Record of a Spaceborn Few
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Circling Sometimes i wish it could drown my past I can see…
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Comments from YouTube:

Alan S

3y↑12

I liked your comments on the book and appreciation for this character driven story but I think you scored it a little light. The whole point of the book is that it presents a refreshing take on human-alien relations (yes we can get along) and the fun is in watching those relationships develop against the background of the quite simple plot. And the fact that the ship's AI is one of those really well fleshed out characters (if an AI can be 'fleshed out') just adds to the whole experience, in my opinion. This is a crew you care about. For me, it's an 8.5. Certainly one of my favourite books of the last couple of years.

Media Death Cult

3y↑4

Oh no, i’m happy with a light 7, i understand it’s good at what it does but it has issues, 7, glad you loved it

Alyssa H

3y↑6

I'm one of the people who loved this book but I think this review was really fair. I do hope you continue to book 2 especially if you enjoyed the AI character as it splits off from the main crew and focuses on her with a bunch of new an more complex characters added to the mix. Definitely worth a read when you get sick of your "depressing middle aged man sci-fi" lol

ChrisJClegg

3y↑3

I liked it as an exploration of different alien races interacting with each other’s cultures and ways of saying and doing things; the parenting and hatch families of the lizards for example.
I liked the story of the race almost wiped out, which the Doctor Chef belonged to.
I suppose I need a recommendation of a “deeper” sci-fi novel that does something similar.

Kodack Gaming

3y↑1

I think the reason everybody liked this book in 2020 was everybody needed a hug. Also, you should read the other books. The first book is kind of an introduction, and the subsequent books each explore a different part of that world. It's no Deepness in the Sky, but it's a good series and I enjoyed it and the other books in the series.

Cm Mosher

I read this just after Christmas after about 3 or months of not seeing any humans outside of the grocery store clerks and my mom. I may just have read it at a time when I needed it but I really got invested in these characters because they felt like regular real people who the pandemic had kept me away from. I thought the second book had a more coherent story.
At the end the book was just sorta comfy when I needed a comfy book. Mind I read it either right before or right after rereading The Exorcist so I haven't given up on reading dark stuff.

Plimandis Dehrim

3y↑5

It was an okay read for me. It wasn't a horrible book, but as I was reading it, I increasingly got the feeling the author was trying to sell me a house, showing me all this different places and ticking off some mental list about the different houses' features, their histories and my future neighbors. It was a lot of information, but it was all very brief. If you know what I mean.

Books Songs and Other Magic

3y↑2

I found it refreshing, although I absolutely get what the criticisms are and how Chambers' style flies in the face of what we're all used to reading. I do like how unusual it is to read something with this focus and this style of writing. I agree it takes a while to get going, and agree that it pays off by the end of it - the 2nd book is much better I think; I felt a lot more invested in the characters and went back to it more enthusiastically as I was reading it - the 3rd one I think is the weakest as that is much more of a slice of life kind of style and not a lot happens (even for Becky Chambers!!) - so if you're curious, I think the 2nd book is stronger, but I do like that she's writing in a different way to most people...my 'two cents'...

Touché

Agreed. I loved the second book. Fourth one is also good.

Minus

2y↑1

Thank you for this review! You seem very honest and I'm very happy seeing both positives and negatives. I really wanna read this book after this review. Also, I love characters and I could really do with a light, feel-good book right about now.
Keep up your great reviews! Peace✌️💜

edit spelling

Richard Jones

3y↑4

Great review Moid. It's good to have a middling book from time to time. Not everything has to be super or super-awful. The thing about nice characters intrigued me. One of the things I always Like about Star Trek:TNG was that there were no real assholes on the ship. It was just people trying to do their jobs the best they could in exceptional circumstances.

Mark Matlock

I enjoyed that this book was lighter fare than some of the "usual" sci-fi reads that I've done lately. I agree with Moid that the start of the book was a bit slow, and sometimes it did feel like not much was going on actually threatening the characters.
However, by the end of the book most of the characters had grown on me quite a bit, and the crew's character development and the individual moralistic choices they made were the meat of the story.

