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Jul. 30th, 2019 10:18 amRecord of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Dude, nobody told me that Becky Chambers wrote a book about Space Jews!
The third in her Wayfarers series, Record is set among the Exodans, a group of exiles from Earth who have been living on generation ships for a couple of centuries and only relatively recently made contact with the greater Galactic community. They have a codified culture based on a long-transmitted tradition of communal ritual, they are struggling now with questions of assimilation to the Galactic norms, and... did I mention that they are called Exodans?
A central storyline involves a character whose family left the Exodan fleet before he was born who returns as a young adult to explore his heritage on what is basically a culturally inept Space Birthright. The hilarity and truth of his Space Birthright experience was my favorite part of the early going, but then it takes a dark twist, so... not so funny by the end.
I enjoyed the weave of the world, the shifting narrators and perspectives on what it means to be home, what it means to be an exile, what it means to experience death of those close to us. I did think that the worldbuilding drifted uncomfortably, insupportably utopic in places... Chambers spends a lot of time on the ways in which Exodan culture fails those on its margins, but she doesn't spend a lot of time challenging the idea that Exodan culture is just this monolithic thing that mostly works for those who aren't at those margins. The Exodan fleet is constructed such that when there is an unexpected murder, it is a stunning surprise to even those who spend their lives dealing with death, and I found that surprise the most unbelievable moment in the whole story.
But on the whole I really enjoyed it, and I think Wayfarers may be that rare series where I have thus far enjoyed each book more than the one preceding it.
Also, Space Jews dance in this book.
Dude, nobody told me that Becky Chambers wrote a book about Space Jews!
The third in her Wayfarers series, Record is set among the Exodans, a group of exiles from Earth who have been living on generation ships for a couple of centuries and only relatively recently made contact with the greater Galactic community. They have a codified culture based on a long-transmitted tradition of communal ritual, they are struggling now with questions of assimilation to the Galactic norms, and... did I mention that they are called Exodans?
A central storyline involves a character whose family left the Exodan fleet before he was born who returns as a young adult to explore his heritage on what is basically a culturally inept Space Birthright. The hilarity and truth of his Space Birthright experience was my favorite part of the early going, but then it takes a dark twist, so... not so funny by the end.
I enjoyed the weave of the world, the shifting narrators and perspectives on what it means to be home, what it means to be an exile, what it means to experience death of those close to us. I did think that the worldbuilding drifted uncomfortably, insupportably utopic in places... Chambers spends a lot of time on the ways in which Exodan culture fails those on its margins, but she doesn't spend a lot of time challenging the idea that Exodan culture is just this monolithic thing that mostly works for those who aren't at those margins. The Exodan fleet is constructed such that when there is an unexpected murder, it is a stunning surprise to even those who spend their lives dealing with death, and I found that surprise the most unbelievable moment in the whole story.
But on the whole I really enjoyed it, and I think Wayfarers may be that rare series where I have thus far enjoyed each book more than the one preceding it.
Also, Space Jews dance in this book.