Whenever anybody asks me to recommend some new Sci-Fi to them there are three names that instantly come to me. Eamon Ambrose, James S.A. Corey, and Becky Chambers. The first name I mention? Becky Chambers. While I will freely admit that I didn’t absolutely love the first book in the Wayfarers series the books that followed are some of my absolute favourites, so, if anything, I would say I was absolutely wrong about The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet (I mean, I still thought it was good) and I should read it again. Becky’s Wayfarers series has gone from strength to strength and here, with The Galaxy, and the Ground Within we close the door on what has been an eye opening and thought provoking journey.

Note: While this is book 4 of a series, you don’t have to have read any of the other books, there isn’t really much connection to the other stories.

Let’s get the big part of the story out of the way first – The Galaxy and The Ground Within is a story set during a lockdown. Yes, a word I don’t think many of us want anything to do with. Fear not, the lockdown is not because of a global pandemic. It happens because of a catastrophic failure to the satellites which control all incoming and outcoming traffic from the planet Gora (I’m being a bit generous with the word planet. Gora is essentially a big rest area/truck stop). See? Much better….

So the planet is locked down and three travellers, each from different planets, end up stranded. With only each other, and the owner of the premises they are refueling at, for company they try to get along as much as possible.

Over the course of the novel we learn about each of the characters, where they are going, and why. Their reasons are varied, but all of them have burdens to carry, and the exposure of these burdens uncover an amazing tale. They share anecdotes, some of which are hilarious, some of which point to supposed faults with humanity – but all a reflection of things we have got wrong here at home. As with all good sci-fi the author is pointing to how we could change things for the better here, for EVERYONE, not just the select few.

I don’t really want to go too deep into the story here, for fear of ruining something. I’ll leave by saying that by the end of the book I felt like I had just received a really good hug. It was such a comforting read, especially during such harrowing times when everybody seems to be sniping at each other.

I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by my co-blogger, TS Chan, at Novel Notions

ARC received from the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within concludes Becky Chambers' wonderfully charming science fiction series with another heartwarming story that is so characteristic of all the Wayfarers books.

This final volume harkens back to the themes that I've read and loved in the very first book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. In most science fiction stories, there's always some form of study of the human condition as humanity is flung into circumstances which at this point only exists in the imagination of what-ifs and possibilities of what's to come. What Chambers did in her series is to shift that into an even more exaggerated form by giving us multi-species interactions in a space-age era with galactic-level governments and politics. Just imagine, even though our world has begun to feel a lot smaller with globalisation and technological advances, it is at the same time still fragmented as differences in races, religions and cultures remain as barriers between people.

Apply this concept into the universe, across species and galaxies, and that's what you get with the Wayfarers series, which was felt most keenly in the first and last book of the series. However, humans are still physiologically the same despite the differences I've mentioned above. By extending this to multi-species, where some aliens don't even breath the same air or reproduce the same way, the barriers are magnified manifold. Somehow Chambers managed to make it work wonderfully in her stories, which are just narratives of these characters (with all their past history, cultural heritage, and even career choices) interacting with each other and learning how to tolerate, accept or even welcome the differences. Given these strong themes of acceptance, LBGTQIA representations are important in these books.

In The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, we have three different alien species stuck on the planet Gora after a freak accident took out all the satellites in orbit. The danger of the space debris resulted in them having to stay grounded at their rest stop, the Five Hop, One Stop, run by a mother and son (Ouloo and Tupo) who were also of another type of alien species. The entire story played out as they all got to know each other, sometimes much more than what could be deemed as comfortable. One of these characters, an Akarak called Speaker, is the one that fascinated me the most as her species was probably one of the most misunderstood amongst them all.

The character interactions are the best part of the book (and series) for me. Those who have read this series before would already know that these books do not centre its narrative around a plot. They are just stories about people and aliens. Stories that explore the condition of being alive, or what it means to have a place to call home or someone totally different to call a friend or even family. Warm and fuzzy feelings abound when I read this book, although it still wasn't as good as the first one for me. That one made me cry as my heart felt close to bursting.

The Wayfarers books are connected only in the barest sense of an arc and through its worldbuilding, and each could entirely stand on its own. Having said that, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still the best entry point into this series as there are threads which flow into its immediate sequel and this final instalment. I find it most unusual to consider The Galaxy, and the Ground Within as a conclusion as there really isn't anything to conclude upon. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and felt satisfied with the ending. I also found it to be a good book to be read together with another title; the lack of any real plot or tension means that it doesn't have that unputdownable quality but it sure made me feel good whenever I was reading it. This is cosy science fiction at its best.

