Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series!A Publishers Weekly “Best Books of 2017” pick!Nominated for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel!Shortlisted for the 2017 Arthur C. Clarke Award!Winner of the Prix Julia-Verlanger!Embark on an exciting, adventurous, and dangerous journey through the galaxy with the motley crew of the spaceship Wayfarer in this fun and heart-warming space opera—the sequel to … adventurous, and dangerous journey through the galaxy with the motley crew of the spaceship Wayfarer in this fun and heart-warming space opera—the sequel to the acclaimed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in a new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow.
Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced readers to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for—and learned to live with, and love, her rag-tag collection of crewmates.
A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to that beloved debut novel, and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect, and Star Wars.
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This is Ms Chambers second novel. It is a small scale, personal story of two good people – meaning no space armadas, no civilization threatening attacks of any kind. This is the story of Pepper (woman) and Sidra (AI) and the tremendous (and in Pepper’s case – horrific) difficulties they have to overcome just to survive. This is not a book filled with pseudo science and technology. It is about its characters. One of the biggest pleasures of this story is the growth, the evolution of both main characters. The story starts when they are very young, overwhelmed by the challenges they face. They struggle and they falter before they succeed. It is almost Nietzsche-esk. Another important part of the story was how the author kept circling around issues concerning identity or person-ness (I would have said “humanity” except for the aliens and AIs). I liked it a lot. If you liked Ms Chambers first novel, “The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet”, I expect you will like this one.
Wow. People said that this was as good or better than A LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET and I agree with them. It was different, but I can’t say that it was better because I loved it just as much as A LONG WAY. Chambers handled the question of AI sentience and rights well in this novel. And it was great to learn more about the Aandrisks and their society. Once I got into the story and saw where it was going, I couldn’t put this down. I will definitely be getting the next one in the series.
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarer Series book 2) by Becky Chambers on audiobook format. After reading The Long Road to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers on audiobook format I instantly (I mean that, I walked over to my computer and BOOM bought it less than a minute after finishing book 1) purchased book 2 in the Wayfarers series.
Book two is not the crash, boom, and zip of book 1. Common Orbit is quieter and more thoughtful. If book 1 was the loud “means well” rock-and-roll sister, then book 2 is the quiet, kind, and bookish twin.
Being that Common Orbit is book 2 in a series you’d expect to follow the lives of the main characters from book 1, that does not happen. Instead, book 2 builds on the lives and backstory of one main character from book 1 and one side character. Do not let that deter you from reading this book. It’s as fantastic as it’s loud sister in a different softer most wonderful way.
In case you are wondering. Yes, I already bought book 3. This series speaks to everything I love in reading.
Original story though at times the book moved slowly. There was a lot of back story that was required to make sense of the end of the book but this caused the story to move slowly.
Inventive and interesting for me – looking forward to more
I loved this one too! I was worried when I realized that it only had minor characters from the first book taking on the main roles, because I wanted more of the characters I’d already come to love. However, I found both characters so compelling in this one as we saw their early lives unfold. We see Pepper as a young child, before her name was Pepper, and we see Lovelace come into herself as Sidra, an AI in a human body for the first time. This book was as gentle as the first one, and I just overall enjoyed the reading experience.
Not as much action or as many characters to follow in this second book in the series, but this time we go deep into the histories, motivations, and lives of two characters who you can’t help but love by the end. This book is a coming of age (any age) wrapped in an “Can AI be people too?” story. So much to enjoy and learn from here. Beware: reading it might make you a better person.
Really enjoyed this book!
It seemed like a lot was left out.
Two stories for the price of one. Or should I just say two stories intertwine into one. Survival of a human, an a Artificial Intelligence.
The book wasn’t about what I expected and that I ended up cheering for the AI was… Unexpected.
The ending was even more unexpected from both the human and AI perspective.
I’m not going to give anything away.
It was quite wonderful and hard to put down.
This was such an original book. It hooked me from the start, all the way through. I was desperate to read the next book!
Another winner from Becky Chambers! I didn’t read the synopsis for this book because I was so enamored with its predecessor I picked it up immediately. And so when I started I was a little disappointed to learn it wasn’t about the same characters from book one. But that fact is more than made up for with Sidra and Jane, the main characters in this book and it is of course the same universe and in the same style as book one. I also liked the ending to this book better than the first, I think the author did the story more justice. That isn’t to say the ending to book 1 was bad, it just wasn’t as good as this one. Highly, highly recommended and one of my new favorite books.
I love the world Becky Chambers has created, I love the questions she asks, I love the strength the characters have. Another great book in a great series, perfectly narrated too.
Such lovable characters and charming story.
Loved the quirky characters! Good resolution to the prior book. “A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet”.