Sci-fi. A novella by the author of *The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet* (which I loved) and its sequels, though set in a different universe. The story of a small group of 22nd century astronauts on one of the early crewed voyages beyond the solar system. They travel in suspended animation over years to a nearby star with life-sustaining planets, and they have a good long look around. We learn about their lives, their voyage, their explorations, the implications of their long absence from Earth, and their reflections in a world not *that* far past our own on the ethics of going forth, finding, learning, returning. As in most of Chambers’ work that I’ve read so far, this novella is deeply optimistic – not that bad things don’t happen, but they are embedded in a broad stance of buoyancy and hope. This feels in a way like it nods back to classic sf, which of course the novella’s premise does as well, but it is put together quite differently. Rather than the earlier era’s expression of capitalist faith in technology and Progress with a capital “P”, and its untroubled reproduction of colonial practices among the stars, this book’s voyage and its telling of its voyage are tentative and careful and at least implicitly a critique of the earlier stories that it echoes. The muted and underdeveloped character of this last can certainly be read as a limitation, as this is not at all one of those books that attempts to articulate a grounded, plausible path that our grim present might follow to reach a more just future. It just takes a few small steps in the direction of hypothesizing what it might look like and what it might mean to venture out into the universe in a way that works not to prefigure colonization or exploitation, but to express deep curiosity and care. As in Chambers’ other books, its optimism is fundamentally about people, in all of our quirks, breadth, and flaws – perhaps sometimes stepping over the line into too much, too rosy, too idealistic, from the perspective of the closing days of 2020, but of course that’s part of the point, too, I think. A quick, enjoyable read.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.