A Closed and Common Orbit is the second book in Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series. I absolutely loved the first book (A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), but I was lukewarm about its sequel.

This book follows technician Pepper, and an AI unit from the Wayfarer ship whose name is Sidra. The book goes back and forth in time: in one chapter we are reading about Pepper (then known as Jane) from her tenth year to her nineteenth, and in the next chapter we follow Sidra as she struggles to get used to her human-like appearance and to understand how life and social interaction works in Port Coriol. The changes of time and character are well-marked and caused me no confusion.

The first half, approximately, of the book was really absorbing and fun. I don't know when it stopped being enjoyable and turned into just a random book I was reading. I do know that I was dissatisfied with the ending of the book, and with some of the decisions that the characters made in the chapters leading up to the finale. I thought that the characters acted in ways that would not be typical for them, and although their choices could be construed as bravery, I saw it as an attempt to find roles for all the main characters in the denoument. I had to read the last two chapters two times apiece to try to sort out what the various parties were doing.

Reading the book wasn't a waste of my time, and I am curious to find out where Chambers goes next in her writing. There is a sequel available, which I plan to read. I hope it is more satisfying than this installment was. ( )

An "equel" (not prequel or sequel) to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Focuses on a secondary character that makes a brief appearance in the first book and none of the main characters.

This is a quiet, well-written novel tracking the earlier lives of two characters (in flashback) after they have met. It is one of the better books I have read that models how we would navigate tolerance of/coexistence with other (alien) races. Doesn't delve much into what it means to be "a person" as I would have expected. ( )

Quizá no es el genero que gustará a todo el mundo, menos aún si buscas Hard Sci-Fi, pero los personajes y el universo que crea Becky Chambers con su escritura son especiales.

Aún echando de menos a la tripulación de la Peregrina, y con unos primeros capitulos algo irregulares, esta secuela de The Long Way... mantiene el nivel y el tipo. Sigue siendo un abrazo cálido, llegando a robarme más de una lagrima. Un libro a devorar (aún empezado en Septiembre lo deje apartado hasta hace una semana cuando me lo he leído del tirón).

Definitivamente Chambers se esta convirtiendo en una de mis autoras favoritas 💜 ( )

Listen. People have been telling me I would love Becky Chambers for 800 years and I don't know why I waited so long. Part of it is the series thing. There are 87 books and I have commitment issues. But when I finally read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I loved it as predicted, so I have kept an eye for picking up the rest of the series one book at a time.

I LOVED BOTH PEPPER AND SIDRA SO, SO MUCH. I am putting together this whole 17,000 word essay in my brain on why I love this and would call it cozy-adjacent while Legends & Lattes, which is objectively more cozy had me grinding my teeth and struggling to finish the book, but it is far too long to include here. (Basically, it has to do with how the books respond to injustice, or what I perceive as injustice.)

ANYWAY, this is basically about two girls who have to learn how to be people for different reasons and in different ways. ( )

A solid addition to the Wayfarers series! Although I definitely liked the first book better, primarily because it had more space action, Chambers never fails to impress me with the characters and species she comes up with. They're so engaging and well fleshed-out that it makes her stories even more enjoyable. ( )