Thank you Hodder & Stoughton for gifting me this ARC in exchange of an honest review!

Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series is one of my all time favorites. The author's ability to craft such a lush, beautiful and queer world that feels so much like a warm hug is unmatched, and she definitely did not disappoint with this last installment! Though book one (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet) is still my absolute favorite of the bunch because I was able to connect to it on an even deeper level and it included some of my favorite characters, I had such a great time with The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, too.

I loved the setup of this book so much and it made for such interesting character dynamics. I really enjoyed my time with the characters in here; my favorites have to be Pei and Roveg! I already liked Pei when we first met her in book one, and following her POV was so fun!

All the discussions in here are so important, just like in the previous installments. Everything about this world is so beautifully diverse, which is one of my favorite aspects of the series in general. I would happily spend pages upon pages just learning about this world and its inhabitants.

I'm not usually one for fluffy and wholesome books, but the Wayfarers series is definitely the exception. There's not a lot going on plot-wise, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me it just feels a little like home. I cannot recommend this series enough!

I loved The Wayfarers series so much, and this book is one of my favourites.
I love how we simply get to know the characters, their cultures, how they manage to get along despite their incredible differences.
Becky Chambers is the master of making us adore characters, feel so deeply for every one of them when they're all so different.
I cannot wait to read even more from her.

It's difficult to explain how much I love the Wayfarers series with their soft character-driven books that talk about life in the stars, aliens, and a far off future while remaining profoundly human and beautifully relatable. I'm sorry to be saying goodbye to the series with this final book, but The Galaxy, and The Ground Within was a wonderful finale. I'm so excited to see what Becky Chambers does next, and I can't recommend this series enough to people who like their sci-fi with a lot of heart.

As I expected from the series, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is an incredibly slow-paced book that focuses intensely on a group of characters and their lives. I'd say the Wayfarers series are truly slice-of-life books in a sci-fi setting. There is no strong plot, although things do happen, it's much more of a character study. This book is perfect for people who usually find sci-fi a little too complicated and large scale. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a comforting read that tackles harsh realities while remaining optimistic about what we can do to be better.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is such a beautiful book. I've never read anything quite like this series, and I wasn't disappointed with this instalment. I can't quite explain how much I love it; there's a special place in my heart for these books. I love how it focuses on interpersonal conflict and growth; you get a deep connection to the characters and their wellbeing. The difficulties they have relate strongly to real-world issues, the book gives new perspectives to common discussions through a sci-fi setting.

One of the things I was so excited about was that the cast is made up of aliens. I'm a big fan of aliens in books, especially when they have distinct cultures and aren't necessarily humanoid. The previous book in this series, Record of a Spaceborn Few, almost completely revolved around humans, so it was a nice to have a shift in focus here. Despite humans not being a major part of this book, the conflicts are incredibly relatable and link strongly to human experiences.

The main themes of this book revolve around cultural misunderstandings, knowledge, and acceptance. I don't want to go into incredible detail here because part of the fun is seeing the character's development. A group of very different people are trapped together, forcing them to confront their misconceptions about each other. It strongly links to discussions of cultural understanding in our society. It tackles how a lack of knowledge breeds misunderstanding, how stereotypes always have a larger context, and how cultural history strongly impacts present-day behaviour. I can't say enough about how much depth there is to this book. There are so many touching moments, so many important discussions, and so much hope.

I wouldn't recommend this book to people who require a strong plot, but for those of you that love character-focused books, the whole series is an absolute delight.

I've really enjoyed reading the stories in this Wayfarers series, and I was sad to see that this will be the final one. It's been an interesting way for a series to be written, not following the same characters each time. Each book feels like it captures or reflects something of our own lives, but I felt it particularly in this one since the group of aliens we meet this time are trapped, by circumstances outside of their control, on a planet, at a pit-stop they had all come to just for a few hours whilst waiting for their allocated time slot to travel onwards through the tunnel. So we see the strangers stuck together, in a confined area, with little to do, with no real idea of when their confinement will end!
There are no humans in this story, and Becky Chambers does what she always does brilliantly - she creates interesting and intriguing characters, as well as their alien backstories, so we learn about several very different species, and their histories, as we watch their own stories unfold.