Tony Cross

3y↑1

I read this a while ago and enjoyed it to a degree. I think it is definitely a stronger character piece than a plot piece. Personally, I'm a bit tired of "dark and gritty" as the constant thread in my reading. Sometimes it's nice to read something where characters aren't all cynical and angry. Your review is fair though I think. The writing does the job of telling the story without wanky intellectual frippery, which is also nice. I agree about the infodumps. There are better ways of doing it. So, to cut a long comment short. I liked it, but I obviously didn't like it enough to leap straight onto the second book, which I've owned for ages but actually haven't got around to reading. I might re-read it. And finally, pick up the second book.

Christina Hagenauer

3y↑3

Oh, I loved this book. It was like a nice, warm and a bit scaly embrace.

John

I remember really enjoying the book when I read it (in fact I scored it 5/5 on Goodreads), but I get what you're saying. I've since read a few books that I think were heavily influenced by this one and they did annoy me.

mrsmiastef

I really liked this book! Very different too what I normally read, but I did enjoy it.

Sarah Smith

3y↑2

I really liked it - not as much as 'Record of a Spaceborn Few' but enough to buy the rest of her books. I usually like the hard and the gloomy sci-fi - Alistair Reynolds, Iain M. Banks and Ken macLeod are my favourite writers - but there's something about Becky Chambers that makes my heart sing and puts a stupid smile on my face. I think a glimpse of a future where we've got even a vague chance of happiness makes me go mad with joy.

I particularly enjoyed how irked you seemed that you fell under the spell, despite everything. I bet you a pound to a penny you'll go back and check what happens.

SuperPlastered

Thank you for the review! I’ve had this on my list for a while.

Veruca Salt

I've only read the first 2 books, gave them both 3/5 stars. The 2nd book has maybe 2 or 3 of the characters from the first book in it & it's not as good as the first. I'd love to read more about Corbin & Dr. Chef. Those 2 were my favorites.

R Stuckey

3y↑15

I was one of the people who hated it, but I get why people like it. The characters did very little for me and too many of them were too pure and good and lacked many actual flaws. Just boring

Mariëtte Van Zyl

3y↑3

Same here. I had to force myself to finish it. Also, Kizzy worked on my nerves way too much.

durwood maccool

3y↑2

Kizzy was fun, but yeah a little bit much.

SciFiScavenger

51w

I liked it way more than i thought I would! I gave it a 7, 7.5 in my review (posted this morning). You had many of the same thoughts as me I think but maybe I went with it a bit more. I'll definitely read the next one.

Sonjammer

Ok Moid you’ve convinced me, I’ve got this book on my shelf unread and that’s how it’s gonna stay

Steve Andrews

3y↑1

Well at least I'm not gutted as I was with the On Basilisk Station review as you did kinda like this one. I bought it on speck and loved it and the series, loved it so much the series jumped high into my all time series top 10.
This is a character study as you point out and as a first novel that is stunning and no the plot doesn't take third place because as it is a character study that is the plot. I think too many people have missed this point which is why it's such a stunning debut. Character studies are notoriously difficult to write well and this is written very well and again that it is the plot. Added to this is the complex and intricate world building with alien and human interaction not just on the ship but outside it as well and the novel is complete.
Literature is filled with character studies but in science fiction it is unusual which is why the comments are filled with so many dislikes. Yet for me this is why I loved it and I normally don't read character study books. But Chambers has successfully blended a character study and Sci fi and created a positive world view. It shows that sci fi is a clever smart genre not just one made up of adolescent males reading books about hero's with ray guns saving scantily clad females from evil aliens, a perception many hold. This is a gentle different view of the future filled with hard science unique characters and world building that I found refreshing.

DDB

I didnt love it but it grew on me. I think 6.5 is about right. It's not bad for a debut self-published novel. I didnt mind the way she did the info dumps.

Josh Salwen

3y↑1

I really enjoyed it. I liked the next one even more. It is similar in that it focuses on characters, but it also does world building. And it focuses on different characters.

Christopher Lamb

I liked this one pretty good. A quick, easy read. I am now reading it again and I am finding it a little hard to get through. The magic and novel approach of the low-stakes fun friendly romp just doesn't really hold up well on a second read, when in a great book you would admire the writing (it's nothing fancy) or notice clues and details that you missed the first time around (there are none).

