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A Closed and Common Orbit
Scritto da Becky Chambers
Narrato da Rachel Dulude
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Embark on an exciting, adventurous, and dangerous journey through the galaxy with the motley crew of the spaceship Wayfarer in this fun and heartwarming space opera — the sequel to the acclaimed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in a new body, following a total system shutdown and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow.
Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced listeners to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for — and learned to live with, and love, her ragtag collection of crewmates.
A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to that beloved debut novel and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect, and Star Wars.
Azioni libro
Inizia ad ascoltareInformazioni sul libro
A Closed and Common Orbit
Scritto da Becky Chambers
Narrato da Rachel Dulude
Descrizione
Embark on an exciting, adventurous, and dangerous journey through the galaxy with the motley crew of the spaceship Wayfarer in this fun and heartwarming space opera — the sequel to the acclaimed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in a new body, following a total system shutdown and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow.
Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced listeners to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for — and learned to live with, and love, her ragtag collection of crewmates.
A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to that beloved debut novel and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect, and Star Wars.
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Recensioni
Very pleasing end to this. An oddly human story for one about AI and aliens and clones. Continues along the theme of a universal (human?) condition from the first novel.
Rating: 4How dare you give me so many feelings about AIs
Rating: 5I really liked this one, read it over the span of two cold snowy days. It is not as light as the first novel in this series, but the Jane/Pepper storyline was very compelling. I sort of thoughts all the books would take place on the Wayfarer and was a bit disapointed that was not the case.
Rating: 4
What an amazing story! Chambers tackles the core issues of life, both great and intimately personal.
Rating: 5It's not very often that the second in a series is better than the first, but this one is. The first was adventure, this is a more traditionally character driven plot though none of the characters is traditional in any way but their basic humanity, even the AI. Both of the main characters try to find out who they are, where they are, how to live where they are, how to get to where they want to be and how to establish relationships on their journey. Both are "good" girls who don't want to disappoint anyone and constantly worry that if they live as they want they will be found out and rejected. I love the varieties of species and sexual relationships and friendships. As a dog lover, I'm a little sad at the way dogs are portrayed, but the rest of the relationships compensate for the loss of canine companionship.
Rating: 5Lovelace, the AI that operated on Wayfarer, the ship in Becky Chambers excellent first novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, decided she wanted a different life. A life in an autonomous, human-format body.
A life that, in the Galactic Commons, is rather inconveniently very, very illegal.
In this standalone sequel, Lovey has awakened in a new body which very convincingly imitates a human body, after a total system shutdown and reboot, which has left her with no idea why her previous installation wanted this new life with these new and strange limitations (such as not being connected to the Linkings fulltime.)
Yet here she is, in this new, freer yet more limited form, still learning what it's like to be apparently human, traveling with the rather volatile engineer, Pepper, to Pepper's home to learn who she is in this new form.
Chambers explores both how Lovey adapts to her new circumstances, surrounded by biological sapients and cities that aren't bounded by walls, and the slow unveiling of Pepper's background, painful past, and loss of the only real family member she ever had.
There's a lot of excellent character building and world building here. It makes for a layered, textured world, and an even more satisfying reading experience than in the previous book.
Highly recommended.
I bought this book.
Rating: 5A life that, in the Galactic Commons, is rather inconveniently very, very illegal.
In this standalone sequel, Lovey has awakened in a new body which very convincingly imitates a human body, after a total system shutdown and reboot, which has left her with no idea why her previous installation wanted this new life with these new and strange limitations (such as not being connected to the Linkings fulltime.)
Yet here she is, in this new, freer yet more limited form, still learning what it's like to be apparently human, traveling with the rather volatile engineer, Pepper, to Pepper's home to learn who she is in this new form.
Chambers explores both how Lovey adapts to her new circumstances, surrounded by biological sapients and cities that aren't bounded by walls, and the slow unveiling of Pepper's background, painful past, and loss of the only real family member she ever had.
There's a lot of excellent character building and world building here. It makes for a layered, textured world, and an even more satisfying reading experience than in the previous book.
