard science basis, it fails really badly. One recurring theme in this series is that the ships are powered by algae fuel (what energy grows the algae? Starlight, even in the most far out reaches of the gallery? Why would that power source suffice to power interstellar travel? And if it did, why would you run it through algae first, not use starlight directly? Are you telling me they are burning wet algae?), or are perpetual energy machines (seriously, every book, and explained literally! How are editors not catching this? You cannot harvest energy from your own movement sourced from exclusively your own energy. That is just not how it works.), and that "turning off gravity" (?!?) somehow also cancels momentum (those children can yell "falling" all they like, gravity or no, after hitting terminal velocity, they will still hit the ground or ceiling with a splat). The superluminal travel makes no sense as presented. The economic system makes no sense.
I think there is a valuable place for SciFi that focusses on how society develops under different conditions, on relationships with alien minds. I understand that not everyone can be good at physics or technology. I value, very very much, the skills the author has got. The diversity. The balanced viewpoints. The coping strategies and acts of kindness.
But I would really prefer if she accordingly either skipped the science bits, or consulted a scientist on them.
E.g. Ancillary justice, one of my favourite series of all time, another female SciFi author, essentially skips all the physics and technology. But she finds a good in universe explanation for why the characters do not know how it works, and focusses on the stuff she is excellent at, and it works brilliantly - gender, oppression, rights, colonialism - she sticks to what she can do, and that is bloody awesome.
And then, there are other books, like Ancestral night, also a female SciFi author, that have the character driven emotionally insightful story that Chambers so excels at, but that also put serious research into getting the hard science right, in a way that is a delight to read, from emerging ships out of superluminal travel being particle cannons, to how confused researchers are still about gravity, to sensible spaceship design, to time lag when communicating with large minds.
But it really has to be one of the two, do it right, or don't do it. Adding explicit science and technology, but doing so in a way that is plainly illogical, is a painful distraction that confirms sexist stereotypes on female SciFi writers.
I do want to repeat that these books have other strengths that are outstanding. That I learned a lot, was moved to tears and laughter, have quoted these books, been inspired by them, reread them, that there is so much in here that is unique and wonderful, and does not need the hard science to work. There is no obligation for it just because it is common.
I think just deleting the hard science parts in future editions would massively improve the book. It is okay if the author can't write them - she can, on the other hand, write emotional depth that clearly and beautifully, in a way a lot of male authors could not write. (Looking at you, Alastair Reynolds). I value these equally. Either can stand on their own, I think.
But I would rather have no explanation than Kitty's faulty one, rather a handwavy magic fuel than algae, nothing explained on propulsion rather than perpetual energy machines. This stuff isn't necessary, and detracts from the wonder of the book.
(Imagine a male hard SciFi author who wrote absolutely brilliant scifi on the technological and physical parts, but also kept adding long sequences where people explain that they have treated their depression through the magic of pulling themselves together, treated their disability through the magic of yoga, dealt with jealousy by suppressing it and with anger by unleashing it on weaker people, so that they are now perfectly mentally stable, physically healthy and social, and had all the other characters go, unironically, wow, that makes sense, this strikes me as ideal and like it would totally work. - This is how I feel every time a Chambers character explains how their ship is a perpetual energy machine and everyone around them nods.)
It is still a wonderful series. It honestly speaks to how good the other parts are that I reread and recommend it despite the fact that the scientist in me is infuriated. I think if the science parts were just deleted, it would be one of my favourite series. It does not need more. It is an incredible achievement. It stands in its own right as a new way of doing SciFi. All it needs is to let go of a convention that does not apply.
This series has a depth of emotional and social intelligence and empathy that is inspiring, moving, genuinely brilliant, that really transformed SciFi. Little plot, but really excellent character development and relations.
It is also feel-good and cute and comforting, I genuinely like reading it, and many of us really need feel-good books nowadays. It reminds me to be a kind person.
