The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Challenge #24 ~ “A book with an emotion in the title.”

longwaytoasmallangryplanet

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

I was so hoping this would turn out to be a five-star read – I was particularly excited going into it – but sadly a lack of real action and a couple of slow patches lost it a star. Nevertheless, the characters were an incredible, fun, diverse and lovable bunch, and the world-building was out of this world. Such connection was created, even with the side characters, that I’m interested to see where the rest of the series goes (given that it’s not focusing on the main characters from book one…)

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

Weren’t these characters just incredible? Chambers’ world-building goes above and beyond in this to really create a unique, personal take on the world outside Earth. Plus, things aren’t too human-centric, which is a total win. We get things that can’t be described in other languages, we get different social customs and habits, we get different understandings of the same thing and different preferences towards certain things. We even appreciate that not all language is spoken! Essentially, if you’re looking for a more extraterrestrial feeling space story, this may be worth a try.

A warning for the book:

The thing I found hardest about this book was the lack of action in the plot. Yes, they went on a trip, yes, some dangerous things happened, but it was all a bit low key. I was also totally ready for Rosemary’s big reveal, but even that turned out to be lacklustre (and hopes of a sudden secret secondary surprise are snuffed when I discovered the sequel is focused on a different collection of characters!) Maybe I’m just used to YA, and maybe this is a more realistic depiction of an outerspace adventure, but don’t be prepared for some edge-of-your-seat suspense or adrenaline kicks in this one.

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