Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

56 reviews

arinheck's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Terminal illness, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Xenophobia, Chronic illness, Violence, Racial slurs, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Colonisation, Drug use, and Alcohol

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Xenophobia

puckeverlasting's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Was obsessed with "A Psalm for the Wild Built," and came to this one after. It took me a bit longer to get into, but once I did I was hooked. So many warm and cozy feelings, but it doesn't shy away from complex topics and conversations. First time for quite a while that I've cried multiple times while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, War, Colonisation, Racism, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Xenophobia, and Classism

weareinheritors's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

4.75

The plot was kinda lackluster and the pacing seemed a little off at times, but the CHARACTERS are where this book shone! Once the characters started interacting with one another, it was difficult to put the book down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death, Drug use, and Sexual content

thaliareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. I don't remember where I read it, but trying to describe this book to a friend, I ran across a review that said that this is more of a people book than a science fiction book. I adored this book and while it had a cool science fiction setting, it was ultimately about the people on the journey, their interactions with each other, and their interactions with other species and crews. 

I can't express enough appreciation for how cool it was just seeing all of the described species and all of their different cultures and the depth to which they are explored. It's absolutely wild. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Alcohol and Cultural appropriation

I'm behind on reviews, so it's been a couple moths since I read this, and I wouldn't be surprised if I missed a content warning or two.

kristinrdub's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

Delightful cozy sci-fi unlike anything I’ve ever read. I love all of the characters very much!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Death

abookwormspov's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Medical content, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, and Chronic illness

chelseareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

So much gender, orientation, and relationship structure representation withOUT actual sex scenes (not my thing, personal preference not a judgement)!!! A wonderful ship and crew. Loved that.

The book read like a season of an episodic (with a season-long arc incorporated) sci-fi television. I don't know if that's a good thing as a book or not, but I'd LOVE to watch that show. And now I'm excited to read the tenuously-related Season 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Death, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence

ekcd_'s review against another edition

lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

The characters are lovable but only because they designed to be lovable. As a result they come off as unrealistic and one dimensional. Even the cantankerous foil to the other sickly sweet personas on board is given a tragic backstory designed to inspire the reader to love him. 

It’s an incredibly slow book, plot wise, and the few plot events we do see dont make sense. The characters have odd reactions - socially and culturally. And god knows Becky Chambers lives to talk about how different all her aliens are. There is a weird fixation on sex and sexual differences in the book which could have been a fun exploration in sexuality if it was done well but instead it felt like she was patting herself on the back for coming up with such sexually diverse races/species. Several times in the book she says outright “yeah XYZ is so different from humans” and like that’s it. 

I feel like I read a different book than all the critics (formal and informal) who have such high praise. This read like a YA novel or children’s cartoon that feeds the reader emotions with a spoon. I’m fact, most of the world building in general is fed to the reader with a spoon- it’s explicit and heavy handed OR it’s nonsense words that are never explained or expanded on. It’s clear the author uses letters and characters who are librarians to shoehorn in world building she wasn’t creative enough to build into the narrative. No nuance, no complexity. Just a feel good mill, which I personally do not like. I want moral ambiguity and conflict in my space opera. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Deadnaming, Police brutality, Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcohol, War, Death, Genocide, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Blood

mxawprince's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

I know this book was written in 3014, and that it's a first novel, but (amongst many other similar things) there's an autistic-coded character that in the end gets "cured". Blegh.
I'll probably read something more recent from this author to see if it gets better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Gun violence, Xenophobia, Genocide, Racism, and War

Minor: Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Antisemitism, Gun violence, and Fatphobia