But what keeps having me stumble is the fact that on a hard science basis, it fails really badly. One recurring theme in this series is that the ships are powered by algae fuel (what energy grows the algae? Starlight, even in the most far out reaches of the gallery? Why would that power source suffice to power interstellar travel? And if it did, why would you run it through algae first, not use starlight directly? Are you telling me they are burning wet algae?), or are perpetual energy machines (seriously, every book, and explained literally! How are editors not catching this? You cannot harvest energy from your own movement sourced from exclusively your own energy. That is just not how it works.), and that "turning off gravity" (?!?) somehow also cancels momentum (those children can yell "falling" all they like, gravity or no, after hitting terminal velocity, they will still hit the ground or ceiling with a splat). The superluminal travel makes no sense as presented. The economic system makes no sense.
I think there is a valuable place for SciFi that focusses on how society develops under different conditions, on relationships with alien minds. I understand that not everyone can be good at physics or technology. I value, very very much, the skills the author has got. The diversity. The balanced viewpoints. The coping strategies and acts of kindness.
But I would really prefer if she accordingly either skipped the science bits, or consulted a scientist on them.
E.g. Ancillary justice, one of my favourite series of all time, another female SciFi author, essentially skips all the physics and technology. But she finds a good in universe explanation for why the characters do not know how it works, and focusses on the stuff she is excellent at, and it works brilliantly - gender, oppression, rights, colonialism - she sticks to what she can do, and that is bloody awesome.
And then, there are other books, like Ancestral night, also a female SciFi author, that have the character driven emotionally insightful story that Chambers so excels at, but that also put serious research into getting the hard science right, in a way that is a delight to read, from emerging ships out of superluminal travel being particle cannons, to how confused researchers are still about gravity, to sensible spaceship design, to time lag when communicating with large minds.
But it really has to be one of the two, do it right, or don't do it. Adding explicit science and technology, but doing so in a way that is plainly illogical, is a painful distraction that confirms sexist stereotypes on female SciFi writers.
I do want to repeat that these books have other strengths that are outstanding. That I learned a lot, was moved to tears and laughter, have quoted these books, been inspired by them, reread them, that there is so much in here that is unique and wonderful, and does not need the hard science to work. There is no obligation for it just because it is common.
I think just deleting the hard science parts in future editions would massively improve the book. It is okay if the author can't write them - she can, on the other hand, write emotional depth that clearly and beautifully, in a way a lot of male authors could not write. (Looking at you, Alastair Reynolds). I value these equally. Either can stand on their own, I think.
But I would rather have no explanation than Kitty's faulty one, rather a handwavy magic fuel than algae, nothing explained on propulsion rather than perpetual energy machines. This stuff isn't necessary, and detracts from the wonder of the book.
(Imagine a male hard SciFi author who wrote absolutely brilliant scifi on the technological and physical parts, but also kept adding long sequences where people explain that they have treated their depression through the magic of pulling themselves together, treated their disability through the magic of yoga, dealt with jealousy by suppressing it and with anger by unleashing it on weaker people, so that they are now perfectly mentally stable, physically healthy and social, and had all the other characters go, unironically, wow, that makes sense, this strikes me as ideal and like it would totally work. - This is how I feel every time a Chambers character explains how their ship is a perpetual energy machine and everyone around them nods.)
It is still a wonderful series. It honestly speaks to how good the other parts are that I reread and recommend it despite the fact that the scientist in me is infuriated. I think if the science parts were just deleted, it would be one of my favourite series. It does not need more. It is an incredible achievement. It stands in its own right as a new way of doing SciFi. All it needs is to let go of a convention that does not apply.
September 21, 2021
This whole series is outstanding. If I had to do it again, I would read Record of the Spaceborn Few second instead of third. It would just be easier to recall connections. if I'd read those closer together.
August 26, 2020
Though I immensely enjoyed it, the first book in the series reminded me too much of the TV series, Firefly (which is not entirely a bad thing as I am huge fan of that show). However, the other books in the series expanded upon the Wayfarers universe, which focused upon other characters that were only mentioned in passing in the first book; this made the series much more pleasurable. Though there are many different alien species mentioned in the book, most of the books, especially the last two centered on the perspectives of the humans. So I look forward to other books in the series focusing on the other species as these characters were the more interesting to me, especially the Aeulons and Aandrisks.
August 9, 2024
(As there isn't an option on Goodreads to review the series as a whole, but only the first 3 books, that's what I'm reviewing here! Writing this before having read the 4th book.)
