A Closed and Common Orbit

Wayfarers, Book 2

By: Becky Chambers

Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez

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 to start over in a synthetic body, in a world where her kind are illegal. She's never felt so alone. But she's not alone, not really.

Pepper, one of the engineers who risked life and limb to reinstall Lovelace, is determined to help her adjust to her new world. Because Pepper knows a thing or two about starting over.

Together Pepper and Lovey will discover that, huge as the galaxy may be, it's anything but empty. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced listeners to the incredible imagination of Becky Chambers and has been nominated for any number of awards and accolades, including the Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction, the Tiptree Award, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect and Star Wars.

©2016 Becky Chambers (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

The imagination. Putting into words the coding.

Liked the characters. Glimpses into what could be in the future. The pace of the story.

Even Wholesomer than the first!

At the beggining I wasn't sure about the change of scope and characters. I really like the Wayfarer's crew.
Now, I think this book is brilliant.
The complex interactions between characters, Peppers backstory, the implications with sentience and AI (as relevant as ever).
Now I don't mind the smaller scope, is a beautiful story lovely written and I'm a bigger fan now, eager to continue with the third one!

This narrator takes the cake

The narrator really made this book come alive. I absolutely adored her performance and it made me love the book even more. I don't know if I would have enjoyed the book as much as I did if it hadn't been for her.

Galactic Commons, interesting place

Enjoyed this story even more than the first one. I enjoyed the alternating P.O.V. along with the depth of description and world building. The interactions are well described and the planets and space-ship life are fascinating, even after all the years I have been reading this genre.

INCREDIBLE

The narrator was phenomenal. The writing was superb. The story was beautiful. Cannot recommend this book enough. The whole serious is excellent, too.

Recommended

I liked this book even more than the first book in the series. Great characters. Important topics.

Not compelling - plot lacks a reason to care

Where book one was successful at creating a broad universe and set of characters, book two failed at drilling down into the back story and day-to-day lives of a few, previously minor, characters.

What's disappointing is that there are some interesting sci-fi / AI ideas scattered in book two, so the failure wasn't on the sci-fi side, but just that the overall plot failed provide me with a reason to invest in the characters. I'm three quarters of the way through and going to return the book. I don't care about the fate of the characters, and I'm struggling to pay attention.

Also the repetition of the word 'real', becomes real tedious, real fast. I know there was a purpose to it, but I'm pretty sure everyone knew who Jane was upon our first introduction to her.

Not a great continuation of the series

The characters are interesting but not enough so for me to get invested in them. As a result, the book drags on forever. It doesn't help that whatever little plot there is is easily predictable and just not so interesting to begin with.

It is not a terrible book but as someone looking for a good sequel to a great first book, this was just so much less compelling.