Rayjuken L

The next two are also character focused but the stories are much more interesting to me. Hope you check em out. But you got a full plate

Augustus87 Heron

I was hoping you might draw your pistols on the fly and let loose! Your synopsis sounds a little like a character focused Star Trek novel, where the ship takes a large part of the center stage, and the themes are driven by personal conflict. The Next Generation got bogged down by tech explanations as well. It's okay for bad characters to flex their muscles and earn our hatred as readers. It's a great thing to see characters change in their story arcs, for change brings growth, and we can celebrate their "wins" along with them when they succeed.

CT2013

I thought the book was fine. I did read the blurb, which was a mistake. By page 300, I noticed that nothing had happened. Every story beat is very easily solved and everyone is happy. There's almost no tension, I wish the author didn't even bother trying to make a plot and just explored the characters living on the ship 100% completely committed to that.

SPOILERS

I also felt like the ending part of the book, where captain human argues with the galactic federation about not allowing the lobster people to be part of the teleportation relay was really stupid. He isn't a famous/well-known/widely-respected or revered character. Why would they discount all of their advisors (assuming they have advisors) and all of the political discussions because one human captain argues with them after finishing a delivery?

Su Si

3y↑1

I liked it. But the second one is much better. It has great characters AND a plot. It is about other characters then the first one. Only the AI from the first book will be there.

Hilary

I'm right there with you Moid. I enjoyed the nice, fluffy break from the intense space operas and horrible dystopians. I do like it enough to continue on with the series, especially since it doesn't really follow the other characters and focuses mostly on the AI.

Sci Fi Bookery

I just picked this up at a library sale and jumped on to see what people thought and now I don't want to read it hahaha

Matt McQueen

I have this on audiobook, and really wanted to like it, but couldn't get through it. I need to give it another chance.

iceman696

I thought the plot in this book was kind of dull but the character development was really great. She can paint some really great worlds but the plot was lacking. I feel like Becky would be amazing at developing video games and coming up with races and characters. I actually thought Book 2 was the best in the series. It was more character development but that was key to the story. Book 3 was kind of... boring. Like I only finished it because I couldn't believe the book could be about nothing and something had to happen but nothing actually happened.

Ryan S

3y↑2

Judging a book by its cover is a short way to a small, angry review.

Boromir Jonah

This was one of my few DNF's Made it about 70 pages in. Presenting the AI of the ship as a character has been done so well before that I just couldn't keep going. There's HAL, the computer on STAR TREK. Jarvis.

Lorcan Nagle

3y↑1

I would say continue with the series, or maybe skip A Closed and Common Orbit but give Record of a Spaceborne few a try. It's almost wholly separate from Long Way (one of the characters is Ashby's sister and he's mentioned in it), it has more of a plot with some conflict and tension, and delves deeply into the society of the Exodan humans and that gives it more of a worldbuilding bite

Media Death Cult

Hmmm, i’m thinking about it

The Comic Board

2y↑1

IDK, I think if you give a book a 7 (I'm assuming that's out of 10) then it would be good enough to want to continue the series. Personally, I made it 60% of the way through and it's my first DNF in probably a decade. There are so many better SF books out there that I couldn't think of anyone I'd recommend this to. 1 star.

Media Death Cult

2y↑1

I agree that a 7/10 is usually worthy enough to continue the series, however, I have a lot on my plate and I have to make every YouTube review count, the time to read the books and the diminished returns on the reviews is not quite worth it

Stuart Gale

I might pick this book up if i see it in the wild, but it would be low on the priority list.

Kiko Aquino

Good book! And when I say good, I mean kind 🤔

uptown3636

I enjoyed this book, but not in the way that I typically enjoy books. I enjoyed the setting, characters, and episodic nature of the so-called plot. I tend to be pretty jaded and a bit too judgmental, and this book made me feel a sense of childlike wonder and optimism.

Moid, if you're considering the sequels, please know that the series doesn't continue the story of this crew. The second book is darker and follows a certain AI with whom you might be familiar, based on the last few pages of book one.

Ruud

I rate this review 8 out of 10 Moids.

Ebone Skydiver

3y↑1

Meh. I had on OK time reading it too. But two days after I'd read it I couldn't have told you much about it. I thought the series might get better, so I carried on. Book two felt about the same, book three gave me a nearly terminal case of boredom and disinterest so I DNF.