Series rating:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: 5/5 stars
A Closed and Common Orbit: 4.5/5 stars
Record of a Spaceborn Few: 3.5/5 stars
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: 4.5/5 stars
Overall: 17.5/20 stars

You can purchase the book from Book Depository (Free Shipping) | Bookshop.Org (Support Independent Bookstores | Amazon US | Amazon UK

You can find this and my other reviews at Novel Notions.

This author always manages to make me cry as though I'm in therapy. These books are so cosy, edging on boring, but somehow - they're just bittersweet enough, there's just enough peril for the characters you've come to care for - I'm drawn in and the ending is a big weepy catharsis. I don't think this one is the best of the four; it might even be my least favourite, but it's the perfect wrap up for the Wayfarers series. I don't think there's anyone who's read these and doesn't hope to visit this setting again, but if she never does, I'm happy we got as much as we did.

Side note: that discussion about cheese was just perfect.

4.5 stars.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within concludes Becky Chambers' wonderful science fiction series with another heartwarming story that is so characteristic of all the Wayfarers books.

This final volume harkens back to the themes that I've read and loved in the very first book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. In most science fiction stories, there's always some form of study of the human condition as humanity is flung into circumstances which at this point only exists in the imagination of what-ifs and possibilities of what's to come. What Chambers did in her series is to shift that into an even more exaggerated form by giving us multi-species interactions in a space-age era with galactic-level governments and politics. Just imagine, even though our world has begun to feel a lot smaller with globalisation and technological advances, it is at the same time still fragmented as differences in races, religions and cultures remain as barriers between people.

Apply this concept into the universe, across species and galaxies, and that's what you get with the Wayfarers series, which was felt most keenly in the first and last book of the series. However, humans are still physiologically the same despite the differences I've mentioned above. By extending this to multi-species, where some aliens don't even breath the same air or reproduce the same way, the barriers are magnified manifold. Somehow Chambers managed to make it work wonderfully in her stories, which are just narratives of these characters (with all their past history, cultural heritage, and even career choices) interacting with each other and learning how to tolerate, accept or even welcome the differences. Given these strong themes of acceptance, LBGTQIA representations are important in these books.

In The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, we have three different alien species stuck on the planet Gora after a freak accident took out all the satellites in orbit. The danger of the space debris resulted in them having to stay grounded at their rest stop, the Five Hop, One Stop, run by a mother and son (Ouloo and Tupo) who were also of another type of alien species. The entire story played out as they all got to know each other, sometimes much more than what could be deemed as comfortable. One of these characters, an Akarak called Speaker, is the one that fascinated me the most as her species was probably one of the most misunderstood amongst them all.

The character interactions are the best part of the book (and series) for me. Those who have read this series before would already know that these books do not centre its narrative around a plot. They are just stories about people and aliens. Stories that explore the condition of being alive, or what it means to have a place to call home or someone totally different to call a friend or even family. Warm and fuzzy feelings abound when I read this book, although it still wasn't as good as the first one for me. That one made me cry as my heart felt close to bursting.

The Wayfarers books are connected only in the barest sense of an arc and through its worldbuilding, and each could entirely stand on its own. Having said that, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still the best entry point into this series as there are threads which flow into its immediate sequel and this final instalment. I find it most unusual to consider The Galaxy, and the Ground Within as a conclusion as there really isn't anything to conclude upon. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and felt satisfied with the ending. I also found it to be a good book to be read together with another title; the lack of any real plot or tension means that it doesn't have that unputdownable quality but it sure made me feel good whenever I was reading it. This is cosy science fiction at its best.

Another incredible book by my favourite author- Becky Chambers' characters are unfailingly queer, unfailingly curious, unfailingly kind. Her novels fill me with a bittersweet nostalgia for a world I've never seen and won't see in my lifetime. They are filled with true friends- those who respect your decisions, your personhood, your autonomy, your faith, and your needs without question. These books comfort me and tend wounds I didn't know I was carrying. Endless stars!

