Record of a Spaceborn Few

[alobear]

Yesterday, I finished listening to the third in the Wayfarers trilogy by Becky Chambers. This one was about the human Exodan Fleet, those humans who stayed on their spaceships even after new planets were found and colonised. One of the main characters is the sister of the captain of the ship in the first book, which provides the link to the others in the series.

As with the other books, the worldbuilding is amazing, and I loved all the characters. It felt a bit more fractured than the others, though, as there were five point of view characters, and they didn't connect until quite near the end. Also, it was based almost entirely in the human fleet, with really only one alien characters, so it felt much less diverse than the other books. And not that much actually happened, again until quite near the end. I loved experiencing the people's lives and going about their days with them, but I much prefer the two-hander of the second book, which has a clear story arc for both plotlines.

Still, after quite an abrupt tone shift in the last third, the fragments start to piece together, and I did really like how it all came to a conclusion. Definitely my least favourite of the three books, but I still really enjoyed it and I very much look forward to more from this author.

Comments

[conuly]

Interesting how tastes differ! For me, it's by far the best.

[alobear]

Indeed! How come?

[conuly]

I liked them all, don't get me wrong, but the first one read very much like a TV show, with a limited arc and a largely episodic plot, each chapter self contained. (And while the author may have been going for a Firefly feel, for some reason all the resonances to me were ST. Go figure.) I couldn't shake that feeling, and it distracted me.

And the second one was almost too character-based. Which is odd, because my usual complaint with books is that they have too much plot, not enough character development, and on the surface you'd think this one had the right balance of both, but apparently not quite enough.

Now, book three, sure most of the individual characters don't interact much, but something about that really grabbed me and made their specific character arcs really interesting to me.

[alobear]

Fair enough!

I think I may have experienced them differently if I had read them rather than listening to them. The audiobook narrator is excellent at making the characters distinct, which came out more in the first one than the last one, as the characters were maybe *more* different.

But yes, I liked them all too! :o)