So. On a paragraph-by-paragraph level, it's very good. Just not very... gripping. Well, a good deal of Vance's work isn't particularly gripping, either. Overall, I'm rating this one at 3.5 stars, and rounding down because its narrative thrust is so weak. YMMV, and others liked it more, or less. If you've liked previous Chambers books, give it a try. Almost certainly your library will have a copy. Having a child is a major life decision, for an Aeluon even more so, and one rife with the potential for writing drama and character conflict, especially when Pei seeks advice or needs to analyse her own feelings and why she might have them.

You had to pause in the face of reflex, ask yourself if the narrative you attached to the knee-jerk was accurate. Once she’d grasped this, she could never again see life as a static thing, something with one immutable definition. The universe was not an object. It was a beam of light, and the colours that it split into changed depending on whose eyes were doing the looking. Nothing could be taken at face value. Everything had hidden facets, hidden depths that could be interpreted a thousand ways – or misinterpreted in the same manner. Reflexes kept a person safe, but they could also make you stupid.” Her way of depicting emotions and her ability in creating such calm, endearing, empowered and caring characters are truly something that needs to be celebrated and properly highlighted. Speaker – An Akarak who is accutely aware of her species' difficult history, having a hard time socializing. While the humanity of her aliens wouldn't usually be as much of an issue, (especially with how good the characters are), it highlights the book’s really major problem: That it is extremely opinionated! Though Chambers makes all her characters very likable, the same cannot be said for the races they come from. Roveg might be a kind and generous person, but we are told in no uncertain terms that the Quelin are a race who succumbed to "scapegoating", and "fear of the other", and "desire to maintain tradition." Indeed for a writer who bangs so heavily on the "your body is yours" drum as Chambers, the fact that one of the Quelin traditions involves painful branding of their chitinous shells, they might as well be waving a flag saying "eeeeeevil”. Not that I've got anything against evil aliens, but it was a bit too obvious that you could almost search and replace "Quelin" with "white male", or "western culture". Of course, Roveg is far from a stereotypically nasty Quelin, however, he's also been exiled from his home, race, family and culture for daring to speak out of turn.It wasn’t perfect, but it would make most people happy. Roveg had the feeling that was the underlying aim with everything in this place.” Another wonderful addition to the Wayfarers series. Although I don’t think any of them have topped A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I’ve enjoyed continuing nonetheless. While I did like volumes 2 and 3 of the series a lot, volume 1 will always be the best - but this 4th volume is a very close second! At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

Again, a commonly seen sci-fi trope is described from a new, fascinating perspective of which no other author had the ingenuity to see the potential. Gora’s biggest claim to fame is that it’s a pit stop, the intergalactic equivalent of a rest station that resides near a hub of interspatial tunnels that people in the Wayfarer universe use to get to more interesting planets and places. But when a catastrophic event grounds all travel, we spend time there with a handful of stranded travelers and their host, each of whom has their own distractions, their own preconceived notions, their own stories. At the "Five-Hop One-Stop", spacers can get fuel, transit permits and assorted supplies. But when something happens (what exactly is quite unimportant), three such spacers (all different species) are suddenly stranded with the alien running the place and her offspring. The Galaxy and The Ground Within is a very quiet yet profound novel and personally I think it's such a refreshing change from a lot of the high octane sci-fi thillers we get nowadays. The major theme of the book is a contemplation on what it means to accept both others and yourelf, to me this is such a beautiful thing to explore and definetly a lesson I think a lot of the world needs, on treating people who are different from you with respect, grace and kindness.This is the first Wayfarers book with no Human main characters at all (and only one very minor Human character at the end), and so it behooves me to once again state how well Chambers handles writing believable aliens. Her worldbuilding work has been evident before, but is even more evident here, especially as we focus on some alien species (the Laru and the Akarak in particular) that have not received much airtime in previous books. Everything from physiology to culture is considered, and it’s a driver for a lot of the conversations between the various characters.

The novel takes place at the Five-Hop One-Stop, a refueling and licensing station located on the planet Gora, which had no life on it before it was settled by the various alien races who set up shop there. Gora was settled only because of its close proximity to a transit hub where several tunnels meet. A technical failure causes nearly all of the satellites in orbit around Gora to crash and all traffic is halted for several days. The five protagonists are trapped together in the Five-Hop One-Stop for several days and end up confronting their similarities, differences, prejudices and personal challenges. Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos - one often mentioned, but not yet explored - in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative adventure. This book captures the simultaneous close-encounter-with and detachment-from the here-now that we experience during a crisis really well, while also incorporating several other themes like a refugee crisis, speciesism, ableism, war, social taboos, motherhood, the unbridgeable gap between us and the other and the extra kindness that our interactions therefore demand. And relief of all reliefs: there isn't a single heteronormative, white, human male character here. Actually, there isn't any sort of human character if you don't count mere mentions. When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other. Speaker is an Akarak, a member of a rare species that cannot breathe oxygen and so must wear a suit when outside her own ship. Her species is also not especially well thought of in the GC, and she chooses to be a representative for her people, with all the benefits and downsides that carries with it. Her arc, then, is about acceptance and the work of building friendships and relationships with people who are utterly unlike you, a microcosm of the book’s larger theme.What follows is delightful. Chambers starts somewhat predictably, but then allows some sharp edges to show. This friction is what kept it unpredictable for me:

Even more than Chambers misplaced axe grinding, the really major problem with Pei's plot is its conflict. Pei could go off and have a child, spend a few week’s vacation being pampered and having astonishing sex with lots of males, and then only interact with that child as much as she wants. Though Chambers vaguely talks about the "cultural expectation", that Aeluon females should have children, we never get any idea what these cultural expectations are, no mention of what her family or friends might think, or even the consideration that since Aeluon females are rarely fertile, the decision of whether to have a child is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. Set against this is Pei's feeling that "she doesn't want to." We are not told why Pei doesn't want to, indeed Pei doesn't even examine this feeling herself, whether it relates to Ashby; even though both Pei and we know that Ashby would be quite understanding, whether it relates to not wanting to have sex with other males, whether it relates to taking time out of her career, both we, and seemingly Pei, don't know, Pei simply doesn't feel like it. The conflict is swept aside when Speaker mentions to Pei that she could have some of her paralysed legs fixed but she just "doesn't want to", (a depiction of disability so problematic I don't know where to start). And sometimes fear is good. Fear keeps you alive. But it can also keep you from what you really want." While it’s likely Chambers started this book before the events that were 2020, a post-pandemic (well, almost post, hopefully) reading can’t help but resonate with our own unexpected pause, how an unplanned and undesired halt to where we think we’re going can change things irrevocably. Roveg was possibly my favourite character. Initially appealing as an indolent; and indeed quite wealthy artist, Chambers first played on his feverish anxiety to finish his journey, an anxiety which elicited our sympathy. Then, when we really started seeing him interact with others, he proved possibly the kindest and most understanding of the group, especially with Speaker and Tupo.Pei is in a relationship with Ashby, the Human captain from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which they have to keep a secret because Aeluons have a strong taboo against interspecies romance. Pei’s internal struggle between not wanting to keep this secret any longer but also not wanting to damage her career by telling everyone the truth was very similar to the internal struggle I went through when I was in the closet. Not for the first time reading one of Chambers’ books, I felt seen. A good book, but not a gripping one. At the moment, I'm giving it a 3.5 star rating, and wobbling between rounding up or down. Not her best work, and I wouldn't start here -- though it is a standalone. Another of her trademark "found family" stories, this one recycles old stories of travelers stranded in a temporary refuge, while a natural disaster is sorted out. As you will see, there is a large range of reactions to the book. But the average rating for all readers is a solid, near-masterpiece 4.5 stars. I'm definitely not going that high! Under the care of Ouloo, an enterprising alien, and Tupo, her occasionally helpful child, the trio are compelled to confront where they've been, where they might go, and what they might be to one another. When a freak technological failure halts traffic to and from the planet Gora, three strangers are thrown together unexpectedly, with seemingly nothing to do but wait.