By Robert Hentschel
Some books are so thoroughly engaging that you don’t want to put them down, and when you do, you can’t wait to pick them up again. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers isn’t one of them.
Rosemary Harper joins the multi-species crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that constructs wormholes. The Wayfarer wins a contract to “punch” a wormhole in a region near the galactic core, necessitating a year-long journey to get to the “punch” site. The book chronicles the journey; what happens when the ship arrives; and the aftermath.
The story starts strongly, with an opening chapter that intrigues and draws you in. But the rest of the book fails to deliver on that initial promise.
So much in this story is under-developed. The plot is almost non-existent, the characters are two-dimensional and unengaging, and the ending is rushed.
It becomes clear that the story’s purpose is to act as a vehicle for lectures on diversity, sexuality, violence, acceptance and family. These themes are all worthy of exploration, but Chambers addresses them in an obvious and somewhat patronising way that does nothing to promote meaningful reflection.
There are other issues – everything from a monumental overuse of the word “smirk” to the inclusion of detail that is not only inaccurate, but works against the story.
For example, Chambers justifies Wayfarer’s year-long journey by stating: “The ban against FTL was one of the oldest laws on the books … While travelling faster than light was technologically possible … few people were keen on a method of transportation that guaranteed everyone you knew back home would be long dead by the time you reached your destination.”
Travelling faster than the speed of light does not have that effect, but travelling at a speed approaching that of light does. And this is precisely what the Wayfarer would have to do in order to have any chance of reaching her destination within a year. Chambers would have been better off not broaching the subject at all.
I really wanted to like this book, and kept hoping that the author would redeem herself as the story progressed. Sadly, it was not to be.
Featured image: A book that promises much but delivers little and author Becky Chambers. Photos: Robert Hentschel/Colibrette44/CC/Wikimedia Commons