Highly recommended.
I bought this book.
OMG I cried about a spaceship.
Rating: 4Better than volume one if that's possible? The intertwining stories of the protagonists weave together as we look back in time and forward to what is possible for each. These stories investigate whether and how relationships can move forward, characters develop because of one another when they do not share similar racial/species/gender norms or necessarily hold in common similar expectations and motivations. That's what makes these books unusually fun to read.
Rating: 4A gradual exploration of what an AI actually is. It's easy to assume that an artificial intelligence in a human body will think and react like a human. An AI originally programmed to operate in a spaceship has concerns that relate to that ship. eg. She needs to be hyper aware of the space around her to scan it for dangers -this is a drawback in a human body as a crowded area is too full of action and of things that can't all be observed at once - and you can't see what it behind you as the 360 vision is not there any more.I greatly enjoyed this book, both for Sidra's exploration of herself and for our gradual understanding of why Pepper is so willing to help Sidra and so dedicated to the rights of AIs.
Rating: 5A brilliant and unconventional sequel to A Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet follows the coming-of-age stories of Pepper, a lovable junk tech, and Sidra, a newly housed A.I. unit. within a robotic human body. There's a lot of futuristic deep thought within these pages combined with some great action and a very satisfying conclusion. I'm excited to read the third installment.
Rating: 4The second in the Wayfarers trilogy, although it's not so much a trilogy as a loosely linked set of books in the same world. This is two stories woven together - the tale of Lovelace, an AI in a human body, trying to work out who she is, and the tale of Jane 23, a child kept as slave labour, who escapes and has to survive by scavenging on a junkyard planet. I enjoyed them both (although admit I found the Jane story more gripping than the Lovelace story.) It's well written and interesting, and I loved the happy ending.
Rating: 4Wow. Yes, it started better when I knew who the heck Lovelace and Pepper were, and why Lovelace was illegal. Though the first chapter, was still awkward and stiff. But then I got to know these people, and the story (stories) sucked me in deep - Jane's story was fascinating, seeing the patterns being played out so much later. Sidra's was even better, deep emotional effects (in/on several people) and the way they play out beyond the individual relationships. Though I'm surprised she didn't mention the nanobots thing to the kit maker - something to add to the user manual. She was extremely lucky, on several levels. Lovely climax - and a great ending, solving a lot of the questions that Sidra'd been struggling with. There's still the larger questions - the status of AIs being the largest - but an excellent rounding off of this story (stories).
Rating: 4I really enjoyed this story, I enjoyed the first story and this is a sequel, but with only a few of the characters that appear in the first story. When I started I was a little put out that it wasn't the same characters again. However this is an interesting read and drew me in and kept me reading.Again it's more a soft sci-fi story rather than hard SF and some of the science employs a lot of handwavium but I just let the story flow and enjoyed the ride.This series has been excellent and I really need to buy book 3, even though I got these free as part of the Hugo Ballot I purchased the first two books after reading the first one.
Rating: 4The sequel in the Wayfarers' series follows a different set of characters in the same universe and explores AI and what it means to be human. It is a great and well-written book. All the characters are great, just like the first book. The AI characters are especially interesting.
