Stuff Celine Reads | The Long Way to a Small, Angry Pla...

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Becky Chambers

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEY'S WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

A quietly profound, humane tour de force — Guardian

The beloved debut novel that will restore your faith in humanity.

Small Angry Planet

When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The ship, which has seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past.

But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptilian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful — exactly what Rosemary wants.

Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet. They'll earn enough money to live comfortably for years... if they survive the long trip through war-torn interstellar space without endangering any of the fragile alliances that keep the galaxy peaceful.

But Rosemary isn't the only person on board with secrets to hide, and the crew will soon discover that space may be vast, but spaceships are very small indeed.

PRAISE FOR THE WAYFARERS

“Never less than deeply involving” — DAILY MAIL

“Explores the quieter side of sci-fi while still wowing us with daring leaps of imagination” — iBOOKS

“So much fun to read” — HEAT

“Chambers is simply an exceptional talent, quietly and beautifully redefining the space opera” — TOR.COM

“The most fun that I've had with a novel in a long, long time” — iO9

What Makes a Book Soft Sci-Fi?

Soft sci-fi uses speculative technology or futuristic settings to explore human experiences. Instead of focusing on scientific realism, these stories ask questions about identity, relationships, morality, society, and what it means to be human.

The science supports the story, not the other way around.

The Core Themes of Soft Sci-Fi

  1. Humanity in Extraordinary Circumstances At its heart, soft sci-fi is about people. The futuristic setting simply creates new ways to examine timeless questions about identity, love, grief, family, morality, and belonging.

  2. Society, Politics, and Power Many soft sci-fi novels use imagined futures to explore the world we're living in today.

  3. Relationships Come First While hard sci-fi often spends time explaining how a world works, soft sci-fi spends that time developing the people living inside it.

  4. Big Ideas Without the Homework Soft sci-fi is usually much more interested in the consequences of technology than the mechanics behind it.

Beginner Pick

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
If you've always been curious about science fiction but aren't sure where to start, this is one of my favorite gateway books.

Advanced Pick

Dune by Frank Herbert
Once you're comfortable with the genre, Dune is one of the most rewarding science fiction novels you'll ever read.

Let's Talk

What's your favorite kind of science fiction?

Soft Sci-Fi: The Stories That Care More About People Than Possibility

Science fiction doesn't have to be filled with pages of physics, complicated technology, or scientifically accurate space travel.

These books are emotional, philosophical, political, and deeply character-driven.