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booksandfin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I will officially read anything by Becky Chambers. Sidra grew so much and I really did love her at the end (which I didn’t expect to). But Pepper has my entire heart. Her chapters tore me open and mended me whole again.
I wanna play Big Bug Crew too.💔
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Cursing and Grief
moonbasket's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse and Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Blood
ritabriar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse and Slavery
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Accidental explosion, explicit, resulting in child death Child murdered by robot caretaker Bad dogs attack a child, and the child kills them for food Explicit malnutritionlisa313's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.5
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
plantainicus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Slavery, Grief, Dysphoria, and Classism
Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I am a simple man. You write a book about robots learning to be human and understanding their feelings, I'm going to have a good time.
A Closed and Common Orbit is a lot darker and more existential than its predecessor, which makes sense given the setup for it in A Long Way To a Small, Angry Planet was the most tragic section of that book, but damn it was a lot darker. In this, we follow an AI in an illegal synthetic body and a clone trying to escape a desolate planet with the help of an AI.
Something I've noticed in this and Becky Chambers's other series, Monk and Robot, is that she's in love with the cultural and sociological aspects of world building and it just oozes off the page. Though her books certainly have plots, they tend to be slower and lacking in tension. Really what makes them good is the world building, so fascinating, so alien, and so goddamn optimistic! She creates worlds I want to live in and populates them with lively characters and emotional bonds.
As for this book specifically, I found it so deeply fascinating and thought-provoking, questioning who gets to be counted as sentient in this galaxy. As I said, this is a lot darker than the first book, specifically with the clone storyline. The added edge made the optimism strike so much deeper, it was bittersweet and just so earned. But it's also still a story about what mundanity looks like in an interstellar society, which maybe paradoxically, makes this series stand out.
TWs not included under the tag: dogs die and there's dog-on-dog cannibalism.
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
sgradycohen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Abandonment
brookebatesratesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
amyreh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal death and Child abuse
Moderate: Child death and Grief
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Medical content
Minor: Sexual content, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War