And sometimes fear is good. Fear keeps you alive. But it can also keep you from what you really want."

Can I use it for Bingo? It headlines the LGBTQIA List and is a Book Club book where Family Matters. It’s also hard mode for Non-Human Protagonist and Mental Health. Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos - one often mentioned, but not yet explored - in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative adventure. The actual story is about who these individuals are, where they’ve been and where they want to go from here. Speaker was our first close view of the Akarak. Coming from a people who are not only refugees following a history of galactic slavery, but also considered outsiders by others, requiring mechs to move around; even Speaker’s name and job relates to her role as the one who interacts with other races. Chambers did a fantastic job of showing the feelings of being an outsider. Indeed, I suspect many reviewers have instantly labelled speaker and the Akarak as a direct allegory for their favourite minority, (and certainly some of her experiences, putting on a front for others, putting others at ease, or feeling a sense of actual amazement at even minimal acceptance, not to mention having most communal environments and technology simply not made for her), are ones I recognise myself as a disabled person. However, here it's Speaker's interactions with others, showing the exploration of a common humanity, occasional conflicts, and indeed others' acceptance of Speaker despite her differences, rather than any clumsy attempts at allegory which made her sections some of the most touching. 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.You had to pause in the face of reflex, ask yourself if the narrative you attached to the knee-jerk was accurate. Once she’d grasped this, she could never again see life as a static thing, something with one immutable definition. The universe was not an object. It was a beam of light, and the colours that it split into changed depending on whose eyes were doing the looking. Nothing could be taken at face value. Everything had hidden facets, hidden depths that could be interpreted a thousand ways – or misinterpreted in the same manner. Reflexes kept a person safe, but they could also make you stupid.” While the humanity of her aliens wouldn't usually be as much of an issue, (especially with how good the characters are), it highlights the book’s really major problem: That it is extremely opinionated! Though Chambers makes all her characters very likable, the same cannot be said for the races they come from. Roveg might be a kind and generous person, but we are told in no uncertain terms that the Quelin are a race who succumbed to "scapegoating", and "fear of the other", and "desire to maintain tradition." Indeed for a writer who bangs so heavily on the "your body is yours" drum as Chambers, the fact that one of the Quelin traditions involves painful branding of their chitinous shells, they might as well be waving a flag saying "eeeeeevil”. Not that I've got anything against evil aliens, but it was a bit too obvious that you could almost search and replace "Quelin" with "white male", or "western culture". Of course, Roveg is far from a stereotypically nasty Quelin, however, he's also been exiled from his home, race, family and culture for daring to speak out of turn. The story is slow and consists of these characters bonding and widening their mindsets. Explorations of serious and potentially topical issues, such as reproductive rights, are approached with simplicity ("Because I didn't want to. And when it comes to a person's body, that is all the reason there ever needs to be,"). Similarly, the whole Pei/Speaker confrontation results in both making 'valid' points. Pei, an Aeluon, is a cargo runner on her way to meet her secret lover Ashby, the human captain of the Wayfarer from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

I also liked the setting in which the topics where explored. I mean, what do you do if you can’t just walk away? If you can’t just call emergency services in case of an actual emergency? When you’re stranded and shut in? While it’s likely Chambers started this book before the events that were 2020, a post-pandemic (well, almost post, hopefully) reading can’t help but resonate with our own unexpected pause, how an unplanned and undesired halt to where we think we’re going can change things irrevocably. Again, a commonly seen sci-fi trope is described from a new, fascinating perspective of which no other author had the ingenuity to see the potential. Ouloo - Ouloo is the owner of the one stop five hop, a sort of resort for travellers to take a rest on their way to where they are going next, whilst waiting for their turn in the wormhole gate crew. Ouloo is mother to Tupo and is very passionate about making her guests feel welcome and accepted. Roveg was possibly my favourite character. Initially appealing as an indolent; and indeed quite wealthy artist, Chambers first played on his feverish anxiety to finish his journey, an anxiety which elicited our sympathy. Then, when we really started seeing him interact with others, he proved possibly the kindest and most understanding of the group, especially with Speaker and Tupo.Even more than Chambers misplaced axe grinding, the really major problem with Pei's plot is its conflict. Pei could go off and have a child, spend a few week’s vacation being pampered and having astonishing sex with lots of males, and then only interact with that child as much as she wants. Though Chambers vaguely talks about the "cultural expectation", that Aeluon females should have children, we never get any idea what these cultural expectations are, no mention of what her family or friends might think, or even the consideration that since Aeluon females are rarely fertile, the decision of whether to have a child is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. Set against this is Pei's feeling that "she doesn't want to." We are not told why Pei doesn't want to, indeed Pei doesn't even examine this feeling herself, whether it relates to Ashby; even though both Pei and we know that Ashby would be quite understanding, whether it relates to not wanting to have sex with other males, whether it relates to taking time out of her career, both we, and seemingly Pei, don't know, Pei simply doesn't feel like it. The conflict is swept aside when Speaker mentions to Pei that she could have some of her paralysed legs fixed but she just "doesn't want to", (a depiction of disability so problematic I don't know where to start). A good book, but not a gripping one. At the moment, I'm giving it a 3.5 star rating, and wobbling between rounding up or down. Not her best work, and I wouldn't start here -- though it is a standalone. Another of her trademark "found family" stories, this one recycles old stories of travelers stranded in a temporary refuge, while a natural disaster is sorted out. As you will see, there is a large range of reactions to the book. But the average rating for all readers is a solid, near-masterpiece 4.5 stars. I'm definitely not going that high! I'm sure that Chamers aficionados will be able to love this in a way that I wasn't but if I had to be completely honest with myself, reading it felt like a waste of my time. STEM writers. They´re great, but have created a kind of monoculture where other cultures and especially the feminine perspective are completely underrepresented, just as in real life. Just because they aren’t human, however, doesn’t mean that the struggles the characters go through don’t resonate with humanity’s own societal faults. Speaker’s species, for example, was historically enslaved, and even now that they are “liberated,” they’ve been shunned by the rest of the GC. Other sapients generally view Akaraks with suspicion, and the group on Gora didn’t consider Akaraks at all, much less how they are treated. Sound familiar?