Whilst there isn't a huge amount driving the plot forward I don't think that's a bad thing. This is a character-driven novel, and I was really interested in all the characters. I liked that they felt weird, and distant, and 'other' to begin with, but that I gradually got to know and love them all. It's beautifully imagined. Warm, and kind, and hopeful. I felt sad when it ended, and it made me want to go back to the beginning and read them all again.

The Galaxy and the Ground Within is a new novel in the Wayfarers series from Becky Chambers. It’s also the last novel in that sequence, which makes talking about this entry a mixture of heartwarming and heartbreaking. I’ve really enjoyed the Wayfarers books over the years, so came to this one with high hopes. And those are, full disclosure, hopes which it more than met.
This is a story about people. That those people are different species, with different biological and psychological configurations, and different needs, is irrelevant. Well, not irrelevant. But it doesn't detract from the essential personhood at the core of their diversity of experience. And it really is a wonderfully diverse group, from societies as different from each other as they are from the one we’re familiar with. Notably, none of these characters is actually a human! All of the characters are forced together, forced to spend time with each other in a space they didn’t choose for themselves, victims of circumstance. But in their dialogue, in their striving toward understanding, they have a shared context and a shared understanding.


It’s a warm bath, this book, in some ways. It’s comfortable. It’s seeing so many different perspectives come together. Watching them face adversity, and discover their differences, and similarities, is a joy. It’s finding strength in common ground, and showing a world remarkably free of cynicism, and with a genuine warmth to it. There’s an emotional truth on display here and that has an honesty to it, a sense of looking through the masks of things to the core beneath, which makes every word, every action, seem real, and gets you to feel them. Too.


Plot-wise, the stakes are fairly personal. A natural disaster leaves a small collective f different individuals bundled together for an unknown period of time. They’re not in enormous peril, but they are out of their comfort zones. And that lets them explore, perhaps, different paths to understanding and happiness than they might have before. They’re ambassadors to each other, struggling past their own histories and preconceptions to see the people they’re talking to, to give them their own agency and sense of being. Incidentally, we do get viewpoints from them all - and each has their own voice, their own perceptions of what’s going on, their own truth, and that each of those is distinct, whilst all being valid, is wonderful. The stakes may not be epically high, in the traditional sense of universes to save or wars to end, but they’re intensely personal. The wealth and depth of character in display made me care about each of these people, about their needs, about their fears, the way they were seen, and the way they saw others. To them, their small, everyday triumphs and tragedies are encompassing the world. The conflicts are similarly personal - and no less intense or truthful for that. People have opinions, and disagreements, and while they have to live in the same space as each other, may not necessarily like each other very much. It’s not exploding space stations or laser swords, but what it is, is searingly emotionally honest, and immediately, personally valid. If you’ve not had these arguments, you’ve probably had ones like thm, and you can feel their truth in your bones, even if they’re being made by a spider in an exo-suit to an egg-laying rhino with an exoskeleton.


In the end, this has everything I loved about the Wayfarers series. Diversity, inclusion, and a universe which is rich in detail and characters which have a depth and truth all their own. It’s a book which is by turns comfortable and incisive, and in both states is doing something special. It’s a pitch perfect swan song to the Wayfarers series, and though I’m sad to see it end, if it must, I’m delighted to say that it’s getting the send off it deserves. You’ll want to read this one. And you should!

This is a novel in which very little happens: there are no space battles, no galaxy spanning secrets to be uncovered or plots to be foiled, it's just a story about people and it is totally absorbing. Three travellers are marooned at an away station on a small rocky planet by a catastrophic failure in the ring of artificial satellites. They, as well as the owner and her child are all of different species (none of them human) and over the course of few days learn about each other and so about themselves. There is medical emergency which helps to bond them but in the end they go, as they must, their separate ways. But each has been changed by their experience and those ways are not what they would otherwise have been.
If I had one criticism it would be that although the characters are of different species they are all essentially human with motive that are quite understandable, but perhaps it could not be otherwise, given that the author is a human writing for humans.
And all the characters dislike (are revolted by) cheese.

