If there's one issue I often have with science fiction, it's that it often feels dominated by voices that have more interest in world-building and futurism than in emotional investment in their characters. Becky Chambers has, across her first two books, provided a pretty high quality antidote to this.

With so little track record, it actually seems kind of gutsy to make a sequel to her first book that has so little continuity. There's only a few ties to the first book, and only one main character who makes the transition, and only in a limited form.

It also trades out an ensemble adventure for a much more simple, and much more intimate structure, and damned if the risk doesn't actually pay off very well. These days I'm pretty skeptical of stories where every other chapter is a flashback, but A Closed and Common Orbit does it in a way that provides a massive emotional payoff by the end.

Chambers has actually managed to create a sequel to a quality debut that actually displays an immense amount of growth as an artist. I'm so excited to see what she does next.