"The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet", "A Closed and Common Orbit", "Record of a Spaceborn Few", and "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within" by Becky Chambers

For once, I started a series at book 1. I heard about Becky Chambers from various BookTubers, but I didn't keep track of which ones. When I first looked into reading it, I only knew about the first book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and when I was finished I was thrilled to learn that it was part of the 4-book Wayfarer Series.

The first book is in the same category as the early Expanse books and the Firefly series, and could be considered a hybrid of the two, but I don't want to make it sound as if it is derivative, because this book is a new story with new characters and complications. It's one of the best space operas I've read in a long time.

Here's the background: we have a spaceship, the Wayfarer, filled with unique and sympathetic personalities: a human captain in love with someone whose species that is xenophobic, a tech that has ADHD and needs legal drugs to do her work, a navigator who is the host of a sentient virus, a cook who specializes in obtaining the flavors needed to please all species on board, and a love relationship between the ship's AI and her tech. Together with the rest of the crew, including Rosemary who signed on as a clerk to hid out from her corrupt family, they take on a job at the edge of the galaxy that seems too good to be true. 

Chambers is a master of character and world building, and in this book, she builds a galaxy full of real people, and that continues throughout the series. One thing that some would find disappointing is that the emphasis of the series is life in the galaxy, and not just the voyages of the Wayfarer, although at least one of the crew or friends of the crew appears in each of the books of the series. Readers looking for a continuing space opera are going to be disappointed, but readers who want to read about impossible relationships, communities pulling together to overcome strife, and love in all it various forms, will find that this is a series for them.

Here is a summary and my take on the other 4 books in the series.

Book 2 - A Closed and Common Orbit: On the Wayfarer, Lovelace was once the ship's artificial intelligence, except that a tech was deeply in love with her. Following a total system shut-down and reboot, she wakes up in a synthetic body. Unable to stay on the Wayfarer, she relocates to a world where her kind are illegal. To others it would seem that having a body would be a blessing, but she struggles with the limited sensory perception of a single physical body after once being able to monitor the activities and wellbeing of an entire spaceship.  

Book 3 - Record of a Spaceborn Few: The exodus from Earth in a fleet of ship and over centuries resulted in a group of people who were not planet-born. The home on the remnants of the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, isolating themselves from outsiders, and frankly, slowly dying away. Can they accept that they are part of the galaxy and let others in? Or is it time for the Exodus Fleet to simply cease to exist. This is the book in the series that I liked the least; I felt it would have worked better as a novella and the story was a little stale.

Book 4 - The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: At a planetary "truck stop", ships come in, get serviced, eat some of the local food, and then continue on their journey, often not interacting with anyone from the other ships in the port. But a planet-wide disaster throws three travelers together unexpectedly, with seemingly nothing to do but wait. Together with the owners of a local "cafe," they get to know each other and break down some species barriers. I think this chapter in the life of the galaxy was a good farewell to the Wayfarer series. Like all the books, we are left with hope that instead of wedges being driven between the species, it would be possible for the very different to understand the community they could belong to.

Some would argue that there is a book 5: To Be Taught, If Fortunate, but this novella is not really part of the series, even though it is often listed as such.