Becky Chambers burst onto the science fiction scene with her multi-species but intensely humanist spaceship adventure The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. This became the first of what is now known as the Wayfarer series, based on the name of that ship. Despite the name, there are only tangential connections to the Wayfarer in the books that follow. The fourth, and apparently last, in the Wayfarer universe is The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, the connection here being that one of the characters, an Aeluon called Pei, is in a semi-secret relationship with the human captain of the Wayfarer, Ashby (he does not appear in the book).
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is set on a kind of galactic waystation planet called Gora (“the Hanto word for useless”). Gora has nothing to recommend it and no sentient life but it does sit at the confluence of a number of wormhole tunnels and so is a good place for a stop over while the traffic is regulated between them. One of the sentient beings running a station on Gora known as the Five-Hop One-Stop is Ouloo, a Laru, and her offspring Tupo. Her guests, three members of other alien species including the aforementioned Pei, end up stuck on Gora when routine maintenance causes a cascade failure in the planet’s satellites, many of which crash to the surface. The story then follows the five as they learn about each other and navigate the complexity of cultural minsunderstanding.
It is easy to peg every novel completed in 2020 as a response to pandemic. But there was some resonance with a story about characters being “locked-down” and unable to return to their ships or continue on their way to their home planets. But any analogy ends fairly quickly. Chambers creates this situation not to comment on the lockdown itself but so she can explore the culture clash between the five and the ways in which they learn to accommodate each other.
In the Wayfarer series Chambers has delivered her own brand of humanist science fiction (this one without any humans at all) with no space battles, no laser guns and no interstellar politics. This book is no different. Her focus is on individuals and their internal struggles – why is the insectoid Roveg an outcast and what will happen when he goes home? Should Pei be honest with her crew about her relationship with a human? Can (and should) Pei and Speaker (an Akarak who cannot leave their mechanical suit outside their shuttle) reconcile their very different views on colonisation The story is far from conflict free but the conflicts are either personal or internal and they are resolved in a civilised way.
In her acknowledgements, Chambers notes that this is the last of the Wayfarer books. They have all taken a different slant at the Galactic Commons and each have been enjoyable in their own way. But without a bigger story that might upend her Galactic milieu, this is probably a good call. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within takes the story out on a totally earned, heartfelt and feelgood note and with some excitement now as to what Becky Chambers will deliver next.

I've finished 'The Galaxy, and the Ground Within' yesterday night, I'm still overwhelmed by how extraordinary this book is. It's hard to write a review of something that you feel is so brilliant.

Gora is just a stop in a journey, travellers can rest on the Five-Hop One-Stop with Ouloo and Tupo, who are very welcoming hosts. If you need fuel, supplies, or just relaxation - it's a perfect place. Until you're stuck.

All of the book characters are different species and there isn't a single human.

They're trapped for a few days in the same place, they're disconnected from the rest of the Universe and as unlikely as it'd be in any other conditions - they get to know and like each other, forming real friendships.

I don't read many character-driven stories, here the plot seems to be a supporting element only, and the book is perfect.. It's amazing how many important topics can pass through the sci-fi novel which are 100% relevant to our world. Inclusiveness, gender identity, not wanting to have children, a beauty in how we're all different. Intolerance, pointless war and xenophobia.

I was intrigued and hungry to know more when every alien described their worlds, customs, behaviours, physiology, culture. How they could speak with clicks in the throat or with colours! How surprising it was that not all sapiens breathe oxygen!

And I absolutely loved a description of how cheese is made, because it's so true (and maybe some people will start thinking about going vegan)!

I enjoyed every page of the story. I expected it to be somehow similar to 'To Be Taught, If Fortunate', and even though it was completely different, it was still magnificent.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced copy.

'The Galaxy, and the Ground Within’ is the fourth and final book in Becky Chambers’ ‘Wayfarers’ series – a collection of loosely-connected space operas imagining an intergalactic future. Like all of her books, it’s a gorgeous, character driven tale, quiet and small in scope but absolutely brimming with humanity and emotion. It’s not my favourite entry in the series, but it’s a beautiful and poignant tale to end on.

