Reviews with content warning for War - Record of a Spaceborn Few

This is the first audiobook I have listened to with a soundtrack by BookTrack. The music was mostly immersive but at one point I found myself going back to listen to a specific part just because I liked the music. Similar vibe to videogame soundtracks.

This is more of a short story compilation told with little crossover between the viewpoints but I don't hate it. The vibe is more reflective and philosophical than action driven, which is what I'm here for. This collection deals a lot with the nature of closed systems, cycles of renewal, and the curiosity and bravery of us scared little monkeys who need to know what's over the next bit if terrain.

This book touches on the conflict that is caused managing large groups of people in a socialist environment with finite resources, what can happen when Peele take things into their own hands, how one has to deal with being born into a chequered history, that gifts us advanced technologies, but from a history of environmental destruction, war, colonisation, and struggles to survive against our own people and world.

This has thematic unity, and some emotionally resonant moments, though a lot of it is explanations, either cross-cultural, philosophical discussion between life partners, or instructing children. The familiar idea that observing a system will affect it, is explored through a non-human person authoring a series of cultural observations like a travel blog, explaining how humans live in their ark ship fleet, and the values and quirks that have developed in that environment.

A mellow sci-fi read, forward thinking, queernorm, sex positive, and hopeful. Not as good as the first two Wayfarers books but still pretty great.

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bme244's review against another edition

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emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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craftysnailtail's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Well gosh. Chambers delivers- AGAIN. How does she make me fall in love with everyone I meet in her novels? Her character development is so real, I just can't get over it. As usual, the world building is on point, the story is engaging, and I even cried a bit at the end. I'm always sorry to see the characters go at the end of her books. Everything wraps up very well, but I get so attached...

The story in this one is a bit more intense. Much more like the 2nd in the series rather than the 1st. So while I don't think it falls into the cozy category, I can't help feeling relaxed while reading her books. Coming back to this series feels like coming home. Once again, I can't wait for the next one.

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withlivjones's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Stunning. Another absolute hit from this series. Becky Chambers always writes with such empathy and optimism.

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_david_'s review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book had some great moments and I do recommend reading it if you liked the rest of the series! I think the author nailed the use of multiple characters to tell the story about a whole culture. It created beautiful dialogue and told an interesting story about the value of tradition. I adored the characters, especially Isabel and Tamsin since they remind me of my own relationship.

I have two reasons why I've rated it lower than the other Wayfarer books so far. A small downside of especially the beginning of the book is that there are a lot of similar names for characters and a lot of characters without a very clear identifying feature at first. I can imagine that it's very hard to go through this book slowly since you might forget which character did what. The other, bigger downside is how some characters' stories ended. I didn't mind the endings themselves, but for a few of them they were told about it by others. The book expressed its morals by a very much "tell don't show" way. I think it's a shame, it made the book feel very biased, I think the same story could've been told without the very explicit dialogue. The moments I mean are:

Isabel talking to Kip and 'Pop' talking to Tessa. I think the museum scene for Kip and the talk with George for Tessa would've sufficed.

Having said that, I still really enjoyed the book! It's just the weakest in the series so far to me and I wanted to reflect that in my rating. As I've expressed in the beginning of this review, it contains some beautiful moments.

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the_reading_wren's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This one is less adventure and more reflective than the previous books in this series, covering heavy themes. Chambers guides us through these topics with masterful writing, while enveloping us in a world so well developed it feels like a home from home.

I think it was a work of genius weaving the reader’s role of bearing witness into Sawyer’s storyline in such a profound way…

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