Hugo 2019 Novels: Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

And I think this is the point where I part company with a lot of Hugo voters. I know a lot of people enjoy the Wayfarers series of novels and I was OK with A Long Way To… and I quite enjoyed (mainly – or at least 50% of) A Close and Common Orbit but I’m afraid A Record of a Spaceborn Few failed to engage me at all.

I read it in ideal circumstances. I had a nice place to sit, few distractions and time to kill. In the normal course of events I’d have given up because I had reached the terminal condition of simply not caring about any of the characters in the book. I know, I’m a monster.

But let’s try to be positive. The concept of the book is an interesting one: a kind of slice of life drama documentary set on a generation ship in a permanent orbit — it’s original purpose rendered pointless by alien intervention in human affairs and easy space travel. While there are two major events in the book (a devastating accident to a companion ship at the very start of the book and a tragic death two-thirds of the way through) this is a story about people rather than events. As such, it is a story grounded in people living their lives, going to school (or truanting from school), raising kids, doing their jobs, finding love and/or sexual companionship but also finding their way in a new community.

Why didn’t I click with it? In the end I just didn’t engage with the characters and for a novel so focussed on characters rather than events that is utterly fatal to enjoyment. I also found the setting, while interesting, didn’t really feel tied to the people involved even though the overt connections were clearly stated.

This was an expertly steamed plate of nutritious vegetables, cooked so that they maximised taste and texture with the complete elimination of any nasty bacteria. Unfortunately I wanted a pepperoni pizza or if I really, really had to eat veggies, some raw and earthy carrots. I find Chamber’s stories demand of me a suspension of disbelief that I’m happy to trade for something a bit crazy but which delivers something more ordinary. A Record of a Spaceborn Few offers neither gritty realism nor fantastical ideas and that’s OK but it’s not for me.

ETA: I meant to include a link to Steve J Wright’s discussion of the book, which I think does it more justice than I can https://stevejwright.com/2019/02/28/agents-of-change/

Also the Tor.com review is worth reading https://www.tor.com/2018/07/26/book-reviews-record-of-a-spaceborn-few-by-becky-chambers/