The planet Gora is utterly unremarkable. It has no water, no breathable air, and no native life – not even the smallest microbe. However, it’s in convenient proximity to several more remarkable planets – and therefore makes a convenient stopover point for intergalactic travel. Ouloo, a member of the Laru race, runs the Five-Hop One-Stop – a place designed to cater to every sapient on their travels, no matter their needs. When a freak technical failure ends up grounding all flights from Gora, Ouloo finds herself playing host to four completely different sapients: her occasionally helpful son Tupo, an Aeluon called Pei, a Quelin exile called Rovsig, and – to her discomfort – an Akarak called Speaker, an alien even amongst aliens. The longer they spend together, the harder it becomes to stay diplomatic – for better or worse.

The only character to have featured in a previous ‘Wayfarers’ book is Pei – she’s Ashby’s love interest from ‘The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’. However, seeing her from her own perspective is completely different, so this feels like a collection of completely new characters. ‘Galaxy’ is also the first Wayfarers book to have a completely non-human main cast. Chambers has proven time and time again that she excels at creating aliens – from the xenobiology to complicated cultures and political structures – and this is one of the best exemplifications of that. Each character is utterly unique, and their cultural backgrounds, complex politics, and relative xenophobia feel exceptionally believable. With the Akarak, Chambers has created her most unusual race yet, and the impact this has on the others’ relationship with Speaker is brilliantly portrayed.

This is a quiet story. There’s no plot beyond a group of different people being trapped for several days together unexpectedly, each with their own reasons to want to get away: Pei to meet Ashby, Rovsig to make an appointment, and Speaker to return to her unwell sister. The perspective alters between Pei, Rovsig, and Speaker, with very occasional chapters from Ouloo’s point of view as host. There are regular culture clashes, but there’s always an underlying sense of optimism that things can be better.

The underlying themes are many, but the overarching one is family and what it means. None of the characters have conventional family dynamics for their species: both Ouloo and Speaker spend time in pairs (Ouloo with her son, Speaker with her sister) when their culture would traditionally dictate a larger group, Rovsig is exiled from his family, and Pei is romantically involved with a human when her species forbids inter-species relationships. They each have a completely different perspective, and seeing how they all influence each other and come to understand each other’s beliefs is beautiful.

I can’t believe the series is over – Chambers’ world is so rich that it feels like losing a friend. Her writing is gorgeous and quotable, her worldbuilding immensely detailed and yet never overwhelming or confusing, and the diversity in her work is unparalleled. This book is one of the first major works I’ve seen in which a character uses neo-pronouns (xe and xyr), and it feels entirely natural.

Overall, ‘The Galaxy, and the Ground Within’ is a profoundly moving book – just like all its predecessors in the ‘Wayfarers’ series. This is a series where the books can be read in isolation, so if you’re a fan of character-driven stories and quiet, emotional reads, I highly recommend picking up the entry which interests you the most. For fans of stories about family and love in all its forms, this is definitely a book for you.

Unpopular opinion incoming:


Synopsis: Three aliens are stranded at their hosts for a few days on a backwater planet due to global technical reasons:
Pei gives a comeback from the first novel. She is an Aeulon and a military cargo runner who won't make it to the rendezvous with her human lover. Roveg, an exiled lobster-like Quelin, is a creator of vacation simulations who needs to make a vital appointment. Speaker, a methane-breathing Akarak in a mechsuit, worries for her sister in the orbit. These three are hosted by Ouloo and her adolescent child Tupo. No humans involved at all.

They get to learn each others' backgrounds, and separate as soon as possible again.

Review: This fourth novel concludes the author's Wayfarer series, and it isn't to be expected that Chambers will return to this universe. 

Embrace the xenology in this chamberplay, because the plot or setting is nearly not existent. It could be played against a grey curtain without loosing too much. The novel has all the charming, positive, and sometimes funny atmosphere as all the previous novels and dives deep into the characterizations and the relationships between the five protagonists. There are a couple of social conflicts, some of them caused by misinterpretation, others by contrary attitudes. None of them are heavy-weight or lead to fights. 

The novel doesn't feel like an end to the series, there is no huge showdown or any wow-effect at all, and could be randomly read as a second or third volume. It flows calmly page after page without a tension arc and is inconsequential for the series. There's nothing keeping the reader bound to the narration than the lovely characters. 

As a series finale, it is utterly anticlimatic. As part of the series it is redundant and gives the reader just more of what has been told before in other colours. If you really need that additional layer of icing, then you'll be happy.

