A Closed and Common Orbit

, #2

Audiobook

English language

Published Oct. 19, 2016 by Hodder & Stoughton.

ISBN:
978-1-4736-2146-6
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5 stars (8 reviews)

A Closed and Common Orbit is a 2016 science fiction novel by Becky Chambers, published by Hodder and Stoughton. It is a sequel to her 2014 novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

4 editions

Honestly felt this was better than the first.

5 stars

And I loved the first book. This one for me benefitted heavily from having less characters, so you were able to get a better feel for everyone overall and learn about them on a deeper level.

Pepper's background story was great to go through. Even with the time jumps, you felt like you were actively watching her grow and mature in the storyline. It also heavily covers the reasons that Pepper is so keen on people being more accepting of AI as being close enough to human to care about.

Lovey trying to figure out how to be ok being in a body that she did not pick out was an unexpected twist that I would not have thought about. Chambers really made me look at a lot of things from a different angle with this book and that's always a good thing.

My one complaint would likely be that …

The two main characters just weren't for me

3 stars

Thoroughly enjoyed the worldbuilding and the story, but I felt like I had to do the work to relate to the characters. They both start off at points in their lives that are unique, interesting - and hard to wrap my head around. The author does a great job giving them distinct voices and letting them grow over time, but I just found them too far removed to really get into the book.

The secondary characters, however! I really loved reading about them from the perspectives of the protagonists, and as always, the interactions are wonderfully crafted.

avatar for sam@books.theunseen.city

rated it

5 stars
avatar for sam@books.theunseen.city

rated it

5 stars