The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a speculative fiction book about Rosemary Harper, a young woman who wants to leave her past behind by joining the crew of the Wayfarer. The ageing ship is host to a rag-tag bunch of misfits and together they travel to the farthest corners of the galaxy.
I first read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet while recovering from the flu. Filled with that dreary cynicism that only a long illness will give you (“I will never feel better again”/”Dry Toast and Lucozade is my life now”) somehow my mood started to lift with the turn of each page. I found myself falling in love with this wholesome science-fiction novel, its diverse cast of characters and their developing relationships.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a powerful book. Not quite powerful enough to cure the flu (I unfortunately had to wait out my illness, but in Becky Chambers’ defence she never claimed her debut novel had medicinal properties) but it is powerful antidote for dark times. Whether you’re a science-fiction beginner or a science-fiction buff, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has something for you. It’s a good book, about (mostly) good people who manage, even with setbacks, to do good things.
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