Hace algo más de un año que tuve la oportunidad de entrevistar a Becky Chambers. Por aquel entonces me comentaba que el cuarto libro de la saga de la Peregrina en el que se encontraba trabajando, sin título por aquel entonces, iba a ser un libro muy alienígena. Y vaya si lo era.

La última entrega de la saga que comenzó con El Largo Viaje a un Pequeño Planeta Iracundo (Insólita Editorial, 2018) nos presenta a cinco personajes principales, todos no humanos, y cada uno protagonistas de los distintos capítulos de manera rotatoria. Todos se encuentran en Gora, un planeta que no tendría más historia si no fuese porque se encuentra a medio camino entre unos agujeros de gusano muy frecuentados. Esto ha convertido su puerto en un lugar muy transitado y se ha hecho necesaria la creación de un puesto de mando para ordenar los tránsitos entre agujeros.

En cierto momento tiene lugar un incidente que provoca que las naves actualmente en el puerto de Gora no puedan despegar suspendiéndose el tráfico espacial. Speaker, Roveg y Pei, además de Ouloo y Tupo, habitantes de Gora, tendrán que socializar con gente con la que no tienen nada que ver durante un tiempo inicialmente corto pero que se terminará alargando unos cuantos días más.

Becky Chambers retoma en The Galaxy, and the Ground Within toda una serie de temas sobre los que ya la hemos visto profundizar en algunas de las anteriores obras de esta saga. Con la excusa del incidente obliga a todos los personajes a relacionarse entre sí ya sea por pura relación de amistad o por necesidad básica de supervivencia. Estas interacciones nos permiten ir descubriendo cómo distintas especies sin ninguna relación con la humanidad se han desarrollado, cuáles son sus características físicas, su sexualidad, su visión de los conflictos bélicos que tienen lugar en el universo o cómo sus sociedades se han estructurado. Eso sí, donde la interactuación en Record of a Spaceborn Few (tercer volumen de la saga) se centraba en la reacción humana a los acontecimientos galácticos, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within es únicamente la visión no humana la que es protagonista, con las interrogantes que ello abre según avanzas en la lectura.

Chambers, nuevamente, no pretende presentar una trama sobre las que los personajes giren. En absoluto. Apenas suceden un par de eventos durante la historia que en realidad sirven para poder enfocar algunos de los temas que mencionaba anteriormente. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within es un libro puramente especulativo, lleno de ideas de cómo otros mundos podrían haber evolucionado. Para quienes hayáis leído los volúmenes previos sabéis de lo que estoy hablando, por lo que este formato de historia nuevamente será amado por muchos y odiado por algunos, dado lo particular de su estilo el cual ha creado una tendencia en sí mismo.

Dice la propia Chambers en los agradecimientos finales que este es el cierre de la serie de la Peregrina. Cuatro libros que han abierto un nuevo universo sobre el que esperamos pueda volver en un futuro. Sobre todo cuando hay tantas y tantas cosas que se han ido mencionando durante los libros y sobre los que se podría volver una y otra vez. Supongo que todo tiene su momento y habrá que estar atento a ver con lo que nos sorprende próximamente.

Si Record of a Spaceborn Few contaba con un elenco de protagonistas puramente humanos, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within es justamente lo contrario, con puntos de vista que nada tienen que ver con el nuestro. Algo que he disfrutado enormemente dado que cada uno de ellos es único, con una personalidad y morfología distinta y claramente diferenciadas. Las conversaciones están llenas de detalles tan especulativos como divertidos. Desde cómo los personajes eligen su sexo o se desarrollan a cómo un baile festivo para pasar unas horas hace reaccionar a cada uno de ellos. Por no hablar de la conversación sobre qué es el queso y porque los humanos lo comen. Chambers en estado puro.

An Akarak, a Quelin, an Aeulon and a couple of Laru walk into a bar—wait.

