This is the first of a series of books, and together they represent by far the best sci-fi I've read in a long time. There are no space battles here, none of the tired tropes of sci-fi. This is something genuinely different, inclusive and compassionate, which treats the concept of alien-ness - in terms of race, gender, sexuality and culture - as something genuinely diverse, rather than just humans in clever makeup. The dialogue is terrific, the world-building spectacular, and the style is spare and elegant and wholly, gloriously immersive. This is what sci-fi has been trying (and largely failing) to be since the early 90s. Now it's here, and it’s glorious.
The crew of the Wayfarer is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptillian 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.
'One of the most enjoyable, brilliantly realised spacey SF novels I've read in ages.' -- James Smythe, author of The Echo
Author
About Becky Chambers
Becky Chambers was raised in California as the progeny of an astrobiology educator, an aerospace engineer, and an Apollo-era rocket scientist. An inevitable space enthusiast, she made the obvious choice of studying performing arts. After a few years in theatre administration, she shifted her focus toward writing. Her creative work has appeared at The Mary Sue, Tor.com, Five Out Of Ten, The Toast, and Pornokitsch.
