Item: To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Rating: 5.00
Author: amber

by Becky Chambers

*A NEW NOVELLA FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR*

'Extraordinary . . . A future masterwork' Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

In the future, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the galaxy transform themselves.

At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in sub-zero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to explore neighbouring exoplanets long suspected to harbour life.

Ariadne is one such explorer. On a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds fifteen light-years from Earth, she and her fellow crewmates sleep while in transit, and wake each time with different features. But as they shift through both form and time, life back on Earth has also changed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the wonders and dangers of her journey, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

PRAISE FOR THE WAYFARERS

'Becky Chambers is a wonder, and I feel better for having her books in my life' JOHN CONNOLLY

'In a word, brilliant' ANDREW CALDECOTT

'A short but fierce ode to humanity and all our reaches and flaws. Unputdownable' NATASHA NGAN

'Outstanding . . . Chambers packs an immense amount of story into a novella worthy of full-length praise' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review

'Becky Chambers takes space opera in a whole new and unexpected direction' BEN AARONOVITCH

I received To Be Taught, If Fortunate as a review copy from NetGalley. Obviously, these are my honest thoughts and feelings about the book. I also posted this review on my book blog if you'd like to check it out!

Becky Chambers will forever have all of my love and respect. That’s it, that’s the review.

Just kidding, but really that’s all you need to know about this short novella. I’m not usually a fan of short stories, as I tend to think they either a) have no point or b) end far too quickly. However, To Be Taught was just perfect. It was the perfect length, there was the perfect amount of intrigue and the perfect amount of story. Everything about it was fantastic.

I should probably tell you what it’s about before I continue to gush about one of my favourite authors. So, in To Be Taught, we’re following a four-person space crew as they go on an expedition to survey life on other planets. There are four planets in total, and there are different things to learn from each of them – about the planets, about the astronauts themselves, and about each other.

To be honest, Ariadne wasn’t the most intriguing protagonist, but I could deal with that because the exploration of the planets and the people was so lush and vivid that it made up for it. I completely felt what they were all going through, even though I have never and absolutely will never go into space myself.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot itself because this is such a short book that I could summarise it in a couple of paragraphs, but just know that Becky Chambers handles everything with respect and grace, and it turns out to be a very hopeful story about the human race. It gives me chills and other good feelings every time I think about this novella.

Also, I’m just going to end this review by saying that the planets thing was SO CLEVER and I had to gush about the progression and the parallels to everyone that would listen. This is super vague, because of spoilers, but PARALLELS.

Read the book.

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To Be Taught, If Fortunate

by Becky Chambers

Reviewed by Amber on Jul 21, 2019

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