Today is week three of a readalong of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.  The readalong has been organised by Lisa at Over The Effing Rainbow and is part of this year’s Sci-Fi Month.  The details for the readalong are here and the schedule looks like this:

Week 1 (Friday, November 6th): “Transit” to “The Job” – hosted by Over The Effing Rainbow
Week 2 (Friday, November 13th): “Port Coriol” to “Cricket” – hosted by Chris @ Galleywampus
Week 3 (Friday, November 20th): “The Last War” to “October 25” – hosted by Claire Rousseau
Week 4 (Friday, November 27th): “Heresy” to end – hosted by Over The Effing Rainbow

All welcome.

So, to the questions, with a timely reminder before we start that the following may contain spoilers:

1. There is a lot of focus on some of the different alien races in this section, from Dr Chef recounting the story of his people’s decline and Sissix introducing Rosemary to her families, to the surprise visit from the Aeluons and the much less welcome search by the Quelin. What are your thoughts on the various beliefs systems we encounter? Does anything specific pique your interest more than the rest?

These were all really interesting little glimpses into the different alien races we’re encountering and I think all deserve a mention.  It was lovely to see Sissix amongst her own people and to witness how comfortable and happy she was.  Their family systems are quite fascinating but are clearly very effective for them.  I really liked the explanations – for example, the way the older members look after the children – because they have more knowledge and experience (not to mention patience ) – and also because the younger members want to go off exploring.  You have to admit that the reasoning really stacked up.    I just really enjoyed that whole episode to be honest.  The Aeluons – they seem a very calm, almost detached race – and yet that’s not really true as we see through Pei – perhaps that feeling arises simply because they communicate differently. Another enjoyable story – bit scary having all those bombs on board their ship.  And the Quelin, well they didn’t really come out in a very good light did they.  It just goes to show that you can simply look at the different races on a planet or you can go into space and look at all sorts of different species, but, at the end of the day, you’ll find a certain element who treat others wrong.  Course I can’t speak for all Quelin – as this could be a small group and not representative and I wouldn’t like to tar everyone with the same brush?? (Although that didn’t really come across here).

2. Ashby gets the chance to give Pei a tour of his ship and introduce her to his crew, meanwhile Jenks and Lovey decide not to risk transferring the AI into a body just yet, and Rosemary initiates a relationship of sorts with Sissix. Were you happy to see any of these developments, or not so fussed?

I think Jenks and Lovey made a good decision – based on very sound reasoning and actually I thought it was really touching they they don’t want to risk losing each other or damaging what they have now.  It was lovely and at the same time a little bit sad that the current legal system prevents them from taking that step but who knows…  Pei and Ashby, again, a forbidden relationship!  It was again very touching to see how Pei was just as affected by Ashby and his crew’s recent scrape with danger as he usually is by hers.  It makes the whole relationship seem more balanced – it’s also interesting that quite a few people know about their relationship and nobody thinks it’s wrong – things need to be put in order don’t they!  Finally, Sissix and Rosemary.  I think at the moment they’re absolutely perfect for each other and they seem to be going into this with their eyes open which is a good plan, after all they both have things to learn about and from each other.  I kind of get the feeling that Rosemary’s family is maybe very cold and calculating and she seems absolutely enamoured with the way Sissix is so open and demonstrative about her feelings and I think it will be lovely for Rosemary to experience that warmth and Sissix of course is missing some TLC being so far removed from her family so it will be great for her to be on the receiving end of some loving attention too.  I must admit I think Sissix is a great character.  Really fascinating and I love the way she’s written.

3. Cloning technology exists and is used in many sci-fi universes, but the GC does not look kindly on it and it is abomination to the Quelin. Did the reveal of Corbin’s nature change your view of the character?

I don’t think the revelation of Corbin being a clone changed my view of him, I didn’t really have a bad opinion of him – I just think he doesn’t interact well with others.  What really made very interesting reading was the conversation between him and his father which I thought was very revealing and quite sad – for both Corbin and his father to be locked into that kind of relationship and also, not really wanting to hurt each other but doing so anyway.  Corbin has a lot to come to terms with now so that will be interesting to observe.  I’m also keen to see if this changes the way he interacts with the crew – particularly Sissix.

4. Each chapter told a different and fairly self-contained story, without any big cliffhangers from one to the next. How did you feel about the pacing of the story so far? Are you satisfied with how long the long journey is taking or are you impatient for the crew to finally get to their destination and do some tunnelling? 

Well, it’s completely different than I expected to be honest. Not in a bad way but I think I was thinking more in terms of grand space opera type sci fi whereas what we have here feels more like little clusters of individual stories that run together as the travel progresses – it feels kind of more like little watching individual series of star trek rather than watching a full blown movie (if that makes sense).  I think I would have enjoyed a grand epic type of tale but that being said I’m an absolute sucker for characterisation and the cast in the story really get a chance to shine and show you their true selves.  I’m keen to get to the destination as well of course just to see what’s afoot but at the moment I think the pacing is great.