Absolutely amazing series. Such thoroughly thought-out species with their own very diverse and differently-functioning bodies, histories, cultural practices, mindsets, societies, conceptions of gender, conceptions of parenthood and child-rearing. I am genuinely mind-blown by the amount of thought and work put into fleshing this world out. By a very far margin the best and most detailed social sci fi I've ever read. This is especially clear in the first book, and the extent to which the background of other species and societies is built on in the following 2 books is well balanced. Fleshes out the world further in ways that tie well into the story without distracting from the central focus of each book.
Very, very cozy book. A tolerant and actively anti-prejudiced universe. It's a very detailed and believable world, but having it be one in which most citizens try to be good and try to be aware of their prejudices and not offend others was so heart-warming. Especially given just how different species are from each other in such a wide variety of ways that are actually delved into.
The main characters also feel quite real, and are fleshed out well. It's hard not to truly grow to care for the main characters, I'm talking for all 3 books as well!
Just an absolutely amazing series overall. My heart warms and I feel all hot-chocolate-cozy inside just thinking about it. :) And my partner cries any time Pepper from the second book is mentioned.
Absolutely amazing series. Such thoroughly thought-out species with their own very diverse and differently-functioning bodies, histories, cultural practices, mindsets, societies, conceptions of gender, conceptions of parenthood and child-rearing. I am genuinely mind-blown by the amount of thought and work put into fleshing this world out. By a very far margin the best and most detailed social sci fi I've ever read. This is especially clear in the first book, and the extent to which the background of other species and societies is built on in the following 2 books is well balanced. Fleshes out the world further in ways that tie well into the story without distracting from the central focus of each book.
Very, very cozy book. A tolerant and actively anti-prejudiced universe. It's a very detailed and believable world, but having it be one in which most citizens try to be good and try to be aware of their prejudices and not offend others was so heart-warming. Especially given just how different species are from each other in such a wide variety of ways that are actually delved into.
The main characters also feel quite real, and are fleshed out well. It's hard not to truly grow to care for the main characters, I'm talking for all 3 books as well!
Just an absolutely amazing series overall. My heart warms and I feel all hot-chocolate-cozy inside just thinking about it. :) And my partner cries any time Pepper from the second book is mentioned.
July 9, 2024
One of the best new series of the last few years that explores various topics not usually explored. Reading this is a way to naturally learn so many different perspectives of life in general through the lens of science fiction while subverting expectations of fans of the genre itself.
Highly recommended by me to everyone I know that loves to read. In my mind one of the most underrated series of the latest century. Each book confronting the narrative in different ways from different angles. It makes reading each story a breeze as you never get too comfortable at first with any character and by the end you feel you know each character. Each character teaching the reader about themselves in how they find themselves connecting to them.
I would highly recommend this series to non-science fiction readers as a good introduction and to fans of sci-fi as an introduction to a different kind of way to approach it as a genre.
Highly recommended by me to everyone I know that loves to read. In my mind one of the most underrated series of the latest century. Each book confronting the narrative in different ways from different angles. It makes reading each story a breeze as you never get too comfortable at first with any character and by the end you feel you know each character. Each character teaching the reader about themselves in how they find themselves connecting to them.
I would highly recommend this series to non-science fiction readers as a good introduction and to fans of sci-fi as an introduction to a different kind of way to approach it as a genre.
January 12, 2021
I really enjoyed listening to these books while cleaning and cooking during quarantine. The beginning is a little slow, as they introduce characters and set up the scene, but after unfolds this whole space crew and their lives and adventures. I don't wanna give spoilers because it truly is something that you just have to read to appreciate as much as I did. I will say that it is LGBT inclusive as well as exploring the future where it's possible to become so connected to an AI that you form an attachment to it and possibly even fall in love with it. But again, that's just one crewmember's story.
December 7, 2022
I didn't like this book as much as the other 2 in this series. I had trouble keeping track of all the characters. This book seemed to be about the consequences of trying to change one's life. It can be difficult and doesn't always work out. Or it can be exactly what's needed and the path chosen is the right one. Some folks don't need to change at all. And some folks just want to learn about what a different life might be like without actually committing to changing.
I'm still a Becky Chambers fan even though this book really didn't do much for me.
I'm still a Becky Chambers fan even though this book really didn't do much for me.
September 12, 2024
Read for a SFF book club.