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the books in the Wayfarer series, but I think this final installment is my favourite! It tells the story of three different spacefarers briefly trapped on a planet during a stopover. Becky Chambers is the absolute master of quiet, character driven science fiction and here, she focuses on the way in which we are the same, despite our cultural differences and beliefs. As always, the characters here are beautifully drawn and we have the chance to fully inhabit their thoughts and feelings as they are thrust into a situation in which they have to interact with others that they aren't familiar with. Dealing with topics of gender, class, parenthood and colonialism, among others, at its heart, this is the story of how we should all just get along, and I absolutely loved every single second.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I literally don't have the words to tell anyone how amazing Becky Chambers` books are. Her word choice is always perfect; it flows, it conjures, it emotes.
You don't even really have to have read the others in the series to understand what's going on because everything is just so compacted and explained without huge infodumps or exposition.
I'm going to stop before I embarrass myself.
Read it. You'll thank me.

The final Wayfarers novel is the opposite of a big finale number, and that's more than OK



I'll level with you, dear readers: somehow I haven't written a full length book review in a month, and I forgot how reviews start. So I'm just going to start by going "what IS reviewing?" and then follow up with "why have I had some books on my review pile for over a month without writing about them" and then we'll see where we go from there. One such book is The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, the last in Becky Chambers' Hugo Award winning Wayfarers series of spacefaring novels starring people who, despite the challenges of the world they live in, choose to be fundamentally kind and generous with each other and see where that gets them. In another series, I'd have gone into a final instalment expecting something on a grander scale than the lead-up: a big budget finale episode of a book featuring More! of Everything! with high stakes and happy tied-up plots for everyone involved. This being the Wayfarers, I went in with no such expectations and it's a good thing I didn't, because in scale this is the smallest of the Wayfarers books: a tiny, isolated story in a small part of the galaxy, featuring a few transient characters who intersect for a few days and then go their separate ways once more. It defies all concepts of what a finale should be, and I have had no idea how to write about it, or, really, how I feel about it.

The book takes place on Gora, a planet whose economy is entirely built around being a rest stop for people passing through its various space gates to other parts of the galaxy. As Gora itself is an airless rock, those rest stops all take the form of various domes on the planet's surface, where travellers come down for the kind of hospitality experience one would expect at a transit hotel: a clean room, a decent meal, some supplies for their ship and maybe a weird souvenir from the gift shop. One such generic rest stop is owned by Laru (think the Mystics from Dark Crystal but fluffier) Ouloo and her child Tupo, and on what is supposed to be a completely average day they have three guests arrive: Pei, an Aeluon on her way to visit her partner (Ashby of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet), Roveg, an insect-like Quelin trying to keep a mysterious urgent appointment, and Speaker, an Akarak whose role within her otherwise insular species is to interact and trade with outsiders. Unfortunately for all, this very average day is disrupted by a disaster that takes out much of the satellite network around Gora, leaving everyone stranded in the rest stop with nothing to do but rely on each other and wait for better news.

With the inciting incident set up, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within proceeds to do absolutely nothing to invoke any significant tension for the majority of its remaining length. Nothing bad happens to any of the characters or in their immediate vicinity as a result of the disaster, and the satellites are fixed offscreen with some cheerful official network updates serving as interludes between sections. Instead, the substance of the book revolves around the way these aliens interact with each other: from endless snacks (you will not forget that Ouloo is in the hospitality industry for a single second!) to dance parties to heartfelt conversations with teenagers about following their passions, the book lets these five aliens tell the story of why they have found themselves in this transit point, and where they're going next. The shared strand among the adults is that all are in some way exiled or distant from their species' expectations and communities. Pei, as readers of A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet will know, is from a species which considers inter-species romance a taboo and reproduction a responsibility, but wants to arrange her life in a very different way. Roveg's species are notoriously xenophobic and only those exiled are free to travel, meaning that his existence among the group means that he has been ostracised from his family and home for reasons that are explored through the book. Perhaps the book's most interesting strand is that involving Speaker and her species, the Akarak, who are methane-breathers whose planet was terraformed out of being habitable and who have never been offered just reparations or acknowledgement by a galaxy which continues to find them too inconvenient to accommodate. Because the Wayfarers books don't deal at the scale of political change, Speaker's story gets the least satisfying resolution of the lot, but it's an interesting wrinkle to add to the other background injustices and legacies which form the backdrop of Chambers' otherwise rather benign galaxy.

