I started this book about a month ago, and just couldn’t get into it. After a few weeks, and starting and finishing my previous book, I decided to try again. This time, for whatever reason, I was able to get into the characters and the world and I finished it in about 5 days.
I read “A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet” several years ago and I knew that this book was set in the same universe, but with different characters. That’s good, because I remember almost nothing about the previous book. I didn’t need to know details, as this book was self-contained.
It is told, at least the first half or so, as a series of seemingly unconnected vignettes about humans (and one alien) living in the distant future. Humanity left a dying Earth aboard starships, the Exodus Fleet, and eventually ran into the Galactic Commons. Now humans are spread across worlds, but a remnant still lives aboard the fleet vessels, continuing the old ways.
I was enjoying learning about the world, and felt like that was going to be enough, but then, of course (I probably should have been able to predict this) all the stories became intertwined in an interesting way.
The book explored themes of belonging, searching for meaning, and as I was describing it to my wife, she suggested that it was a “the grass is always greener” type of story, but I don’t think that is exactly it. It was less that life is always better elsewhere, but more that life is hard here, and I wish I could find meaning in it or have it a little easier.
Interestingly, for me, was the juxtaposition of spacers who wanted desperately to live on a planet, with grounders who wanted desperately to live on a ship. And I guess it really isn’t about how miserable everyone is either. It is really more a testament to the human drive to find meaning and understand what our purpose is in this universe.
The worldbuilding was phenomenal. The culture of the future humans who live aboard the ships in a completely self-contained ship, and what that means for ritual, recycling, everything, was well thought out and it felt like a lived experience. I felt that I understood the various characters desires and wants.
No space battles. No sentient AIs. It was a small scale human story set in a big universe. Not my normal read, but it was nice to just relax into this story and feel carried along by the characters and their journeys.