November 22, 2019
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
The second book in the
Wayfarer trilogy begins 28 minutes after the first book (The Long Way to a
Small, Angry Planet) ended. Lovelace, the original AI from the Wayfarer,
is in a new body, which she refers to as a kit, traveling in the company of
Pepper, Jenks' friend, to her home on the moon of Coriol. It's a hard
adjustment, going from a virtual existence to the limitations of a physical being.
Overall, this is a
great follow up to the first book. My
only disappointment is that, while the story features some of the characters
from the first book, we don't meet up again with the crew from the
Wayfarer. We do get Pepper’s backstory and how she ended up as a
tech pro on Coriol, and Chambers does a great job of imagining what it would be
like for Lovelace (now called Sidra) waking up in an alien body. One of the things I didn’t like: the predator animal on Pepper’s original
planet is a gene-tweaked dog – I would have preferred some other animal, like a
beaver/bear hybrid. Looking forward to the third book, Record of a Spaceborn Few.
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