I have officially finished the Wayfarers series and, while I'm a tad heartbroken, Chambers has brought this series to a close beautifully, in her usual quiet, hopeful way. She writes gentle sci-fi, and I'm so excited to follow the rest of her writing career.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within takes place on Gora, a planet used as a stopover for travelling ships—a sci-fi service station, if you will—where a Laru named Ouloo runs the Five-Hop One-Stop with the help of her child, Topo. The day that Speaker, an Akarak, Roveg, a Quelin, and Pei, an Aeulon who appears in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, arrive at the Five-Hop is the day that a technological fault grounds them all on the planet together. What ensues are a number of days in which these people learn about each other and, in the process, learn more about themselves.

This book feels like such a fitting end to the series because of the way it hearkens back to the first book, which is still one of my all-time favourite novels. Not only is one of the main characters a side character in that first book—I loved seeing Pei again—but it's another sci-fi novel that explores how making the universe a welcoming place for everyone is a choice we all have to make every single day. It's not until the others meet Speaker, for example, that they realise just how little they know about her people and their history.

One of my favourite things about this novel is that we don't follow a single human character. It felt like such a lovely response to the previous book in the series, Record of a Spaceborn Few, which focused solely on a human community and made me realise how much I'd love to see more sci-fi novels like this. Sci-fi so often follows humans and our relationship with the universe, but I loved the experience of following four completely different species with four very different cultures. There are often times when they all find each other a little strange, but it's their choices to learn more about each other despite those differences that makes this book such a heart-warming one.

For me the most powerful relationship was the rather tense relationship that developed between Speaker and Pei, who both have very different opinions about the war Pei is fighting in. Chambers manages both their points of view beautifully, neither of them are either right or wrong because nothing is so black and white in warfare, but it's the discussion they have around parenthood that I found most powerful. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything, but one of the conversations they have is a turning point for Pei and I have to applaud Chambers for writing it.

I loved this book, I loved this whole series, and if you still haven't read it then I can't recommend it enough—especially if you're a reader yearning for more hopeful stories when you reach for SFF.

Thank you very much to Netgalley UK and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Wayfarer series has an incredibly special place in my heart. They are my wholesome, comfort reads, which have restored my faith in other people on more than one occasion.
Therefore, it was a bittersweet moment when I heard that 'The Galaxy and the Ground Within' would be the final book. I simply did not want this series to end! However, after reading this quietly intimate story of interaction and hope, I think this is the perfect finale for the series.
'The Galaxy and the Ground Within' focuses on a very small group of very different aliens as they become stranded on a "rest-stop" planet due to a satellite accident. Each character has their own reasons and motives for passing through the area and it is interesting to see how they react to being grounded.
The book is heavily focused upon exploring the inner worlds of each character, rather than being a plot-orientated "race back to space" or a "hunt for survival" story. So, for anyone seeking an intense tale of danger and adrenaline, will be best suited looking elsewhere.
That these interactions can take place at all, is due to the monumental levels of consideration from Ouloo, the Laru owner of the 'Five-Hop One-Stop'. Her dedication to providing the most comfort and accessibility to every possible species has no boundaries and she is always wanting to learn more and improve her small world.
Her efforts are- unintentionally- derailed by Speaker, an Akarak, who's needs and comforts are relatively unknown due to how they the species have become scattered across the galaxy due to political prejudice. She and her sister are just trying to help other Akaraks and make a living for themselves.
Therefore, Speaker's experiences and perspective put her in opposition with Captain Tem, or Pei, as the reader may already know her from previous installments, the Aeluon Captain of a cargo ship, who has only met violent Akaraks during her missions.
In contrast to this is Roveg, a Quelin exile, who wants nothing more than to reach his appointment in time.
However, each character's plans are scuppered by the satellite cascade failure, an accident which they can do nothing to resolve. With communications restricted to an emergency beacon, and Ouloo determined to still maintain the comfort of her guests, they each learn more about each other, and subsequently, themselves.
These interactions are driven by personal curiosity, as well as that of Tupo (Ouloo's child) who single-handedly proves that children will always be the most stress-inducing beings in existence, regardless of their species.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to any Wayfarer fans who are looking for a "rest-stop" in their exploration of fiction, before they move on to new and exciting territory or welcoming and familiar ground. For anyone intrigued the synopsis or this review, I strongly, recommend reading the previous books first, because not only are they amazing, but what good is a rest-stop without a journey?

