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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a fun, sometimes emotional, little romp across the galaxy in the form of a sci-fi book written by Becky Chambers. It features a diverse cast of characters on a journey of self-discovery doing a job to get paid and making lots of stops along the way.

The characters are an interesting bunch and a fitting focal point of the book. As stated before the cast is diverse with some aliens, an AI, and of course humans thrown in the mix. The way they all interact and share their cultures is fun and interesting to read about.

Something that weakened the time spent with these characters was the way perspective jumps around, in an almost anthology-like way, between them. Because of this I don’t feel like I got the chance to get attached to anyone, and because most characters also have their own individual plotline happening while in their PoV, it means the plotlines also lack the depth for me to get invested.

This happened with most plotlines, including the romance happening over the course of the plot with two scenes leading up to it, one scene where it “happens”, and then is basically quiet for the rest of the book. I would have preferred the perspective stay attached to one character, such as the newbie Rosemary as her sheltered perspective is already used to introduce a lot of the alien concepts in the book and she is one of the most developed characters.

As for the overarching story, the book feels very plot driven with event after event just kind of happening to the crew on their way to leave for their journey. A few times probably wouldn’t have been as noticeable, but the way things happen contribute to the anthology-like feeling; the crew travels for a bit, something happens, they do something about it, then continue on their journey in a very monster-of-the-week kind of way.

Each of these events usually also result in one of the crewmates having their time in the spotlight to reveal their “secret” and receive character development. This ends up feeling extremely formulaic and like it’s trying to fulfil the blurb on the back. None of the secrets really change anything about how you view the character or turn into a situation that would be compelling to see unfold so it ultimately feels unfulfilling.

The worldbuilding in this book is a favourite. I loved learning about different alien cultures and history, what cool technology is around (like an inter-dimensional drill), or just whatever humanity has been up to between now and then. Chambers does a great job at fleshing out all corners of this universe with interesting side character and titbits that make it feel full and alive.

Overall the book is good and can be fun, just make sure you’re aware of the kind of book this is going in. The title and blurb makes it sound like a character-driven exploration of a crew stuck in isolation as they travel through deep space, however in actuality it is a plot-driven problem-of-the-week style romp through populated space, making pit stops along the way to the start of the journey (which is done in-between chapters in like 4 days).

I am interested in reading the robot girl sequel which focuses on a minor character present at the end of this book, as the world created is vibrant and I really want to learn more about it.