My first CBR last year was eye-opening, to say the least. I paid more attention to my reading than I have since college, and I also paid fresh attention to my book choices after being confronted by the ugly truth of my blindspot for women authors. And though not every book was a winner, I did fall in love with a number of books and authors new to me, including Becky Chambers and her delightful The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, one of […]
A Spark to Guide You Forward
I think if there is such a sub-genre as “cozy sci-fi”, Becky Chambers is one of it’s lead writers. A Closed and Common Orbit is the sequel to Becky Chambers debut novel, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Even more than it’s predecessor, this book is more concerned with the interactions of it’s characters than with action or adventure. At the end of Small Angry Planet, the Wayfarer’s AI, Lovelace, “Lovey,” is damaged in an unprovoked attack. To save Lovey, she is downloaded into a […]
Delightful, feel-good space opera
A closed and common orbit is the sequel to The Long way to a Small Angry Planet, so… A Closed and Common Orbit follows Lovelace the AI after she’s been downloaded into a kit resembling a human body. Pepper takes care of her and brings her back to her home planet. Lovelace changes her name to Sidra, a human-name, and tries to adjust to life with different senses in a strange place. She is no longer a ship with a camera in every room, […]
A genetic multiple and an artificial intelligence encased in a manufactured body walk into a bar . . .
This is yet another review where I’m putting up the white flag. It’s been months since I finished it and for whatever reason I’ve been having a hell of a time trying to figure out what I want to say about it. So I’m just not going to say much at all and this will be more of a mini-review than a real one. I liked this book, but not as much as the first one. It’s really more of a companion novel to A Long Way to A Small […]


