Last night, after a long, exhausting day, I decided to start the final book in the “Wayfarer Series” by Becky Chambers.
I’ve been a fan of Chambers’s work since I read Long Way to a Small Angry Planet a few years back, and picked up the rest of the series a few months ago. None of the other books quite hit the highs of that first one (which, admittedly, is more of a collection of short stories in many ways), but gosh The Galaxy and the Ground Within is good.
It’s so good, in fact, that I finished it this morning at 2:30am after reading non-stop since I started it. Sure, I’m a little tired today (who needs sleep?), but what a wonderful book. And what a touching, smart, elegant conclusion to the series which, admittedly again, I never really thought was a series. The books have almost no common elements aside from a few references to characters in the first book. Chambers didn’t write a series so much as she wrote in the same universe four times.
But, to be crystal clear, this is in no way a complaint. I loved these books. Each of them was intelligent and thoughtful in exactly the way my science fiction isn’t. Chambers spent time with each character, fleshing them out, and crafting a universe that not only coherently holds, but also feels “real” in a delightful way.
They were delicious. And I am both completely satisfied with them and immensely saddened to know that I won’t be going back to visit with them again.
Ah well. All good things and all that. Scalzi has a new novel coming out this year, so I have something to look forward to, and I’m polishing off a few more course textbooks and some puff reading at work (Blackstone Fortress Ascension by Hicks is my current lunchtime reading material), but before long I’m going to have to try and find some new sci-fi to read!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!