So yes, there's a reason for everyone to stay in one place and get to know each other longer than they otherwise would, and they eat some interesting snacks and have a dance party and tell stories, and then a bad accident does happen (as a result of the different forms of life support the different species need to survive) and everyone is kind of sobered and made to consider what they Really Want after this as a result of the accident, and then things are resolved with no lasting consequences and everyone goes off to live a slightly better version of the life they would have lived anyway. Which is to say, there's a way in which reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a rather underwhelming experience. Becky Chambers has written enough books at this point (and I have read them) that it's obnoxious to go into them expecting something to happen in the traditional sense, but even by that metric, there's not much going on here: just a small story in a small corner of the galaxy, where individuals come up against overwhelming cultural dilemmas and encourage each other to solve them through some combination of being true to oneself and making good art. And yet, you know what? It works. It works because the idea of solving problems through individual empathy, while not a replacement for science fiction that grapples with wider systemic change, is just as radical an idea to explore, and it's also an extremely enjoyable wish fulfilment fantasy. It's hard to put into words what Chambers pulls off, and I can't shake the feeling that it would be even better in a video game or another interactive medium where gentle, character-driven exploration can feel more natural - but Chambers definitely pulls off the intended effect here, and I greatly enjoyed the experience of reading this book even as the "how" of its engaging me kind of didn't make sense.

The Galaxy and the Ground Within won't win over anyone who doesn't already like what Chambers does, and it's not your average series finale. But, as confused as my poor rusty reviewer brain might be, I can't imagine this series going out any other way.

Becky chambers does it again, and I wouldn't expect anything less. I could read these books forever, there's so many stories to tell, from the small ones of characters we pass by to the overall story of each book. I love the diversity in characters, not only sexual orientation, gender etc. but also species and finding out details about each one is so interesting.

This is a story about a planet that acts like a service station in space. You can rest a while and visit Five-Hop One-Stop which is Ouloo's home, where she tries to cater for all species. When a disaster happens in space, which limits communications and stops all travel, three aliens species are trapped at the Five-Hop One-Stop. Here begins their stories.

This is a book where not much happens but a lot happens. It's a dialogue between aliens, no humans, about their differences, politics, rights and histories. You end up loving the characters and I'm so glad Pei was in it, it was great getting to know her more. Speaker was a surprise, I loved her resolve, her love for her sister and her warmth.

My only criticisms are that I couldn't picture the characters very well, how small exactly was Speaker, what colour (I think white but kept picturing lobster red?) was Roveg? Ouloo and Tupo were just big cats for me. Not that this really mattered as the personalities of the characters shined through and didn't detract away from the story.

Also, how can Becky Chambers leave this universe!? There is SOOOOOO much more to tell. I feel like we've had an introduction to the GC and the species and she's set up the universe but she's only scratched the surface, there are more depths that can be explored! More detail of the Harmageions vs Akarak. What happens if Pei comes out about her relationship? What's the next tunnel? Will Jinx and Lovey be reunited? So. Many. Stories.

I didn’t mean to read this so quickly 😭

Becky Chambers is the queen of exploring human connection, what makes us different and what makes us the same. She celebrates culture and diversity in the most beautiful way.

Beautiful, soft, human and so real, even though it’s set in space . Absolutely stunning as expected and I’m so sad this series is over.

In the last book of the series, The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, we follow a character we saw in the first book, Pei. Pei gets stuck with a bunch of misfits on the planet Gora. Gora has no water, air or native life so the only way people land there, is if they are on a neighbouring more popular planet. In our human world, she would call it a service station or a truck stop for those americans out there. It is just a stop before you land where you are meant to be going. When a technological failure occurs and halts all traffic to and from Gora, Pei and two other people get thrown together with nothing to do but wait they end up talking about their lives and wonder what their purpose might be and how to make that move and making it a reality.

First and foremost, I love that Chambers always brings back minor characters from other books and tells a tale of them being the main character of their own story. And to truly get the experience of this, I highly recommend that you read this series in order of publication, though it is an anthology series and can be read in any order, I feel like you will get a better and truer experience of this world and how all the characters of the books interact with each other. But having a new cast of characters every book does mean that you don’t get to see your favourites again. I absolutely loved the cast of the first book and I’m sad I didn’t get to see them. This will always be something that I dislike about anthology series. And in true Chambers style, this book is filled with little plot and more story about the characters themselves as her books are always character driven not plot driven which is something I love about Becky Chambers.

Overall, 4 out of 5 stars.

The last of Becky Chambers Wayfarer series and the perfect ending. I loved all the books in this series so much but this was the first I’ve read and not listened to as an audio book. It was a brilliant book for our current times and really shows how great Science Fiction reflects our world. Becky Chambers is such a brilliant writer and I cannot wait to see where she takes us next.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.

Becky Chambers have this incredible way of writing character driven novels that I can never quite explain to people - so I usually just push it at them while begging them to give it a chance.