Rating: 4This turned out to be one of those books that makes me wonder if I’m a shallow reader. How could I not have loved A Closed and Common Orbit? All of my book friends are raving about the humanity and loveliness of it, and I’m sitting here being like, “Yes, but I was bored for half of it.”A Closed and Common Orbit is a loose sequel to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, but can easily be read independently. Lovelace is a spaceship’s artificial intelligence system, but after a complete shut down and reboot, she wakes up in an artificial body with no memory of her prior existence. She now has the task of figuring out who she is and what her purpose is in life, as well as adjusting to pretending to be human. From the beginning, she’s aided by Pepper, an engineer who’s own past as a Jane, a clone built to work in scrap factory, parallel’s Lovelace’s. A Closed and Common Orbit alternates between Lovelace’s (now Sidra’s) start at life and Pepper’s past as Jane.I really enjoyed the sections focusing on Jane. She’s one of many girls who spend entire lives inside a factory, raised by robots and never seeing the outside world. She has no concept of how large the universe actually is. When an explosion blows a hole in the factory, Jane sees something entirely new — the sky. Soon she’s escaping from the factory and struggling to survive in the harsh junkyard beyond, hoping one day to escape the planet of her birth. Jane’s life was riveting, and I had a hard time resisting the impulses to skip ahead of Sidra’s sections to keep reading about Jane.You may have gathered that I wasn’t as fond of Sidra’s sections. There was no conflict or urgency! It was a slice of life story about Sidra acclimating to not being housed in a ship any more. I was initially thinking there’d be more about Sidra possibly being discovered as an AI, since it’s illegal to house them in artificial bodies. There wasn’t. This whole half of the book is what makes me wonder if I’m shallow. Am I unable to appreciate a slower paced story without obvious conflict? Well, probably yes. Maybe that’s why I like genre so much better than Literature.I can see how Sidra and Jane/Pepper’s stories parallel. They were both constructed to be basically machines, not desired or intended to do anything beyond a specific purpose. Both somehow escape the environment of their creation and have to learn how to find their own purpose, love, family, and all that soppy, feel good stuff. And yes, I’m also wondering if I’m overly cynical and not just shallow.A Closed and Common Orbit is one of those cases where I can confidently say, “Book, it’s me, not you.” As I’ve already said, plenty of my book friends have loved this one, so don’t hesitate to read it on my account. I’ve apparently just got some weird reading tastes.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Rating: 4I waited for the print version.... still not an ebook fan (and I'm looking at a computer screen WAY too much with school). This was a reward for work well done...
And I loved it as much as the first Wayfarers.
Many say they like it better - and I understand that, the story is wonderful - but I think A Long Way has the edge for me.
Still, definite 5 stars, top 10, etc!
Now, must wait for #3
Rating: 4And I loved it as much as the first Wayfarers.
Many say they like it better - and I understand that, the story is wonderful - but I think A Long Way has the edge for me.
Still, definite 5 stars, top 10, etc!
Now, must wait for #3
I was so surprised to realize that there was a sequel to A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I loved this book as much, or possibly more, even.Purpose is a central theme of this book. We are born without a specific purpose, yet, we all seek for purpose and find meaning through that search.This particular book focuses on the back stories of Pepper, and of the AI forthwith known as Lovecraft. The stories are intertwined in the most lovely and lively way.I desperately wanted to reach the end of the book to know what happened, while also dragging it being over.
Rating: 5So often the second book in a trilogy is a let-down as it becomes more of a bridge between the first and third books but I am happy to report that this is not the case with A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. This is the second book in The Wayfarers science fiction trilogy and for me this book was even better than the first. The author wisely keeps many of the things that I loved about the first book such as the high-tech surroundings, the variety of alien species and likeable and complex main characters. She raises the bar by following the story of two of the characters from the first book, that of Pepper, street-smart ace mechanic and Lovelace the AI. Getting to know these characters up close and personal made for a wonderful reading experience. Lovelace, now calling herself Sidra, is the AI who was installed in the ship but has now been transferred to a human-like body. She is struggling to learn how to exist in this new form. The other plot line is Pepper’s back story and her childhood as Jane 23 was truly riveting. I admit that at first I missed the camaraderie of the whole crew being together as in the first book, but it wasn’t long before these plot lines totally engrossed me and their exploration of what constitutes humanity made for an enlightening and thought provoking read. From Sidra’s claustrophobia and extreme sense of self-loss to the appalling nightmare that was Pepper’s childhood, A Closed and Common Orbit was a complete page-turner. It became very easy to root for these characters as they grew together and learned how to build trust and friendship toward one another. I am looking forward to seeing what this inventive author will deliver in the next book. I am sure however she decides to wrap up this trilogy, it will be clever, charming and a fantastic read.
Rating: 5This was probably closer to 3.5 stars for me. I preferred the first book by a lot. It was just a style thing. I felt like the book took forever to get going and while I loved the characters I never became as invested in the story.
