On the second day of Festivus, your pimpus brought to you, a sci-fi trilogy that… something-something… something… Festivus! (Look, the idea was there, the execution just sucked. Like real bad.)

Right then. My reading for pleasure this year, while mostly fantasy and grimdark, was interrupted by some sci-fi. I’m not a huge reader of sci-fi, especially ‘hard’ sci-fi, but I picked up the first book in the Wayfarer’s series by Becky Chambers’ on the recommendation of a friend. And I was hooked. Bought the second and third pretty damn quickly.

Waxing lyrical about all of the stories would make this post super long, so I’ll keep to the blurbs for books two and three and wax lyrical about the first.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is the first in the series, and is probably my favourite of the three. It was described to me as: ‘a hug in book form’ – and they weren’t wrong. Set off-world, and taking place mostly on a ship that is somewhat sentient, this book captures all that is right with character-driven storytelling that leaves you feeling… hugged by its end. It’s a story about friendship, at its core, about what we’ll do for those we love. It’s about love and acceptance, hope and freedom and goodness. It about discovering who you are in a universe so big it makes you feel small… but in the ‘smallness’ is where you find a truth, your essential truth. Like a hug. In book form.

Here’s the blurb:

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 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.

The second book, A Closed and Common Orbit, picks up not long after the end of book one, and follows the ‘ship’ as she navigates a body and world that should never have been hers, about finding your place in that world, your… fit – without limits.

Blurb below:

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 to start over in a synthetic body, in a world where her kind are illegal. She’s never felt so alone.

But she’s not alone, not really. Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over.

Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that, huge as the galaxy may be, it’s anything but empty.

And we round it off with Record of a Spaceborn Few, while tenuously linked to the first, book three gives us more universe-building and greater understanding of the consequences of Earth and what happened, the consequences of decisions we make, and how we always long for a home. It shows the good, the bad, the ugly, and the resilient. The characters in this, like the first, drive this story, and the ending is superb.

Blurb incoming:

Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way.

But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life—and is it worth saving at all?

A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one’s story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.

I could go on and on about this series, and just how good it is. I’m currently reading Becky Chambers’ latest novella, To Be Taught if Fortunate, and I’m really digging this too. It has the same heart as the trilogy, and I’ve a feeling, this will be a book that ‘hugs’ as well. So I guess this is four books you could be gifting!

Recommended for those who enjoy sci-fi, space operas, character-driven stories, and books that make you smile long after you’ve finished reading. Like I said, a book hug.