To be Taught, if Fortunate

Locations
Call Number: Science Fiction / Chambers, Becky, Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Chambers, Becky
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Chambers, Becky	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Science Fiction / General / Chambers, Becky	4-week checkout	Due 04-25-2024

"A novella"--Cover.
"At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in subzero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life. A team of these explorers, Ariadne O'Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening."--Amazon.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

So so submitted by Keith D. Foote on October 20, 2019, 4:32pm I thoroughly enjoyed her first novel, 'A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet', because it was like being there. (Couldn't get thru it a 2nd time because it lacks a plot.) Her 2nd novel had a plot, but I had problems with one of the characters "inability to adapt" though she did get it together, near the end.
This one, for me, dragged, and seemed to be bogged down with fluff (empty, predictable conversations and descriptions of empty, boring routines). It has the potential to be expanded into a larger, more interesting book... maybe even with a plot.

Short and sweet, but just as good submitted by lexinylander on July 21, 2020, 9:21am I loved every single bit of this. Beyond bittersweet. I was deeply attached to the characters in a way that only Becky Chambers does for me. What a beautiful, speculative novella on hope and exploration and care and relationships.

I loved the OCA astronaut garden bit, with the visible symbiotic fungus on the trees. A few weeks ago I had listened to the Radiolab podcast about it, so it was a treat to understand. I was also especially caught by Luna and Neil Armstrong's footsteps, domed over. There were these beautiful emotional relationships easily displayed, how you can't go into deep space for years and years and years without people you aren't completely bonded with. And the absolute care that this whole novella exuded about not harming the planets they went to, not leaving anything behind or introducing anything, care care care all the way down.

I cannot recommend this, and all of Becky Chambers' works, enough.