A simply gorgeous, inventive and heart-warming sci-fi novel. Having read the three previous books, and found them a little uneven (A Closed and Common Orbit is my most-recommended book ever, number 1 was good, 3 was fine), this fourth one reminded me of all the elements that I love the most about Becky Chambers universe. It is focused on the everyday details, all the things that often get glossed over in (dare I say, typically male-focused) science fiction. How do different species travel between planets? What sort of cultural differences are there? How does it actually feel to have your world-view shaped by a profoundly different set of senses and parameters? Who fuels the rockets?

At the equivalent of an airport layover, five different species are trapped together due to a satellite malfunction, all desperate to leave for their own reasons that are revealed over the course of the book. Each character has significant bonds with others they can't wait to renew - with children, siblings or lovers, and I really love the way each set of relationships were framed as equally important.

Reading this during lockdown really enhanced the character's feelings for me.

One really resonant theme of the book is motherhood - each species has a very different approach to children and parenting, from a puppy like love to an almost clinical breeding programme, via various versions of birth or adoption. Pei, a character from earlier in the series, has a choice to make between biological necessity and her heart, which I won't spoil here - although the way parenthood and pregnancy was presented as a clear choice, and not necessarily one that everyone would leap at, was refreshing and quite moving.

In short, if you enjoy incredible world-building that is more interested in relationships than technology (although there's plenty of great sci-fi detail about interstellar travel etc!) then this is the series for you.

Every book in the Wayfarers series takes in a different snapshot of life within the Galactic Commons. It is a fresh approach to space opera and one which Becky Chambers has mastered. It pays off yet again in The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. This book is the perfect send-off for the series (must it really be the end?) and is reflective of the current state of humanity on our planet (more of which later). What Becky Chambers does, better than anyone else in science-fiction at the moment, is let her characters drive the story and develop over the course of the story, the big events serve as a device to let us explore more of each character.

This book centres around a diverse range of travelling aliens, all with different lives, ideologies and experiences of the Galactic Commons. They all arrive at the Laru-run Five-Hop Rest Stop with the intention of a brief layover before continuing their journeys. Quickly, events occur which mean they are all stranded for an indeterminate period of time. We learn that all those stranded there are deeply affected (understandably so) by their lives and the choices that they have made. Biases and prejudices are explored and challenged. The characters are forced to reconsider long held views and how the same events can be viewed differently by those who experience them. An event then happens which challenges them all to put aside their issues in order to resolve the matter before it is too late.

The book ends with the characters moving forward in their lives using the lessons they have learned from each other over the course of the book which is poignant and resonated with me.

For a book which only includes humans at the periphery throughout it struck me as actually being wholly about humanity. The idea that we can all appear outwardly different and are the products of different environments , but essentially it all comes down to the same emotions, hopes, dreams and fears. That we are all connected and take ourselves to seriously sometimes.

The message that this books conveys so strongly is the need for us to put aside our views and beliefs and work together to solve problems that are larger than any one of us individually which must surely be the key theme of 2021 and beyond.

The story - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The writing - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Becky Chambers does it again. Honestly I was so sad when I finished this as it spells the end of the Wayfarer series. Once again Chambers manages to create a world so rich and easily accessible, filled with varying characters that may be alien but are incredibly relatable, with slow paced and enjoyable character development.

With several very different species thrown together due to a freak accident, our characters end up challenging preconceptions, discussing cultural differences openly with curiosity (not fear) and come away with a new understanding and approach to coexisting with a lesser known species.

The writing is fantastic, as always. Chambers keeps the plot flowing really well between all the characters. Just... Read it!

Fave quote - 'In traditional Aeluon culture, a mother was not a parent. Parents were men and shon. Parents went to school for it. Parents were the people who actually raised children, not those who had done the easy business of creating them. The gendered expectations of parenting were dissolving, but even though women could be found working in creches now, there was still an enormous difference between the person who produced an egg and the person who took care of the little being that crawled out of it. Parenting was a profession, and it was not Pei’s. She could not imagine living like Ouloo, performing two distinct jobs at once, splitting herself for decades until Tupo reached adulthood. The whole idea was overwhelming.'

Fave moment - The conversation about cheese 😂 loved it, I had a proper little chuckle to myself.