Rating: 44.5/5 stars
I really, really loved this book. I loved how we just delved into the characters. The main characters, Sidra, and Pepper, were written so well. I really liked Pepper's backstory and reading about how she got to where she was. I also liked reading from Sidra's perspective, and her struggle to fit in and feel comfortable in her body and with who she can be.
There wasn't a whole lot of plot, but I didn't care. The story is more about the characters and how they adjust to the new situation they are in.
The world was just as good as in the long way to a small angry planet, there wasn't too much world building other than Sidra's new community and Port Coriol and the scrapyard, but it was done quite well. I loved the mosaiq of cultures on Port Coriol and how we got to see the different species again, even if not totally up close like in the previous book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and had a hard time putting it down to go to work.
Rating: 4I really, really loved this book. I loved how we just delved into the characters. The main characters, Sidra, and Pepper, were written so well. I really liked Pepper's backstory and reading about how she got to where she was. I also liked reading from Sidra's perspective, and her struggle to fit in and feel comfortable in her body and with who she can be.
There wasn't a whole lot of plot, but I didn't care. The story is more about the characters and how they adjust to the new situation they are in.
The world was just as good as in the long way to a small angry planet, there wasn't too much world building other than Sidra's new community and Port Coriol and the scrapyard, but it was done quite well. I loved the mosaiq of cultures on Port Coriol and how we got to see the different species again, even if not totally up close like in the previous book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this and had a hard time putting it down to go to work.
I'm still so mad about consent. so mad.
Rating: 4Although this book is based in the same universe Becky Chambers first created in [The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet], its focus is entirely different. In the first book, Chambers created a space opera that centered on the diverse members of a deep space ship, while in [a Closed and Common Orbit] she writes a much more focused, personal story, without a lot of space opera elements. This book is, however, still a wonderful read, because Chambers continues to show that she can write convincingly about different species and the way they approach their lives. In this case, it's all about AIs, the artificial intelligences that do so much in the world Chambers has created. What does it mean to be an AI? Are they capable of more than simply following instructions? This is not a horror story about AIs taking over the world. Instead, it is a deeply human story about the need for purpose and acceptance. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5That was freaking wonderful!
Rating: 5This is a sequel to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Well... sort of. Part of it takes place right after that book, and part of it twenty years earlier, with the two (very much connected) stories alternating chapters. And it doesn't feature the same characters, or, rather, it centers on two characters who appeared only briefly in Small Angry Planet. One is an AI who has been downloaded into a very realistic (and very illegal) android body and is passing for human but having a lot of trouble adjusting to her new circumstances. The other is a girl who was created as genetically altered factory slave labor but escaped to freedom, in a very slow, very difficult way.Unlike Small Angry Planet, there's really not even the pretense of a grand over-arching plot. It's very much a character-based novel, a story about found family, about finding or making your own purpose and identity, about learning to feel comfortable in your own skin (synthetic or otherwise), and about figuring out how to be in the world -- complicated, imperfect, wonderful place that it is.It's not exactly fun the way a lot of the previous book was. But much as I loved that one, I think this one is even better. The characters are terrific. The world is big and engaging. And the story is thoughtful and smart and compassionate and sometimes unexpectedly moving. There may have been a moment or three towards the end where I found myself actually getting a little choked up.
Rating: 5There's hard science fiction and then there's soft science fiction. The hard variety ties back to the 'hard' sciences—math, chemistry, physics... disciplines in which the same inputs follow consistent laws to provide the same outputs each and every time. Then there's soft science fiction. This type speculates from the subject matter of the 'soft' sciences—psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology...the disciplines that study the complex tangles of human behavior. A Closed and Common Orbit falls firmly in the second science fiction category. There are spaceships and high-tech, but they don't make a lot of sense.* That's sometimes irritating, but the tech is not essential to a story like this. The real story is about strange cultures and the people (broadly defined) who reside in them.
