Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - To Be Taught, If Fortunate

The relationships between the characters of this book are not explained or displayed, but so much closeness is hinted at. You just know there’s so much behind it. Experience, love, complexity. Even if you wish you could witness it a little more.

As someone who took an astrobiology module on Coursera once (an expert), I loved the detail of this book. As always, the worldbuilding is epic yet thoughtful. The critters are excellent. Far-fetched and grounded and begging to be televised, honestly. Becky Chambers, CGI is ready for you. I’m ready.

As a bit of a philosopher (still not an expert but more so than I am in astrobiology) I loved the reflective, tender thread running through this novel. “Why are we here? What are we doing? Why are we doing it?” Ontologists, metaphysicians, epistemologists; my dudes, this one’s for you.

If anything, I wish this had been longer, I wish I was able to hear the crew’s deliberations and meander longer on these strange worlds. I wish I knew a tiny bit more of what was going on inside the characters’ heads, their history, their lives. But as Ariadne says, some things aren’t to be shared. I guess.

Still, it filled my mind with a sense of wonder. Which is one of my top one things a book can do. I guess it’s bigger on the inside.

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luxile's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.0

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g__'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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kirtreads's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

This book was not really what I was expecting, but I loved what I got. This was a little more heavy for a Becky Chambers, with the themes being not nearly as feel good and the ending left you with more questions than you had at the beginning of the book. I always love a good examination of "why are we really looking for life on other planets" and the moral implications of what it means to launch someone into space to save the human race.

If you are looking for another Wayfarers book with some more lighthearted and feel good vibes, this is not the book. The themes that are explored and the direction that she takes it and leaves it are not like the rest of her novels.

I was not expecting the ending and I really liked

that she took the risky ending of having them float in space instead of just having them stay on a planet. I loved that you do not know what happened to the crew, but I know that a lot of people will not like that.

Really enjoyed this quick little book. Her writing style is always great, so you cannot go wrong with one of her books.

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penofpossibilities's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

I enjoyed this alot and read it almost in one sitting, to me the pacing was really pleasant and I didn't feel infodumped upon despite the amount of new terms and concepts to learn. The only reason I am disappointed in the ending is that if you present a mystery to me, I am going to want it answered. Rarely does an open ending work satisfactory to me. I figured, after reading a psalm for the wild built, that Becky Chambers is more about creating a world and some characters in order to explore philosophical questions, and isn't particularly interested in developing a clear cut answer for you. That's nice and interesting, but I still wanted to know so many specifics

what happened to earth, what happened to the lawki 5,...

I don't want to criticise the book for this though - it's definately more a style/genre preference on my end than a fault of the book or the writing. I like Becky Chambers' writing a lot and will probably read her other works as well.

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eni_iilorak's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative inspiring reflective

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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margaux_s's review against another edition

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2.75

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aude's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

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