This is an ensemble novel, featuring the multi-species crew of a ship that punches wormholes in space and shores them up to create transport links. Rosemary, fresh from Mars and travelling under an assumed name, takes a job on the Wayfarer as a clerk.

Ashby Santoso is the captain, an Exodan human and a pacifist who is having a long-distance affair with an Aeluon woman, Pei. Corbin, a Solan human, is the algaeist, good at his job but a complete asshole. Kizzy and Jenks are engineers. Both are human, but Jenks is very small in stature. Sissix is the pilot, a lizard-like Aandrisk with green scales from her head to the tip of her tail. Doctor Chef, whose alien name is unpronounceable is both of those things, doctor and chef. He's a Grum with six limbs that work as either hands or feet. The navigator, Ohan, is a reclusive Sianat Pair, two personalities on one (blue furry) body, courtesy of a virus. The final crewmember is Lovelace, or Lovey, their AI who has formed a more-than-special relationship with Jenks.

The first quarter of the book is Rosemary settling in, the reader being introduced to the players, and the Wayfarer crew making a successful tunnelling jump. This sets everything to 'normal' in this universe. Then they are offered a very lucrative contract to punch a tunnel through from Toremi space back to the core. It's a job that has to be done in that particular direction, so firstly they Wayfarer has to get to Toremi space, a journey that will take a year, hence the book's title. And, of course the job is not straightforward.

Ms Chambers worldbuilding is superb. Her diverse aliens and humans are well realised, as are all the places they visit along the way, and the people they meet (many of them old friends). The plot is fairly slight, but entertaining enough when the book is taken as a whole. I enjoyed this.

Hold on to your hats. I'm in love with another series.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is one for lovers of complex characters with deeply-explored backstories, contemporary science fiction that deals with time-and-space travel, and a universe and its inhabitants that you can feel completely at home with.

In the first volume of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series, we're introduced to Rosemary, the new clerk for the ship The Wayfarer and its eclectic crew, in a universe where Earth is a far-off memory, and people are travelling via interstellar tunnels. Rosemary herself is from Mars, and harbouring some personal secrets she'd rather leave behind.

Aboard the ship we have an adorable AI (Lovelace), two energetic techs (Kizzy and Jenks), a strong and sassy pilot (Sissix), a grumbly scientist (Corbin), the mysterious navigator (Ohan), a captain always striving for something more (Ashby), and the lovable doctor-cum-chef (Dr Cook). They all have different backgrounds, covering different species from different planets, and that's the number one thing this book does best. The diversity of the crew is something to be marveled at, and really is the driving force of this novel. Rosemary serves as the perfect protagonist, aware of her own biases as she meets new friends, and comments to herself when she finds an assumption or judgement being made. One example is that she never assumes the gender of any of the new species she meets, using the gender neutral term 'xe' in such a casual way that it doesn't seem like anything but the norm. Another is that other characters are from completely different species' to the ones she's used to, so they naturally have very different ways of doing things, for example 'coupling' (mating), which Sissix does in a much more open, and unashamed way than Rosemary is used to. Through the book we experience her thoughts on this and how her attitude towards this changes as she realises her way of living is not the only one, and looks toward everything with such acceptance and openness. It really is such a refreshing perspective to read.

Although the novel does have a clear storyline (The Wayfarer is a tunneling vessel and is called upon to create a tunnel between two parts of space, one previously separated from the rest of the universe not just by distance, but also by their controversial beliefs and attitude), we spend the majority of the time learning about these characters and witnessing their interactions. It's like being introduced to a new family, and I came away from this book desperately missing the world I'd been welcomed in to, and the characters that inhabit it.

I saw someone post on Goodreads that re-reading this book for them was like coming home and had become a comfort read. I think I can now safely say the exact same thing.

This was nothing like I expected, and yet everything I wanted. A very clever and humanising story set against an interstellar trip. Great characterisation and drama made this feel urgent and realistic. I cannot wait to read the companion books.

I had this book for ages as the blurb did not inspire me.
Finally got to it based on the very good average rating... and WOW, I loved it. Really loved it.

Beautifully written, set in the universe so thought through and engaging, it came to life.

I could not put it down, and the second I finished I bought Wayfarers #2.
A true masterpiece, even if you are not a sci-fi fan. Give it a try, you won't regret it.