A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers
Becky Chambers is the author of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and I was expecting this to be a traditional sequel to that wonderful sci fi novel. It isn't, not quite, but is instead something else pretty wonderful all on its own.
SPOILERS TO THE FIRST BOOK BELOW THIS LINE
We left our intrepid crew at an emotional low point: Lovey, the ship's AI, with whom Jenks was in love, suffered irreparable damage and has set herself back to default. Jenks is heartbroken and the rest of the crew are in shock. Enter Pepper. We met Pepper briefly in the first book; she's a wiz at fixing tech, and physically notable for her lack of hair and skeletal-like physique - a shocking origin is hinted at. The AI Lovelace, sensing how much pain her hard reboot has caused her crew, decides to let Pepper take her out of the ship and install her into an extremely realistic Human body. This is strictly illegal, and most people of all species do not consider AI's to be people. This novel, which alternates between Sidra (the name Lovelace chooses for her new iteration) and Pepper twenty years in the past, seeks to explore the definition of personhood.
I'll be honest, I cried a couple of times reading this book. Though it's a very different book from the first, Chambers does what she does best: thinking things through to their logical conclusion in a smart way without being obtuse or unnecessarily intricate, pointing out the ways in which people of all types are like each other, and stimulating the reader to empathy for these characters. Though they may seem like such different people, they are all on the same path, really, as are we all.
Again, I have to question the copy editing (last time it was a problem with "some time" being used in place of the word "sometime"), because twice I noticed that the phrase "for ever" was used in place of "forever." ...why, guys. Just...why? Or is this some sort of weird Easter egg, having to do with expressions of inexact time periods? Is the next book going to switch "always" to "all ways?" I'm very confused by this. But look forward to reading the next installment, nevertheless.
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SPOILERS TO THE FIRST BOOK BELOW THIS LINE
We left our intrepid crew at an emotional low point: Lovey, the ship's AI, with whom Jenks was in love, suffered irreparable damage and has set herself back to default. Jenks is heartbroken and the rest of the crew are in shock. Enter Pepper. We met Pepper briefly in the first book; she's a wiz at fixing tech, and physically notable for her lack of hair and skeletal-like physique - a shocking origin is hinted at. The AI Lovelace, sensing how much pain her hard reboot has caused her crew, decides to let Pepper take her out of the ship and install her into an extremely realistic Human body. This is strictly illegal, and most people of all species do not consider AI's to be people. This novel, which alternates between Sidra (the name Lovelace chooses for her new iteration) and Pepper twenty years in the past, seeks to explore the definition of personhood.
I'll be honest, I cried a couple of times reading this book. Though it's a very different book from the first, Chambers does what she does best: thinking things through to their logical conclusion in a smart way without being obtuse or unnecessarily intricate, pointing out the ways in which people of all types are like each other, and stimulating the reader to empathy for these characters. Though they may seem like such different people, they are all on the same path, really, as are we all.
Again, I have to question the copy editing (last time it was a problem with "some time" being used in place of the word "sometime"), because twice I noticed that the phrase "for ever" was used in place of "forever." ...why, guys. Just...why? Or is this some sort of weird Easter egg, having to do with expressions of inexact time periods? Is the next book going to switch "always" to "all ways?" I'm very confused by this. But look forward to reading the next installment, nevertheless.
Shop indie!
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