Xlerb_Again_to_Music

3y↑3

Sadly I seem to have stalled 1/2 way through. Why? Other books came along, and my interest moved...

Jeszika Le Vye

3y↑19

a very generous book review I'd say - though this is one of the few sci-fi books I've ever read that I legitimately hated. It felt like Teletubbies in space. For supposedly being a character-focused novel - the characters felt incredibly simplistic, obvious and for the most part lacked any real character arcs where they could be challenged, flawed, or grow. They were all just 'nice'. And then stayed 'nice' from beginning to end. And that was supposed to be the best part of the book that made up for everything else sucking so hard?

The only thing I actually thought had any value at all were a few of the little seed ideas about the binary alien or such - but then was executed so poorly I almost wish some other writer would have thought them up rather than her - so they might have had a chance of being put to interesting, insightful or nuanced use. This was definitely a 1-star rating for me.

J. T.

3y↑4

+1 same

Sarah Smith

3y↑4

Teletubbies in space! That made me crack up, even as I shrieked in outrage!

Iane

Hated this book so much that I couldn't even muster the energy to write an appropriate critique of it. Thank you for your service. Wish I had read it before buying this piece of crap.

durwood maccool

More or less my reaction to it. I mostly liked it. The characters and the relationships were definitely the best part of it. And yeah they were all really nice, which is okay. The only thing that I really didn't like is another Ruined Earth plot element. Humans have made the Earth mostly uninhabitable and left. And the only people who seem to have any concern for that are made out to be objects of ridicule.
That's just really, really bugging me these days.

Rebecca Sweetman

I gave up after a few chapters, found the characters sickeningly chummy. Not my thing at all but i like things a bit dark and edgy

Norm McDonald

3y↑1

I'd give it a five just for Kizzy lol. Though the audiobook might have made her sound more annoying that she would appear when physically reading it.

R Stuckey

3y↑2

I physically read it....she is the most annoying character in fiction

Jeszika Le Vye

3y↑1

I agree - and I read the physical book and she was still unbearable so I can't even imagine having to listen to her polka dotted spastic outbursts.

Andy

3y↑1

Audiobook made everyone annoying

xavierxeon

I like the book, because it was just a change of pace to my normal reading. It is a soap opera, kind of like Star Trek for hippies. And a bit like a beer and a pizza. Nothing special or groundbreaking, but enjoyable while it lasts.

Nandor Books

The second one is the better of the serie.

Rayjuken L

3y↑1

The second two are much better

Eric Johansson

First book was the best in the series and it was just....meh , soft 5

Retaliation Studios

@Media Death Cult I am in the process of writing my debut novel, PANTHEON, a book about angels, gods, and demons in the modern era. It's a cross between Percy Jackson and H.P. Lovecraft, and I think you'll like it. Not gonna spoil it, but I do want to let you know, it has everything when talking about multiple mythologies of certain gods.

Andy Taylor

3y↑3

Read it last year. Like being locked in a cupboard for a weekend with an irritating clique of nerds, in book form.
Maybe I'm a bit of a miserable, middle aged bastard too.
I did just about manage to finish it, then luckily, dived straight into Look To Windward after. Nice.

William Dalglish

hes got guns

Mike Schroeder

3y↑3

I read this because I thought this was supposed to be a Science Fiction (SF) novel. And I suppose it is if you consider Flash Gordon to be SF.

This is really just a vehicle to preach to the readers about being nice to one another and to be non-judgemental. It is essentially an SJW tome written for the YA crowd. It is full of wonderful 'lessons' like, "Be nice to pirates or brigands, and they will be nice to you." Another example of a fine 'insight' is, "Consider having intimate relations with a feathered, egg laying, lizard alien. You might like it."

Good word, what nonsense. I can suspend disbelief when reading good SF, but this was just too much!

I'll be nice and rate this 1/10 rather than the 0/10 that it so richly deserves.

sharkymouth

3y↑4

Really didn’t like this one. Felt like a product of Twitter. If it was made for TV Or film, it’d be shown on BBC 2 on a Sunday evening. Maybe I’m just getting old.