This novella from one of the proponents of “cozy” sci-fi was impressive in both scope and fullness. We follow the perspective of Ariadne, an engineer/scientist who’s part of a 4-person crew of explorers being sent by Earth to reach and study distant planets. As we get to know the four scientists waking up from the torpor that they’ve been in that allowed them to endure their decades-long flight, we also learn how the brand of exploration that they follow (as members of the apolitical space agency known as OCA) employs a technique called “somaforming,” which genetically modifies the person to adapt to the environment they’re engaging with rather than modifying the environment itself for human exposure (aka “terraforming”). The crew of the spacecraft, named Merian, journeys to four different planets over the span of years, and need to deal with the extremely different climates and physical environments of each, along with the differences in the quantity and diverse types of biology on each planet as well. While Chambers does pack a surprising amount into this short novella, it does feel like many more pages could have been spent on each planet, each mission, to provide the kind of detail and account of what could have happened during that time. But this is not necessarily a plot-driven story. Though the story is set over a century forward from our present day — so technologies such as somaforming and long distance space flight are not new — it still takes a very realistic approach to sci-fi. Similar to stories such as Andy Weir’s The Martian or Project Hail Mary, relatively mundane, practical realities such as requiring sufficient fuel to make a particular journey, are not hand-waved and have serious impacts on characters’ situations and decisions. This book is not intended as a rollicking space adventure to discover the stars, but a more “grounded” (no pun intended) and contemplative story that uses space exploration as a springboard for exploring (no pun intended) ideas about humanity and our quest to reach out and expand.

For anyone who has read Chambers’s other works (I have only read one: Psalm for the Wild-Built), you might have expected what I did going in, which was that the science fiction would be more of a setting and backdrop. The characters and their conversations would be more of the focus, and that might lead to a bit of a reflective summation speech at the end to illuminate certain thematic perspectives and opinions about broader humanity. When we were first getting to know the characters in this book, their interactions felt even less grand than that. Instead, it felt like more of a situational roommate dramedy, with classic interpersonal scenes and banter. However, as the focus shifted a bit more on the scientific activities and especially when they started to discover different types of life on these other worlds, that’s when I really got more interested in the story. First, I enjoyed sharing in their enthusiasm at discovering even the tiniest signs of life on their new world. Then I enjoyed the scenes where the team were discussing what they found and were debating how they would analyze and categorize these lifeforms which were so extremely different from the ones they knew on Earth. I’m not a science nerd by any stretch, but I am a bit of a logic, analysis, and metadata/taxonomy nerd, so I was thrilled by these scenes. I wished that this book was more of an episodic recounting of OCA adventures on different planets and whatever they discovered there (this might be revealing now why I’m a huge fan of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series). Chambers definitely had a different story in mind.

Unlike what I expected of cozy sci-fi, there was still an actual plot (though don’t go expecting a sandworm-driven Fremen rebellion or anything like that). There were some surprising events that occurred which had alluded to broader events beyond the pages of this story, affecting all of humankind on Earth. For those reasons, one big decision that the Merian crew had to make was whether to continue their mission or attempt to return to Earth ahead of schedule. Chambers, through the voices of these characters — in particular the main character — posed a thoughtful and provocative set of questions about what the impact of this decision really means. What is humanity’s goal in exploring space; or in any explorative endeavour at all? I loved how Chambers didn’t just focus on whether our crew wanted to go home to see their grandchildren grow up and get married, or help humanity transcend pettiness by bringing back proof of life on other planets. Instead, she brought those themes to a more fundamental and philosophical, existential level. While I’m normally an escapist reader who doesn’t like stories to hit super close to home, I genuinely enjoyed and appreciated how this story opened my mind and gave me a sci-fi experience that made me briefly reflect and ponder a broader perspective.

4 stars

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