I had done a very short review for The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in a catch-up round a while back. So I don’t really want to redo it here, even though there’s a lot I could say about it. Mostly I will say that I loved it and that it had spicy, diverse characters. The characters were the primary drivers of the story more than the plot, though that was ridiculously fun as well. I love the trope of Found Family and Chambers created a beautiful one on the Wayfarer. I give it 4.5/5 stars

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Moving on. A Closed and Common Orbit is, I think, my favorite in the series. As fun as TLWtaSAP was, this one sat me down and fed me a delicious story of self-discovery AND a character backstory. I do love a good backstory. I like seeing how all the stories and characters are intertwining across these books. Pepper was a minor character in a couple scenes in the first book, and now she has a whole book of her own, along with Lovey, the Wayfarer’s AI. Other characters that got a small mention elsewhere show up as well. I love that kind of world-building. Very meta. 

I also loved this story because it was fun to get to know one specific setting well. The primary story was set in Port Coriol, and the descriptions of that city were vivid and tangible. It was a vibrant city and Pepper’s little neighborhood, Six Top, felt like a place I would love to stay. 

5/5 stars

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Record of a Spaceborn Few covers the Human fleet, called the Exodans. They are the remnants of the people who left Earth and who decided to remain in space rather than settling on a planet. As with the other books in the series, there are references to other characters from previous books. One of the POV characters in this is Ashby’s sister. Ashby, for those who may have forgotten, is the captain of the Wayfarer. It was fun to get “updates” about Ashby by way of a random comment here and there, a reminder of what the Wayfarer crew was up to at the same time the events in the Fleet were unfolding. 

This one focused on the ways we come to discover Home, and what that means to each of us. We saw this exploration through the eyes of several Humans, some who were Exodan and some who grew up on a planet. Some wanted out of the Fleet, some wanted back in, and others weren’t sure where they belonged. Chambers teased out the threads of their stories and wove them together to create a lovely, rich story.

3/5 stars

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The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. Yes, yes, it was chock full of complex characters and a little bit of splody space excitement and getting to know people and their various cultures. I dig all of that, don’t get me wrong. But! Did you know there is a whole scene dedicated to cheese? And how revolting it really is when you stop to think about it? And how, despite that, humans are “all so fucking bonkers for cheese that they’ll ingest a dose of the enzymes [needed to digest cheese] beforehand so that they can eat it.” I feel so seen.

As with the other three books in the series, this one was full of deep characters, lots of self-discovery, and growth. Also as with the rest of this series, it really isn’t an action-packed, standard space adventure kind of story. All of the books in this series are more like examples of kishotenketsu, where there isn’t a traditional hero or call to action or conflict. The characters interact and learn about each other and through them, their own biases and blind spots. Some of them try to figure out what they can do about those to do better. Their circumstances made them think introspectively, and I think it should do the same for any reader as well.

4/5 stars

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Overall, this entire series is the sort of generally happy, hopeful sci-fi I love. It’s reminiscent, in that way, of the original series Star Trek. I think we need more of the fun, optimistic, cozy kind of sci-fi and less of the dystopian, doom and gloom, we’re all going to die screaming kind. We already know we’re going to die screaming. I, for one, would like not to have to think about it for a minute. The Wayfarers series is the thing you are looking for to help distract you from…everything.