The Galaxy, and the Ground Within: Wayfarers 4

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You know the part where that bad guy gets hit with a plasma cannon way up close, and he turns into a skeleton and then he explodes?’ If you're looking for a quirky and cute character drama with people you come to love, strange happenings and a warm sense of community, then it absolutely is. Pei - Another one of my absolute favourites, we have actually met Pei before, as Ashby's love interest. But seeing her on her own and discovering her character as an indivual, her wants and goals, as well as her struggles (paticularly about her relationship with Ashby - which she feels a lot of guilt about) was such a pleasure to read. Her storyline is so beautiful, coming to terms with what she wants for her life and standing up for herself to herself (idk if that makes sense but it's the best way I can describe it!). Also some of the choices she maes towards the end of the book were so impactful and I think will resonate with a lot of women.

Upload images (When uploading images ensure correct source and licensing is listed and included in the file description) This problem was epitomised when, during one scene when everyone is listening to music and Pei gets up and shows people an Aeluon, visual only dance, my lady remarked that Chambers was clearly "doing deafness" now. Just because they aren’t human, however, doesn’t mean that the struggles the characters go through don’t resonate with humanity’s own societal faults. Speaker’s species, for example, was historically enslaved, and even now that they are “liberated,” they’ve been shunned by the rest of the GC. Other sapients generally view Akaraks with suspicion, and the group on Gora didn’t consider Akaraks at all, much less how they are treated. Sound familiar?

I wish I would remember more of what I´ve read, and of course have generally read more, sci-fi to get all the hidden easter eggs and innuendos, because I have a kind of intuitive, subjective feeling that Chambers is the kind of person that likes to put extra hidden inside jokes besides all the underlying social criticism. Or I´m just projecting too much into it because I´m fanboying and glorifying too much, who knows. This is the first Wayfarers book with no Human main characters at all (and only one very minor Human character at the end), and so it behooves me to once again state how well Chambers handles writing believable aliens. Her worldbuilding work has been evident before, but is even more evident here, especially as we focus on some alien species (the Laru and the Akarak in particular) that have not received much airtime in previous books. Everything from physiology to culture is considered, and it’s a driver for a lot of the conversations between the various characters. Ouloo, a Laru, is the owner of the Five-Hop One-Stop, the place where nearly all of the novel takes place.

The actual story is about who these individuals are, where they’ve been and where they want to go from here. While it’s likely Chambers started this book before the events that were 2020, a post-pandemic (well, almost post, hopefully) reading can’t help but resonate with our own unexpected pause, how an unplanned and undesired halt to where we think we’re going can change things irrevocably. When a freak technological failure halts traffic to and from the planet Gora, three strangers are thrown together unexpectedly, with seemingly nothing to do but wait. Roveg, a Quelin, is an exiled artist on his way to see his children for the first time in many years. It is with Tupo that we run into another huge axe which Chambers is grinding, the issue of gender. Even though Rachel Dulude rather over emphasises the Ze and Zir pronouns used to describe Tupo, for the most part Chambers does a great job of avoiding any "little boy", or "little girl", tropes, meaning that even though my lady has a habit of referring to Tupo as "she", mostly Tupo could indeed have been either gender. All of this would be fine, and indeed expected in an alien race who do not develop gender until adulthood. However, at one point Ouloo explains breezily that Tupo hasn't "chosen", a gender yet, and that this is all a matter of preference. Given that even for humans it is difficult to say beyond the grossly biological level what actually being "male", or "female", means, especially in an era when old fashioned cultural stereotypes bump up against equally rigid new prejudices, I'm honestly confused here. Do Laru have gender assumptions? Or specific rolls for each gender? Will Tupo have to physically change Zir genitalia in some way? Would Tupo's interests, geology, dancing, cooking, be coloured by Zir choice of gender, and how about Zir role as a parent? Since both Ouloo and Chambers actively tell us so little about Laru culture, all we're left with is a possible choice of pronoun, and so much emphasis placed on "well who cares it's whatever you want", that the whole discussion seems inconsequential. Indeed, I am fairly certain the only reason Tupo happened to be genderless was so that Chambers could insert Ouloo's pro non binary invective.Her way of depicting emotions and her ability in creating such calm, endearing, empowered and caring characters are truly something that needs to be celebrated and properly highlighted. STEM writers. They´re great, but have created a kind of monoculture where other cultures and especially the feminine perspective are completely underrepresented, just as in real life. The story follows Pei, an Aeluon, Speaker, an Akarak, and Roveg, a Quelin. They all end up grounded at the Five-Hop One-Stop which is run by Ouloo, a Laru. They have all lead distinctive lives and they also necessitate differentiating things given that they belong to a different species. Oxygen, for example, would be lethal to Speaker. At first, they view the others as mere aliens but the more time they spend together—picnics and get-togethers—the more they begin to see the others as individuals in their own right. There is some conflict due to Akarak not being considered a sapient species and therefore they are not part of the GC. They were colonized by another species and are now regarded with distrust. Pei is fighting for the Aeluons against the Rosk (whom, if I record correctly, they had previously colonized). Review: This fourth novel concludes the author's Wayfarer series, and it isn't to be expected that Chambers will return to this universe.

You had to pause in the face of reflex, ask yourself if the narrative you attached to the knee-jerk was accurate. Once she’d grasped this, she could never again see life as a static thing, something with one immutable definition. The universe was not an object. It was a beam of light, and the colours that it split into changed depending on whose eyes were doing the looking. Nothing could be taken at face value. Everything had hidden facets, hidden depths that could be interpreted a thousand ways – or misinterpreted in the same manner. Reflexes kept a person safe, but they could also make you stupid.”

Roveg is a Quelin, an insectile race that is fairly insular and not especially friendly to the other member species of the GC. Roveg himself, however, is an exile — forced to live offworld and forbidden to return due to his prior expression of non-traditional viewpoints. Roveg has a very important appointment to keep, an appointment that he absolutely cannot miss. The book’s plot—as much as it has one—is that for all their differences, the group first comes to respect each other, then depend on each other, and finally, become changed by each other. That’s not to say that there aren’t conflicts or moments of fear, but at its heart, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a story of people who are inherently decent and striving to do the right thing. Moreover, there were some nods to the other books and a strong bond with the first that had me laugh in delight (including a serious "d’aw"-moment). :D

And sometimes fear is good. Fear keeps you alive. But it can also keep you from what you really want." Earth, the battered Human homeworld] Their world isn’t dead, not completely. It’s being repaired, little by little. They can visit, if they want to. There are some who live there still. And their planet wasn’t taken from outside. They killed it from within. They chewed their own hearts out. No, I don’t think we’re the same at all.’

What follows is delightful. Chambers starts somewhat predictably, but then allows some sharp edges to show. This friction is what kept it unpredictable for me: Vanessa Armstrong at Tor noted that "While it’s likely Chambers started this book before the events that were 2020, a post-pandemic (well, almost post, hopefully) reading can’t help but resonate with our own unexpected pause, how an unplanned and undesired halt to where we think we’re going can change things irrevocably." [2]