A Closed and Common Orbit

I keep not wanting to leave this world -- it's fascinating, and I find the characters to be ridiculously seductive, in a friend sort of way. I totally want to hang out with these people. This book is all about Artificial Intelligence and thinking a lot about what the experience of an AI in a body shape would be. It's, yep, fascinating. I also love that Sidra's story is intertwined with Pepper's -- so much to hear about, so much reflecting and adding to each other.

The only thing that I am still trying to understand is the taboo on putting artificial intelligence into body kits -- that premise is just a little off, in this multi-species world -- likewise the distaste for clones and genetic manipulators -- not that I don't understand the show more distaste, just that I'm not sure how this alien colloquium defined their borders. It's also very interesting to me that there's this peaceful, working interior space league of sentients, and they don't hold with cloning or genetic manipulation or artificial intelligence in bodies, or weird unprovoked warfare within their borders, but they completely tolerate it in outside groups. How do those decisions get made? Eh, it's just odd to me. Still, fascinated.

Re-read. Still LOVE it. This time I got more of the ways the conversations in the book track to body dysphoria, and I love that even more. show less

It's not very often that the second in a series is better than the first, but this one is. The first was adventure, this is a more traditionally character driven plot though none of the characters is traditional in any way but their basic humanity, even the AI. Both of the main characters try to find out who they are, where they are, how to live where they are, how to get to where they want to be and how to establish relationships on their journey. Both are "good" girls who don't want to disappoint anyone and constantly worry that if they live as they want they will be found out and rejected. I love the varieties of species and sexual relationships and friendships. As a dog lover, I'm a little sad at the way dogs are portrayed, but the show more rest of the relationships compensate for the loss of canine companionship. show less

Lovelace is an AI that has been loaded into a body kit, which is illegal in the section of the galaxy where she lives. It's not a choice she would have made for herself if the situation hadn't demanded it. As a result, she has gone to live with Pepper and Blue in Port Coriol as it's not safe for her aboard her former ship. As the AI works to figure out who she is when she's not in a ship and what she should do now, the narrative also follows the backstory of Pepper whose experiences as a child have a significant impact on her relationship with Lovelace in the present.

Becky Chambers' brand of cozy sci fi is so very much my jam. While this book is a sequel to [The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet], the plot stands really well on its own show more (although it definitely would spoil the end of the first book so read in order if you want to avoid that). The book has the same quiet, character study set in a fascinating sci fi world vibe of the first novel but in some ways is even quieter as most of the action takes place on two planets (one in the present, one in the past) with a very small cast of characters but the novel is no less compelling for those reasons. It is enthralling to watch these characters grow and become themselves and there's plenty of suspense created by the two timelines bouncing off each other. I am glad that I took my time coming to this novel after reading the first one, as I loved the characters in Long Way so much that I would likely have resented this book for not being about the crew from Book 1 if I'd read them back to back. However, with plenty of breathing space between them, I loved this book and its characters for its own merits and I'm looking forward to exploring this universe with whichever characters Chambers decides to give us in the rest of the series. Highly recommended. show less

Listen. People have been telling me I would love Becky Chambers for 800 years and I don't know why I waited so long. Part of it is the series thing. There are 87 books and I have commitment issues. But when I finally read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I loved it as predicted, so I have kept an eye for picking up the rest of the series one book at a time.

I LOVED BOTH PEPPER AND SIDRA SO, SO MUCH. I am putting together this whole 17,000 word essay in my brain on why I love this and would call it cozy-adjacent while Legends & Lattes, which is objectively more cozy had me grinding my teeth and struggling to finish the book, but it is far too long to include here. (Basically, it has to do with how the books respond to injustice, or show more what I perceive as injustice.)

ANYWAY, this is basically about two girls who have to learn how to be people for different reasons and in different ways. show less

So often the second book in a trilogy is a let-down as it becomes more of a bridge between the first and third books but I am happy to report that this is not the case with A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. This is the second book in The Wayfarers science fiction trilogy and for me this book was even better than the first. The author wisely keeps many of the things that I loved about the first book such as the high-tech surroundings, the variety of alien species and likeable and complex main characters. She raises the bar by following the story of two of the characters from the first book, that of Pepper, street-smart ace mechanic and Lovelace the AI. Getting to know these characters up close and personal made for a wonderful show more reading experience.

