mutterwingwhirr (
mutterwingwhirr) wrote2023-05-19 04:36 pm
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the long way to a small angry planet -- 100% review
gosh. how to even summarize this book. i'm not sure i even CAN. what a load of gut punches /pos. AND KIZZY'S CONNECTION BETWEEN ROSEMARY BEING ANGRY AND THE SHIP BEING IN DANGER WITH WHAT SHE AND PEI GOT TO TALK ABOUT WHEN SHE WAS ALSO SCARED. i loved how that all looped back around. i loved that corbin came back into focus when he was nearly forgotten in the narrative. i loved that everyone in this book got a moment of their own, a moment with a significant relationship, and some feeling of closure. and i can't believe i get to read more in this universe! did you know this book has sequels?
i truly have come out of this book wishing each vignette was longer, lingered more in and around the spaces they were trying to evoke. it was so satisfying to be in there... this is the kind of book that i wish lasted forever, like this. and once again, it feels like the summation of ttrpg events. the info drop of the extraordinary toremi hearing and comprehension-- something the readers know but that the crew never receives. the jump. ohan's withered form. corbin's surprising recovery into a really interesting space? i just wish there had been more of everything.
no, let me amend my statements about this book. it's not a summation of events that took place over the course of a traditional ttrpg campaign, where players interact with environments and npcs as their interests are piqued.. it's something closer to a series of memoirs from the players after the campaign finished. it's backfilling the space just before the iconic moment of each chapter or leg. and, i guess, in this analogy, half the players are missing from the table every session? and i wish i'd had more... more of people talking to other people, not just having significant one-on-one time with a specific person on the crew, not private conversations sequestered between dramatic moments. like, don't get me wrong, this book absolutely rocked me to my core -- and made me cry a lot! so onto my permashelf it goes -- and i loved every second of it. but for as punchy and vignettey it is, it lacks the feel of players making decisions at a table in each others' presence. that was the one thing i felt was relatively weak--not of the storyteller, per se, or even of the material they were working with... just structurally i think, in order to give everyone their own significant moment, it required the others to be overshadowed in the buildup/aftermath.
but for what it's worth, i think this book did a fantastic job bringing you in to this queer, warm, non-species-centric version of space travel. so many books about space emphasize the newness of encountering different species (probably to onboard the reader with the least amount of friction) and... in a sort of star trek-ish sort of way, this book starts long after first contact has occurred. and i appreciate it a lot, being introduced to these more alien aspects not as characters learn them for the first time but as a reminder to decenter myself and my experiences and expectations. how else can you truly appreciate someone else's way of living?
i have no idea what the popular response to this book has been. but my hope is that the way this book speaks about lowercase o others, the normalized practice of using neutral pronouns when speaking about someone of indeterminate gender, the kindness with which the characters engage with people and practices that are different from their own.... i hope it reaches people. i hope they can envision a world as kind, and work towards making it real for all of us.
5/5
i truly have come out of this book wishing each vignette was longer, lingered more in and around the spaces they were trying to evoke. it was so satisfying to be in there... this is the kind of book that i wish lasted forever, like this. and once again, it feels like the summation of ttrpg events. the info drop of the extraordinary toremi hearing and comprehension-- something the readers know but that the crew never receives. the jump. ohan's withered form. corbin's surprising recovery into a really interesting space? i just wish there had been more of everything.
no, let me amend my statements about this book. it's not a summation of events that took place over the course of a traditional ttrpg campaign, where players interact with environments and npcs as their interests are piqued.. it's something closer to a series of memoirs from the players after the campaign finished. it's backfilling the space just before the iconic moment of each chapter or leg. and, i guess, in this analogy, half the players are missing from the table every session? and i wish i'd had more... more of people talking to other people, not just having significant one-on-one time with a specific person on the crew, not private conversations sequestered between dramatic moments. like, don't get me wrong, this book absolutely rocked me to my core -- and made me cry a lot! so onto my permashelf it goes -- and i loved every second of it. but for as punchy and vignettey it is, it lacks the feel of players making decisions at a table in each others' presence. that was the one thing i felt was relatively weak--not of the storyteller, per se, or even of the material they were working with... just structurally i think, in order to give everyone their own significant moment, it required the others to be overshadowed in the buildup/aftermath.
but for what it's worth, i think this book did a fantastic job bringing you in to this queer, warm, non-species-centric version of space travel. so many books about space emphasize the newness of encountering different species (probably to onboard the reader with the least amount of friction) and... in a sort of star trek-ish sort of way, this book starts long after first contact has occurred. and i appreciate it a lot, being introduced to these more alien aspects not as characters learn them for the first time but as a reminder to decenter myself and my experiences and expectations. how else can you truly appreciate someone else's way of living?
i have no idea what the popular response to this book has been. but my hope is that the way this book speaks about lowercase o others, the normalized practice of using neutral pronouns when speaking about someone of indeterminate gender, the kindness with which the characters engage with people and practices that are different from their own.... i hope it reaches people. i hope they can envision a world as kind, and work towards making it real for all of us.
5/5
no subject
I Agree!!
By excluding that element, by including the personal and essentially shrugging off the melodrama inherent in tight-knit communities like these, we get to see sides of characters not usually explored in popular contemporary stories.
It's been a while since I read it, but I greatly enjoyed and was enraptured by the idea of Sissix's multiple families: the egg family, the hatch family, and the feather family (which you touched on in an earlier post). I've never seen anything quite like it before in media, as alien cultures are typically rendered as something ultimately human but more fringe-like, like never-having-heard-of-monogamy-lite or simply asexual (another relationship lens through which we rarely gaze). But Sissix, and by extension Chambers, explains that, sure, it's alien to humans and a lot of other races, seen as low and off-putting in social situations, but it is, at bottom, entirely normal.
Unfortunately, Sissix's and Rosemary's relationship, though believable, heartfelt and altogether great, did feel a bit rushed. Although, I cannot recall just how long the total journey took. Nine months or something like that? It's a pretty dense book -- and universe -- so I suppose things just needed doing at some point.
And I love that phrase you used: lowercase o others. That perfectly sums up this book, as so much is explained in this lovely book without condescension or expectation; the things presented, complicated and nuanced as they might be, just *are*, and there's nothing wrong with that.
It's a very kind book (and review!), as you said, and I look forward to reading many like it, as well as more of your reviews!
Re: I Agree!!