The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
Hodder. 2014
Rosemary Harper signs on as a certified clerk to the small spaceship Wayfarer, whose multi-species crew builds small hyperspace tunnels through navigable space. She wants a fresh start to get away from her secret past, and this looks ideal. But then the Wayfarer is offered a big job: to build a long hyperspace tunnel from a newly joined member of the Galactic Commons. The job is valuable, but it will involve a long trip to the starting point. The contract will allow them to move their tunnelling operation into the big league, so they snap it up. But the long trip will expose everyone’s secrets…
Both that summary, and even moreso the book cover blurb, make this sound as if it is a book about Rosemary and her past, and that thrilling adventures will ensue. In fact, it is a book with an ensemble cast, and an episodic travelogue style, as the ship moves through a variety of encounters that help uncover different aspects and secrets of both the crew members, and their various species. Stakes are high, but on the individual rather than the galactic level.
And it’s just delightful. The various alien species are alien enough to be interestingly different, without being incomprehensible. The different species are not monolithic: there are different characters within each. Humans are more fleshed out than the other species: there are three specific subgroups, of old-Earthers, Mars colonists, and the ship-born. But this is actually a plot point: the rest of the GC think humans are under-civilised because of this. The small events we see do have consequence, if sometimes only for one or two characters, and help gradually paint a rich picture of this future galaxy. There is tension and conflict and loss and revelation, but relatively little violence. The characters are simply adult and competent, rather than overly-dramatic, cartoonish, or hyper-competent. It feels real.
I once summarised a book to a friend as “nothing happens, but it’s very exciting!”. This one is maybe: “nothing happens, but it’s wonderful!” I went straight out and bought the next book.
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