This is the fifth Becky Chambers book I have read and the fifth I have given five stars to. I was very excited when I was approved for this arc as it’s one of my favourite book series. I’m sad to see the series end - I could read many more set in this world. All very likeable characters - my favourite was Topu. I enjoyed the premise, the plot and especially ending and where the characters left off. I think everyone should read the Wayfarers series. Can’t wait to read more by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the eARC.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review

Wow... I am blown away by the final instalment in the Wayfarers series, but it also feels extremely bittersweet knowing that this is the last instalment.

This book is more character-driven and focuses on the relationships with the people around us, and seems to focus especially on relationships in confined spaces; something maybe many of us can relate to with a pandemic going on, but I would much rather be on One Stop Five Hop.


Reading The Galaxy, and the Ground Within felt like coming home to a big ol' warm hug, and I desperately want to re-read/listen to the entire series again.

This is the fourth of the outstanding space opera series of the century so far, as far as I’m concerned. But, given that most of the space ships in this one are grounded, the term space opera is arguable. Since it has all the wide-ranging emotion and vistas expected of an opera, I reckon it counts.

Right from the start, the unemotional snippet of technical communication suggests something is going to go wrong. It does. The rest of the book belongs to the people marooned at one ‘bubble’ on the Gora surface. Each wants to be somewhere else in the galaxy, with someone else, without delay. What Chambers does is create a microscopic examination of aliens in duress, shoved together in an unwanted emergency situation, where their lives and motivations are examined.

It’s gently gripping.

I read this on consecutive evenings, swinging between desperation in finding out each person’s hidden secrets–or agendas–and admiring the depth of worldbuilding. Each species has a full, well-rounded history, not only that we’ve understood from the previous books, but how an ordinary citizen responds to their own history, the politics of their species in space, and their interactions with each other. Personal tragedies unfold. Inter-species arguments erupt. Unlooked-for friendships develop. It’s like a team-building exercise gone galactic. Indeed, I noticed the classic phases of team building over the arc of the book, which made it all the more real for me.

And you'll find that the responses of aliens in lockdown are remarkably familiar.

Becky Chambers' writing is, as always, subtle, rich and fragrant. The device of language through colour, with no conceptual relationship to the sounds others make, is bewilderingly brilliant. Her ability to convey differences in entire physiology amaze me. The description of the double-layered language of the arthropod/crustacean provides a thing of beauty. What you find here is not up-and-at-em space battles. You get the reflections of people who have been in space battles and who are now grounded. You get the PTSD, if you like. It feels so real, much more so than the technology of space. And that’s what makes Becky Chambers’ books so very special. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, is a marvellous conclusion to the series (if it really is the last…)

Well, my space-faring friends, Becky has done it again. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within marks the final instalment in her Wayfarers series, and it is just so damn lovely.

TGatGW is essentially a lockdown situation – with which we are all now painfully familiar – but with several sentient species, all stuck in the same planetary habitat and suddenly having to figure each other out. This happens on the commuter planet of Gora, where travellers layover while waiting to go through one of the nearby wormholes and travel to another, more exciting place. A low-orbit accident leads to the destruction of Gora’s satellite network, forcing all ships to be grounded. The ensuing story is essentially an answer to the age-old question, “what do you get when an Auleon, Quelin and Akarak get stranded in a Laru-owned Five-Hop One-stop”? And the answer is not a punchline, but heckin’ FEELS.

TGatGW is the first Chambers novel where none of the main characters are human, but I didn’t even pick up on this until after I’d put the book down; there’s more humanity to be found in this story about strange, sentient species than in most books about humanity. The author does what she does best, and deep dives into the cultures and social structure of disparate sentient species; from gender to politics, life expectancy to eating habits (including a particularly hilarious section where the protagonists are horrified by the concept of humans eating cheese).

That’s a pretty quick summary, but it effectively sums up this book which is relatively light on plot. But, learning about each species and seeing them overcome their differences is the point of the story, and it’s cathartic AF.

I’d recommend this book if you want to spend more time making some alien friends and less time shooting at them. TGatGW is a rare opportunity to explore the mundane yet fascinating details that are often overlooked in sci-fi. And, you’ll finish the book reassured that while the universe is oh so big and scary, it’s also a beautiful thing.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!