Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers #3) by Becky Chambers
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2018
- Genre: Sci-Fi
- Format: Paperback
- Page Count: 358 pages
- My Rating: ★★★ (3/5)
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
‘I am seventy-nine years old. If I want dessert twice . . . I get dessert twice.’
Tamsin
Content warnings: catastrophic spaceship accident resulting in ~44k deaths, bodies, death of prominent character, equivalent of underage smoking of weed?, PTSD?
When I read a few reviews stating that there is virtually no plot in this installment, I was excited that it must be very character-driven. Sadly, there were a bit too many characters, similar to The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (my review here) but with looser bonds. Since it took me a month to read the book, that could also be a reason why I failed to connect with any of the characters and felt that the plot dragged a little. That being said, I love the pureness of them all and also the philosophical questions Record of a Spaceborn Few decides to tackle.
I love the octogenarian wives (yes, married to each other) Isabel Itoh and Tamsin (79). They are such fun old ladies. There is a visiting Harmagian scholar Ghuh’loloan who provides an outsider view of the human race. We have Ashby’s (from TLWTASAP) older sister Tessa Santoso (40s) and her children Aya (9), who is suffering from what seems like an undiagnosed PTSD after witnessing the Oxomoco accident, and Ky (2), who is the most adorably written, chaotic toddler character I have ever read.
Aya sniffled mightily and said: ‘Can I say a swear word?’
[…]‘Yes,’ Tessa said. ‘This is a time when a swear word is entirely appropriate.’
Aya took a breath. ‘I fucking hate them,’ she said. ‘I’m gonna kick all their asses.’
Then we also have Sawyer Gursky (23), the grounder who heads to the Fleet for a change, and Kip Madaki (15, bi+), a teen who always feels out of place in the communal Fleet life. There is also Eyas, a caretaker, whose work is to treat dead bodies with respect and compost them for the garden, and Sunny, a sex worker whom Eyas frequently visits and one of the warmest (like his name) and most wonderful characters ever.
The book opens with Aya witnessing the Oxomoco accident that killed an estimate of forty-three-thousand-six-hundred people. The entire plot more or less circles around this tragic incident and all these previously unrelated characters are slowly brought together throughout the course of the story.
I would say that the main point of Record of the Spaceborn Few is about remembering history, about where one came from, and what one truly wants. We also get to learn a lot about the ways of living on the Fleet, and the communal lives are loving and beautiful, too. This story is also about passing on traditions and creating new opportunities, and equally importantly, about the cycle of life and death.
Buddy read with E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook! Check out her review here!
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