As the last book in the Wayfarer series (I am still hoping this is not true) it did much as its successors aka. It grabbed me by the heart and did not let go.

The idea that four characters completely without ties to each other can get stuck on a intergalactic truck stop and forced to work together would from any other author sound like a recipe for disaster, and yet, that isn’t what this book is about.

Its about tolerance. About knowledge of others and reaching out even if you do not necessarily want to.

We are as always loosely tied to characters we have met throughout the series but we are also introduced to completely new species that once again left me in awe at how Chambers write aliens so intricately and yet infuse them with the very best parts of what I deem to be human.

The Five-Hop One-Stop as a setting is full of humor and warmth and I loved getting to know the motivations of each characters as Chambers let us follow along the events like spectators on a lazy river.

The pacing is brilliant, the humor hitting all the right notes and I would follow each of these new characters into forever.

I cannot recommend enough,

The perfect ending to an amazing series. This bottle-episode book manages to bring back events and feelings from the previous three books, making the entire story feel incredibly expansive despite the majority of it taking place in a galactic truck stop.

As with the rest of the Wayfarers series, the characters are more important than the plot. In the case of this particular instalment in the series, three travellers from different species get stuck on a planet after routine technological maintenance goes wrong and hinders communication and travel. These very different sapients, with their own quirks and histories and traditions, get thrown together as they try to pass the time until they can continue on with their travels. And so they talk about themselves and their species' history, they share stories and food and experiences. Chambers is a master as reflecting the human condition on these aliens, with their different experiences and opinions on birth and death and everything in between.

It was sometimes easy to forget that there were no human characters in this story at all. At least, until the next mention of a character's hind legs or fur. Because that was, I suppose, the main lesson one could take away from this story: despite all our differences, there is still common ground to be found between us and, well, the rest of the galaxy.

This is one of those stories that I didn't know I needed until I was reading it. The entire Wayfarers series holds a special place in my heart, and I am sad to see it ending. But I am also very excited about what Becky Chambers will give us next.

Becky Chambers' novels continue to world build and play with the genre in a consistently interesting and exciting way. I was dying to read this and it didn't disappoint. The series has been incredible and this is a great addition to it. I could happily read books set in this universe forever.

Becky Chambers as an author is the scifi equivalent of Fredrik Backman. Both of them with their completely different genres and writing styles makes me believe in the inherent goodness of people.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within does exactly this. It was deeply humane for a book with no human characters. The humanity within was shining like a beacon. Everytime I finish a Becky Chambers book, I am left introspecting, learning and unlearning, finding myself changed for the better. Even the most mundane scenes were made profound at the hands of Becky Chambers.
If you are looking for a dramatic space opera full of action, this book is not for you. But if you are looking for a heartwarming slice of life set in strange galaxies as yet undiscovered, this one’s for you. Highly highly recommended.

The final book in a sequence should be the full stop. It should be the ending of endings; the neat tying of plot strings and rousing farewell to characters we loved. As with many things I was fascinated that Becky Chambers avoided this in the The Galaxy, and the Ground Within with only a reference to the other adventures and one minor character thrust to the foreground. Instead it is a distillation of the way this series is written that a simple traffic accident in space sets in motion a series of unusual people meeting and learning to understand one another and also for readers an opportunity to learn more about ourselves.

Gora sits between two wormholes – you would usually treat it as a fuel and food depot for a few hours until your slot is called. At the Five Hop One-Shop Ouloo and xyr teenage child Tupo prepare for some visitors while their flight slots become free. A strange group is assembled – Roveg an artist but notably does not have the usual honorifics of the Quelin people; Pei an Aeleon cargorunner and one other stranger ship that eventually is found to be Speaker a member of the outsider and little understood Akarak people. All strangers to one another and all in a hurry to get somewhere else. Then the sky goes on fire as a satellite network crashes into one another. They’re stuck initially for hours and then it seems days. All five individuals have to learn to be around each other leading to some surprising developments.

In many ways this is the most intimate novel in the series since The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet with a very small group and all stuck to one location, but I think this is the distillation of everything Chambers has been talking about in the series for some time. We have here almost no humans in the main cast (although Pei being the lover of Ashby Captain of the Wayfarer is the key link to the wider series); instead Chambers explores four alien cultures with representatives who are not themselves that representative of their people. Oouloo and Tupo left to seek a new way of life and they work damn hard to make their business work while Tupo is gaining xyr own understanding of the world that actually makes their unexpected guests stop and think.