This novel has two arcs. One is about a slave girl who struggles to understand what it's like to be outside the regimented routine of her forced labor. Freedom is difficult. It comes with choices and responsibilities, and she finds the outside world much large and more complex than she ever imagined. The second arc of the story is about a former ship's AI (sentient and sapient) who awakes in a new android body. This isn't what she was made for, and she's having a tough time adjusting.
Both arcs are journeys of self-discovery, but they don't devolve into an annoying amount of introspective angst. The characters don't collapse in self-pity, at least not for long. They analyze their problems, evaluate their resources, and take action. I can relate to them. I find them quite likeable. They are ethical, admirable, and a joy to spend time with.
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* Actually, there are some serious problems with the tech in this book. The most egregious is what amounts to a perpetual motion machine that powers an android (one of the main characters). I'm sorry, Becky, but this is unforgivable (and my rating dropped a star due to it). Even soft science fiction has to respect basic physical laws. You can't get more energy out of a system than you put into it. A self-winding machine won't work. Then there's the matter of emotional machines with no attempt to explain how or why anyone would build such things. This didn't bug me as much because it doesn't violate any physical laws, but it's an obvious question without an answer in the context of the story.
Rating: 4This novel has two arcs. One is about a slave girl who struggles to understand what it's like to be outside the regimented routine of her forced labor. Freedom is difficult. It comes with choices and responsibilities, and she finds the outside world much large and more complex than she ever imagined. The second arc of the story is about a former ship's AI (sentient and sapient) who awakes in a new android body. This isn't what she was made for, and she's having a tough time adjusting.
Both arcs are journeys of self-discovery, but they don't devolve into an annoying amount of introspective angst. The characters don't collapse in self-pity, at least not for long. They analyze their problems, evaluate their resources, and take action. I can relate to them. I find them quite likeable. They are ethical, admirable, and a joy to spend time with.
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* Actually, there are some serious problems with the tech in this book. The most egregious is what amounts to a perpetual motion machine that powers an android (one of the main characters). I'm sorry, Becky, but this is unforgivable (and my rating dropped a star due to it). Even soft science fiction has to respect basic physical laws. You can't get more energy out of a system than you put into it. A self-winding machine won't work. Then there's the matter of emotional machines with no attempt to explain how or why anyone would build such things. This didn't bug me as much because it doesn't violate any physical laws, but it's an obvious question without an answer in the context of the story.
This book made me cry a little for all the right reasons.
Very good, hated to have it end. This works as a stand alone book as well as a sequel. Especially liked how Pepper's story and Sidra's stories worked together and the thoughtful depictions of AI characters.
Rating: 5I wanted to get back to the set of characters in The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and so had trouble committing to the story line, but eventually started enjoying the story in front of me which had some interesting discussion on the issues of existence as an AI in a non-target body.
Rating: 4A companion volume rather than sequel, this is moving and humane, proving that space opera doesn't have to be about space battles or galactic intrigue. An AI in need of a purpose, trying to adapt to an environment she was never designed for. A young woman trying to escape the circumstances she was designed to serve in. Friendship, found family, identity, personhood, self-determination, privilege, prejudice, paying things forward and more all wrapped up with care, respect and consideration. How can you fit so many FEELINGS in one book?
Rating: 5Becky Chambers has done it again. She's written another cozy yet deep scifi novel that isn't about people saving the galaxy or taking on some big bad guy. No, her books are about people being people, even if they happen to be AIs. Despite the lack of major stakes, these books are not boring in the slightest--they are tense, gripping, and emotional.A Closed and Common Orbit would work as a complete stand-alone book. It follows an AI, Lovelace, as she learns to navigate a not-so-legal humanoid body. It also delves into the back story of Pepper, a minor character from the first book. Much of Pepper's story takes place in the past, but it's still horribly intense because you want her to be okay. You want to find out how she ended up where she is. And the end... it's beautiful. I had tears in my eyes. I'm getting teary again just thinking about it. The book creates a surprising love letter to fandom and its transformative power in people's lives--indeed, how it can keep us alive.
Rating: 5