Lovelace, now calling herself Sidra, is the AI who was installed in the ship but has now been transferred to a human-like body. She is struggling to learn how to exist in this new form. The other plot line is Pepper’s back story and her childhood as Jane 23 was truly riveting. I admit that at first I missed the camaraderie of the whole crew being together as in the first book, but it wasn’t long before these plot lines totally engrossed me and their exploration of what constitutes humanity made for an enlightening and thought provoking read. From Sidra’s claustrophobia and extreme sense of self-loss to the appalling nightmare that was Pepper’s childhood, A Closed and Common Orbit was a complete page-turner. It became very easy to root for these characters as they grew together and learned how to build trust and friendship toward one another.

I am looking forward to seeing what this inventive author will deliver in the next book. I am sure however she decides to wrap up this trilogy, it will be clever, charming and a fantastic read. show less

I’ve been working with a therapist for almost a year now. It’s an introspective process that sometimes involves looking back as well as forward. How did childhood, teens, and youth mould the adult I now am? What behaviours and thought processes became habits? What guilt and fears linger? Some things are fixable, but others need to be accepted and put aside. What do I want to be and do in the remainder of my life?

This book is a more extreme version of that, but in a heartwarming and enjoyable narrative, set in a richly populated alien realm: two main characters totally reinvent themselves and learn to live in a new world or body that is often hostile. Two main timelines increasingly converge and echo each other. Mother figures - show more good (“Owl”) and bad (faceless robots raising slave labour) - feature too, and there’s an exciting quasi-heist towards the end.

Ultimately, it’s about being true to yourself and finding your people: friendship, found family, love, and, if necessary, sacrifice. Issues of consciousness and personhood become quietly irrelevant: you know it when you see it and feel it.

Image: “The blizzard doesn’t last forever; it just seems so” - Ray Bradbury. Painting titled “The Blizzard” by Joseph Farquharson (Source)

Pros and cons

An AI is transplanted from an omniscient spaceship intelligence into the limitations of a humanoid body.
“The honesty protocol was proving to be a challenge… Hyper-aware of everything she was and wasn’t, truth left her vulnerable.”
It can eat and drink, but has no need to. Although alcohol has no cognitive effect, each type triggers different synaesthetic images that are pleasurable in themselves, but in general, adjusting to the limitations of a “kit” is really hard: “the kit smiled”, rather than “Sidra smiled”. There are parallels with survival, trans, autism spectrum, disability, and addiction, quietly left for the reader to infer.

However, sometimes exposition is in clunky chunks, and the sections about (but not by) 10-year old Jane are written in simplistic language, with overuse of “real”, that irked me after a while, but these are minor criticisms.

See also

This is the second of what is currently a tetralogy. It focuses on two characters (Jane/Pepper and Lovey/Sidra) from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which I reviewed HERE, and is best read after that, but would be OK as a standalone.

Like the other Becky Chambers books I’ve read, this is joyously inclusive, while somehow not being tokenistic or preachy, and features a creative array of aliens without creepily exoticising them. show less

Description is wrong - no, we don't rejoin the crew of the Wayfarer. Iow, you don't need to read the first book first. (But you should, as it's so good!)

I just love the idea that most people, of most species, try to get along, try to be good and helpful, but aren't necessarily heroic, but are still interesting. Watching Jane and Lovelace find their places in the Galaxy was an engaging, heartwarming, *and* fascinating experience.

I also love the bits of philosophy. For example, why do so many people like to read mysteries and thrillers, 'finding bad things happening to people to be entertaining?' Consider the fear of death, and the comfort to be found in the idea that the bad guys who kill will be punished. (Of course Chambers says it show more better.) And why do some people think their culture or race is 'superior?' Consider our desire to be able to control our fates, and our sense that if we have that control, we must be successful, and anyone else must be less competent and just plain 'lesser.' (I may not be summing Chambers exactly on that; read the book for yourself.)

Chambers' writing style is also effective. Neither the humor nor tension are forced, but arise naturally. She's mastered the craft of making the text flow so easily & beautifully that this reader didn't even consciously realize the joy of reading along until, oh, gosh, the book is over; I must buy a copy so I can reread it at my leisure.

I'm recommending this one to even more of my friends and family than I did the first. show less