What does it mean to be part of humanity ?

A Closed and Common Orbit is a sort of sequel to Becky Chambers’ first book The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (see my review here) but it includes few of the characters from the first novel and it can be read as a standalone. The first book was set in space aboard the spacecraft Wayfarer and this second book is set on a planet. It consists of two stories told in alternate chapters – one is that of an Artificial Intelligence learning to inhabit a human looking body and the second is of an abandoned young girl who is essentially brought up by an AI.

The book is primarily about what makes us human and how we interact with one another but most of the characters in the story are not human – this is a universe in which there are many different races/species. It’s not an adventure story and the plot unfolds slowly but I became totally captured by the characters and their challenges until I found it difficult to put this book down. This is a hopeful book in that its message is that we should be able to get along with one another irrespective of our differences and if that seems a little optimistic then I didn’t mind because the book is so well written.

This is, as someone commented to me, science fiction for people who don’t like science fiction. The science and the way that this future world works are part of the book but only inasmuch as they affect the characters and their personal story. You don’t need to know any physics to understand this book and the author resists dumping information on the reader – this is a book about people and their lives rather than a book about an exciting new universe that just happens to have people in it.

I loved this book. I had no idea how the author was going to move the story along and it was full of surprises. The tone is hopeful and the ending is wonderful. I was captivated.