Windup book for the series, which was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Series. An award that I never knew existed, until now. It’s natural for those in the GC—just like it’s natural for us humans on Earth—to get lost in the day-to-day of one’s own life and the immediate stressors and concerns that go with it. And it’s equally jarring—as the year that was 2020 has shown all of us—when the routine and freedoms we took for granted get upended. What a beautiful, lovely read this one was. A fantastic way to say goodbye to a fantastic series that will always have a special place in my heart. Even though The Galaxy, and the Ground Within only took place in one (1) location, many fascinating insights were given about other species, other cultures, other planets, other histories. There were also interesting observations and comments on war, political issues, colonization, and respect of human (or alien) rights. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Develop

So. On a paragraph-by-paragraph level, it's very good. Just not very... gripping. Well, a good deal of Vance's work isn't particularly gripping, either. Overall, I'm rating this one at 3.5 stars, and rounding down because its narrative thrust is so weak. YMMV, and others liked it more, or less. If you've liked previous Chambers books, give it a try. Almost certainly your library will have a copy. Similarly, it seemed weird to me that all of the characters' thoughts and felt in similar way (even if Aeluons express themselves through the colors in their cheeks). Why do they all feel the same type of emotions? That they all spoke as if they were therapists made them blur together in spite of their alleged differences. Roveg is a Quelin, an insectile race that is fairly insular and not especially friendly to the other member species of the GC. Roveg himself, however, is an exile — forced to live offworld and forbidden to return due to his prior expression of non-traditional viewpoints. Roveg has a very important appointment to keep, an appointment that he absolutely cannot miss.

In contrast to older social sci-fi that sometimes had a lecturing and biased undertone that lead to less identification with the characters, Chambers uses permanent character povs to construct intensive, credible, and deep pictures of future worlds, adding much philosophy, social criticism, and depth in the best way possible. By integrating it into the main red plotline, character motivations, and fractions ideological goals, letting it explode in mostly nonviolent, still very thrilling ways that leave the reader with thoughts about many important issues, Chambers shows how social sci-fi can flex its muscles and own the genre with innovative, progressive ideas. Pei is in a relationship with Ashby, the Human captain from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which they have to keep a secret because Aeluons have a strong taboo against interspecies romance. Pei’s internal struggle between not wanting to keep this secret any longer but also not wanting to damage her career by telling everyone the truth was very similar to the internal struggle I went through when I was in the closet. Not for the first time reading one of Chambers’ books, I felt seen. My library ebook copy lets me copy snippets for quotes. So here's Ouloo, a Laru (you can tell from the vowel-heavy name), manager of Gora's Five-Hop One-Stop, trying to get ready for a day at work. There are complications: Okay, this is a cute dance you learn as a kid. It’s called . . .’ She paused. There was no translating this. She thought for a moment, then gave up and pointed at her cheeks as she flashed the name of the dance. ‘That. It’s called that.’

Fantasy Series We Recommend

Having a child is a major life decision, for an Aeluon even more so, and one rife with the potential for writing drama and character conflict, especially when Pei seeks advice or needs to analyse her own feelings and why she might have them. We’re on the planet Gora, a barren world known only because it happens to be situated closely to more popular worlds, making it the perfect stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep this series’ galaxy connected. When a freak technological failure halts traffic to and from the planet Gora, three strangers are thrown together unexpectedly, with seemingly nothing to do but wait. Roveg, a Quelin, is an exiled artist on his way to see his children for the first time in many years.