There are also artificial intelligences that run ships and other hardware, but it is illegal to upload an AI to a humanoid robot. There are Aeluons, who communicate by flashing colours on their faces, and the reptilian Aandrisk, whose society is influenced by the fact they lay eggs – children are normally the result of casual sex, and aren’t reared by their biological parents. This is just one example of the incredibly diverse cast of aliens that populate the Wayfarers books, which share a universe but mostly stand alone. My favourite character in the book is the charming and tragic Dr Chef (yes, he is the ship’s doctor and chef), one of the last of an alien species called Grum, which resemble a kind of six-limbed otter and gradually change biological sex over their lifetime. In a way, not a lot happens, but all the characters are changed by their interactions with one another. As the title suggests, it is much more about the journey than the destination. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first book in the series, details the adventures of the crew of the ship Wayfarer.
Instead, they rely on relationships to succeed, picking each other up and dusting themselves down in the face of adversity. But unlike the golden age stories, Chambers’s characters live complex lives and know that not all problems can be tackled with the wave of a plot-solving gizmo. Increasingly, authors are writing “hopepunk” stories (a slightly cringeworthy term inspired by cyberpunk) that weaponise optimism, according to one Vox journalist.Īt the forefront of this subgenre is Becky Chambers, award-winning author of the Wayfarers series.
Whether it is characters dealing with alien invasions, technology gone wrong or the ravages of climate change, most modern books in the genre are dour affairs, in stark contrast to the “golden age” sci-fi of the 1940s and 50s, when unrealistic techno-utopianism ruled.īut it isn’t all bad. I READ a lot of sci-fi and, my, the future can be grim at times.
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