Character-driven story of a space merchant crew (well, in the Traveller RPG they’d be merchants). Where a good many other stories or TV shows would have fights punctuating the action, these travellers deal with crises like normal people might.
Diverse, empathic and inclusive, with a range of truly alien aliens. Ultimately warm-hearted. And felt to me compared to things like Firefly and The Expanse like Patrick O’Brian compared to Hornblower.
Character-driven story of a space merchant crew (well, in the Traveller RPG they’d be merchants). Where a good many other stories or TV shows would have fights punctuating the action, these travellers deal with crises like normal people might.
Diverse, empathic and inclusive, with a range of truly alien aliens. Ultimately warm-hearted. And felt to me compared to things like Firefly and The Expanse like Patrick O’Brian compared to Hornblower.
August 4, 2025
I loved loved loved this book. 95% of Characters were well written and fleshed out. interesting world building and species, but still with regular problems. Not to scientific that the worldbuilding would put you to sleep. Just enough to be the setting. Think Star Wars in terms of how important the space theme really is. This could have been set anywhere else and still been a good character driven story.
June 20, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It was so imaginative in the world that created and the beings that inhabit it. Each book is unique inhabiting the same imaginative universe but in distinctly different places. The characters come in as cameos in the other books which I found particularly interesting.
February 15, 2023
I loved the Wayfarers Series. These four novels about aliens & friendships gave me a new perspective and a hope that life will get better.
Check out my full review at https://mainlyfantasy.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/wayfayers-series-becky-chambers/
Check out my full review at https://mainlyfantasy.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/wayfayers-series-becky-chambers/
April 11, 2024
Full reviews in links below.
The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Closed and Common Orbit ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Record of a Spaceborn Few ⭐⭐⭐
The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Closed and Common Orbit ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Record of a Spaceborn Few ⭐⭐⭐
October 10, 2024
It takes a lot for me to give a book 5 Stars, read it 5+ times in 2 years and recommend it to everyone I know. I love this series like a friend.
The world building, the characters, the found family, the social and political commentary, all packed into exciting feel good stories that will make your heart swell.
Read it and tell me which species you identify with the most!
The world building, the characters, the found family, the social and political commentary, all packed into exciting feel good stories that will make your heart swell.
Read it and tell me which species you identify with the most!
December 21, 2022
9/10. These books are mostly slice-of-life stories set in a spacefaring society in the future. All of the books are loosely connected to each other yet follow their own stories. The second book in particular was absolutely amazing.
July 23, 2023
Chambers creates a richly diverse universe filled with compelling characters. This space opera explores friendship and acceptance in a captivating way. I appreciated the way the story laid itself out, and how intricate the plot was. Would strongly recommend to anyone looking for a wonderful series.
August 24, 2024
I read the first book in this trilogy. Wonderful characters, interesting and novel ideas about life forms and interactions. Uplifting!
I hear the second book in the series is even better, so I would like to read that.
I hear the second book in the series is even better, so I would like to read that.
January 1, 2025
Loved all of these. Becky Chambers has made such an interesting universe to explore and does a great job making it about the characters and stories and not about one-sided cultures or blasters going off.
June 13, 2021
Marvelous!
Read
August 8, 2022Amazing series, the atmosphere and characters are amazing. Highly recommend!
Want to read
December 1, 2022Bom mais tem muitos coisas genérico
June 8, 2023
Each book has a different reflection on societal issues. Best SF I have read in years.
Read
April 6, 2024I read #1 and #4. Don't think I read 2 and 3.
September 21, 2024
Why did I not hear about this book before?
November 25, 2024
Seriously one of the best books I've every read. Charter and relationally driven against an intriguing and intense backdrop.
January 7, 2025
Loved this series
February 22, 2025
Amazing series, easy to read, relatable characters, thoroughly enjoyable experience. Couldn't put the books down!
March 2, 2025
I love the exploration of new worlds and new cultures. I really love every inch of this series.
February 13, 2020
I started reading this a week ago and immediately realised I had read it already, a year ago. I remember it was a great story, so I think I need to look at the next book instead,
July 30, 2024
This is my favorite book series. I love the world building, i love the characters, I love the way the reader gets dipped into this incredibly wast galaxy of people, their lives, and the things they struggle with. This was a fantastic read.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews