Review: A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers

This book got:
-Warm, fuzzy vibes
-Extremely relatable, deeply millennial stakes ludicrously relative to modern life
-Musings on the nature of commercial sector sentient AI, built for service, but smart enough to improvise. (What is the difference between such a program, and ourselves, a generation of kids whose assembly line education primes them for a capitalist world and little else)
-A genderfluid alien whose monthly biological gender shifts feel akin to human periods. This is obiously not a huge deal, because that's the way this cool worldbuilding is
-Xe pronouns.

Common Orbit has fewer stakes than angry planet, it's predecessor. There's less of a clear journey ahead by the end of act one, but this doesn't feel strange considering the tone this book series has established. I'd describe it as a kind of mellow high sci-fi, where the stakes are frustrating but very rarely life-threatening. Even when it is, you have the assurance things will just about shake out okay after, a message I think a lot of millennial readers are desperate for in the modern climate.

These books are truly unique in their beautiful, chilled out, deeply technological groove. Since TNG, I think nerds have been hungry for super in-depth, philosophically mind-spinning science fiction that weirdly flows like a soap opera, and this book scratches that itch with bells on. I don't think Becky Chambers could've achieved that any better than she has.

These will be some of my favourite books for all time, and I can't wait to re-read them later in my life when I want to revisit these life-affirming, soul-hugging, space-faring vibes.