Wednesday, August 15, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers




  Record of a Spaceborn Few is the third novel in Becky Chambers' SciFi Universe that began with A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (also known as the "Wayfarer" series).  The prior two books in the universe, ALWtaSAP and A Closed and Common Orbit were absolutely terrific books (the first book has one of my favorite chapters ever) filled with amazing characters and very little in way of plot, and this book continues that tradition.  Note that despite being the third book set in this universe, do note, that this book is entirely stand-alone and can be read by a new reader to this universe without any problems whatsoever - the events of the first book come up in very very mild passing, and outside knowledge will add no significance to this story.

  In fact, Record of a Spaceborn Few has the least semblance of an overarching plot of the entire series, with the book essentially featuring the lives of five characters in a setting that can best be described as a socialist SciFi setting (in space of course) that has been forced to change after interactions with capitalist intergalactic society (and other races of course).  It features very little species other than humans - unlike the prior books - and can sometimes be a little preachy.  And yet it is absolutely fantastic - with each character's experiences in this setting being very different, and yet feeling very real and interesting to read about as they wind up ending in very different places.  If you want to read a book that is a masterclass in terms of creating a different and interesting cast of characters, a Becky Chambers book will easily fit the bill, and this book does so as much if not more than her prior two stories.

------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
The Exodus Fleet is a strange place for the denizens of the galaxy to understand.  A fleet of ships built from the remains of Earths' cities as the planet's remaining people fled the dying planet, it now has a permanent home around a distant star.  Moreover, humanity has been accepted into the Galactic Commons (the "GC") as a full member, so it's not like the human race needs to still be onboard ships on an exodus from their homeworld.  But for some reason, the fleet remains populated by the human people, who go on living in their idealized society where everyone is given what it takes to live and is provided with a job and shelter, and where the question asked of its populace is not "how will I find work in order to support my life" but "how will I work to support the lives of everyone else."

Yet things are not so static within the fleet, and contact with the GC has left many of its residents feeling unsatisfied and wanting more...and perhaps leaving the fleet.  This situation doesn't put the fleet on any sort of real precipice, but still affects the lives of its residents, such as:

Eyas, a caretaker for the dead who wants something of her life other than her job, despite the job being everything she hoped for;
Isabel, an old woman who is an archivist for the memories of the fleet's past and hopes to keep the memory alive;
Tessa, a woman who fears for what she will do when galactic technology removes the need for her chosen job and frets over the fears of her kids;
Kip, a teenager unsatisfied with life on the fleet and feels there must be more out there.

What is there for these people in a fleet whose final goal seems already to have been achieved?

And then there are the people like Sawyer, a human who returns to the fleet which his ancestors left generations back, in search of the idealized society he misses on the other planets, and finds a new situation strange and unfamiliar.  Is there a place for him in the fleet as well?
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One of the more impressive feats of Record of a Spaceborn Few is that not only is there really not a single overarching plot, but that Chambers never feels the need to have the five point of view characters' stories intersect.  Indeed, one of the five protagonist only ever meets one of the other four in a quick cameo that has no significance whatsoever toward her plot.  This doesn't, of course, mean that the characters' actions don't indirectly affect the others (one character's storyline causes a major Event that has implications for the entire fleet and affects everyone else with the ramifications), but to a large extent, each of the five characters' storylines are truly their own and the endings they each come to are often very different, yet feel incredibly natural in doing so.

And again, each of the five characters is strong in their own way, and their stories vary quite a bit, but in ways that surprised and delighted me as I read them.  Eyas seems to have her dream job from the start but feels lacking, and how she finds something to complement that goes in a direction I was very surprised by.  Tessa's struggle to try and be a good mother to a young girl who is finding more and more reason to be afraid in a place designed to be utterly safe is incredibly relatable and again goes in a direction I would not have anticipated (Tessa's husband does not get much page time and yet he is easily one of the sweetest significant others you'll ever read).  Isabel's plot about the importance of memory and entitlement to the commons is probably the most preachy, but it still works.  And then there's Kip, who channels the feeling of a typical teenager just in this future setting as he awkwardly and uncomfortably struggles to find something that will provide him with purpose or meaning.

Sawyer's probably the weakest link of the five - he's incredibly naive and the reader - or at least I - will want to yell at him quite often for not seeing things coming that should have been obvious.  But at the same time, it all makes sense and the book makes a strong case for why people like him would be coming to the fleet and why they would be taken advantage of like he is in this story.  If he's the weak link of the characters, that's a pretty strong set of characters.

If there's any other complaint, I might have with this book, and they are very very minor, it's that the Event causes two of the characters' storylines to shift in a way where, while you can see the seeds of those shifts coming from earlier in their storylines, they wind up going in directions I didn't quite feel they were going beforehand and I was interested in those prior directions.  They still work, and it's not like the prior direction - emotionally or mechanically - is cast aside, they are built upon just refocused in a different way after the Event. I kind of wish one of those characters in particular had had a longer time for their storyline to breathe before the Event to see where she was going.  But this is a minor complaint at best, and is really me wanting more, sooo yeah.  And I suspect some readers will find Isabel's story arc and some of the other parts to be rather preachy, as this book is a lot more willing to preach the author's ideals than the prior two, but for me it really worked.

Long Story Short: Yeah, I strongly recommend this book, even if you haven't read the prior two books.  Because unless you read those books and didn't like them, this book is a perfect example of where emphasizing character over plot can be incredibly rewarding when done well.
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