Roveg from the typically isolationist Quelin throws himself into exploring other worlds and cultures so actually os most interested in knowing more but at the same time feels guilt over an appointment he cannot mix despite being a political exile. Pei is battling her role supporting military operations for her people with a forbidden love for a human that even Ashby’s crew is not aware of. Speaker strikes a cord with Roveg and is suspicious of Pei but most of all worries about her sister trapped in the wider orbit. As their stay gets longer the reader gets to explore these characters and find out what makes each one tick and watch their relationships develop in unusual ways. Tupo is entranced by all these aliens, Speaker feels concern as the Akarak have often been viewed dismissively by the wider galactic community and these tensions occasionally boil over as people feel trapped. This a story about people at a crossroads in their lives actually stuck at a crossroads – their decisions will change them fundamentally/



Two strands in particular pulled me in Roveg the political exile who increasingly just wants to say hello to their family one more time feels tragic in many places. Someone who loves seeing alien cultures, sees other worlds as opportunities for learning and yet back home they’re the criminal. The most fascinating though is Speaker a member of a race that lives very short lifetimes; from a conquered planet that no longer exists and no one in the wider galactic community has helped so they make their own way through space often avoiding detection. There is a brutal chapter where the Akarak representatives take the wider galaxy in charge to task for not helping them as they are too different while the very humanoid Exodans who we only met in the last book now get all the attention. It’s a brutal angry passage that struck a cord with me that western governments only ever seem focused on white faces and forget all those other communities that need help – instead viewing them with suspicion and apathy.

I’ve read some fascinating criticism of the wider series by people who feel this series is not great science fiction. They find it too cosy. I think that is an unusual take – in many ways Chamber’s universe is one of the most dangerous there is. Money still exists, the powerful are still in charge and accidents happen such as a spaceship blowing up, a satellite relay etc that can destroy the world without warning. We see political persecution, misuse of clones and AI technology and a lot of isolationism. Chamber’s characters aren’t those in charge; or the best of the best they’re the individuals trying to live in a often uncaring universe and it’s only their friends and family that keeps them going. That for me is the reason these books work so much for so many. The last decade or so has seen huge economic an political shifts that for many people there isn’t any suitable welfare, support, job security that even people like me born just more a couple of decades earlier are used to. I wonder if many of Chamber’s critics realise, they don’t have this experience in common with some of the newer fans in the genre and that may be why Chamber’s voice works so well for so many new readers instead.

A set of stories that explores those communities that survive in despite of these changes and that has to work itself on the solution I can clearly see why this appeals and again in this tale while the big special effects are all off stage the main plot movement is a helpful teenager making a big mistake. At which point the cast has to put aside their differences and focus on doing the right thing. I found the approach very powerful and uplifting especially after a year in isolation like we’ve just had.

Is this a happy ending?

Oh goodness me yes – this is a damn fine farewell to a great series that I think has a lot to say about the times we live in. In some ways the Wayfarer’s Universe is little changed from when we first met it – the same powers in charge; the way of life is hard and outlook for some still uncertain but a tale of finding hope in your family, friends and your own found family is something I think science fiction has shied away from in it’s focus on empires and rebellions. Revolutions are a lot rarer in reality and keeping yourself going each day can be a hard struggle too. That’s why we need books like this to give us some hope for the future and remind us being kind is often its own kind of rebellion– highly recommended

It's rare that the final instalment of a series becomes an instant favourite, but I really do think that this is Becky Chambers' best book to date. The timing may have helped in a small way, but it is such a beautifully crafted novel, so perfectly building on the foundations of the first three, but without relying on any accumulated knowledge - so it could easily be read as a standalone.

This felt like the perfect lockdown read. It has well and truly broken my lockdown reading slump!
5 characters from completely different parts of the universe just happen to become stranded in the same place, at the same time. The fact that none of them is human makes their challenges and their struggles just removed enough for the whole story to retain the escapism that I know and love about sci-fi, but the beauty of Chambers' prose, and her masterful creation of characters makes everything they experience seem timely, relevant and achingly familiar.

This final instalment has made me want to go back to the beginning of the series and lose myself in them all, all over again, and I can't wait to see what she brings out next.

You don’t have to have read the previous books in the Wayfarers series before reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, although they will make you more familiar with the universe. If you’re not a hardcore sci-fi reader (I’m not usually), don’t be intimidated by the stylised format and language – once you’re in, it will envelop you. The characters are rich and interesting, and the writing is beautiful. It’s a joy to be absorbed into the atmosphere of this book.