Once, Lovelace had eyes and ears everywhere. She was a ship's artificial intelligence system - possessing a personality and very human emotions. But when her ship was badly damaged, Lovelace was forced to reboot and reset. Now housed in an illegal synthetic body, she's never felt so isolated.
But Lovelace is not alone. Pepper, an engineer who risked her life to reinstall Lovelace's program, has remained by her side and is determined to help her.
The books from the Wayfarers series can be read standalone, but I recommend reading them in order so you get a feel for the universe and an introduction to the characters (ok, I've only read the first two right now). Things will make a little bit more sense.
Anyways, this was another really nice, character-driven book.
Two stories, a young girl trying to survive and a synthetic "person" looking for it's purpose, and how they are both trying to fit in with society.
I think I enjoyed the young girls story more and was more engaged in her "plain" survival and how she tried to repair a space shuttle. For the synth not so much, it's story felt like it was a simple "confused teenager messing around" drama.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Loved the concept, but the story kept hitting the same plot beats. I liked it overall, but it still felt a little disappointing coming off of the first Wayfarer book.
Le tome 2 des Voyageurs. Du coup je m’attendais à retrouver l'équipage du tome 1. Pas du tout ! Par contre l'histoire est centrée sur des personnages déjà présent dans le tome 1.
L'histoire est la quête d'identité et de sens de deux personnes, l'une humaine et l'autre IA. Comme le premier tome c'est bien écrit, et on attend qu'une chose : lire le tome 3 !
Thoroughly enjoyed the worldbuilding and the story, but I felt like I had to do the work to relate to the characters. They both start off at points in their lives that are unique, interesting - and hard to wrap my head around. The author does a great job giving them distinct voices and letting them grow over time, but I just found them too far removed to really get into the book.
The secondary characters, however! I really loved reading about them from the perspectives of the protagonists, and as always, the interactions are wonderfully crafted.
Druha cast navazuje volne na predchozi dej, kdy Sidra, byvala lodni UI Lovelace, obyva lidsky telo. Je to opet poklidny, pohodovy cteni a plyne nak tak samo.
Kdyz se nad tim zamyslim vic, tak flashback cast je dost slusne propracovana a pride me tenhle dil o poznani kvalitnejsi.
Second story focuses on (not only) troubles of former spaceship AI moved to human body. There's also flashback to Chilli's childhood, painting careless society growing genetically modified kids for labor. It's somewhat more complex than first part and I like different timelines, despite being it a bit predictable.
Using the trope of a computer or AI to discuss about what it means to be a human is not new, but Chambers does something interesting with it. It's more about human as a social animal than the question of consciousness. I think that was a far more interesting question anyway.
I found Pepper's story to be really engaging as well, and this time it felt like the author did develop her skills writing plot driven as well as character driven. Chambers has become one of my favourite writers.
Der Fokus liegt hier auf den zwei Hauptprotagonistinnen, deren Charakterentwicklung und einen konsistenten Handlungsstrang mit merklich steigendem Spannungsbogen. Somit ist der Erzählstil anders, als in Teil eins, dennoch ist das Buch mindestens genauso gut, wenn nicht sogar besser!
Die Story fand ich wunderschön und die Protagonistinnen und die drei Nebencharaktere durch und durch sympathisch und liebenswert. Auch dieses Mal habe ich während des Lesens mehrfach in Emotionen geschwelgt. Wie sehr habe ich mit ihnen mitgefiebert, wie sehr mitgefühlt, wenn sie es schwer hatten, wie sehr ging mir das Herz auf, wenn sie schöne Dinge erlebt hatten.
Und letztere sind zum Glück auch in diesem Teil wieder in der Mehrzahl, auch wenn diesmal ein bisschen häufiger auch etwas bedrückendere Momente stattfinden, was die Bindung an die Charaktere aber umso mehr verstärkt.
Besonders angetan hat es mir Protagonistin Sidra. Nicht nur, weil ich es interessant …
Hach, was für ein wunderbares Buch. 🥰
Der Fokus liegt hier auf den zwei Hauptprotagonistinnen, deren Charakterentwicklung und einen konsistenten Handlungsstrang mit merklich steigendem Spannungsbogen. Somit ist der Erzählstil anders, als in Teil eins, dennoch ist das Buch mindestens genauso gut, wenn nicht sogar besser!
Die Story fand ich wunderschön und die Protagonistinnen und die drei Nebencharaktere durch und durch sympathisch und liebenswert. Auch dieses Mal habe ich während des Lesens mehrfach in Emotionen geschwelgt. Wie sehr habe ich mit ihnen mitgefiebert, wie sehr mitgefühlt, wenn sie es schwer hatten, wie sehr ging mir das Herz auf, wenn sie schöne Dinge erlebt hatten.
Und letztere sind zum Glück auch in diesem Teil wieder in der Mehrzahl, auch wenn diesmal ein bisschen häufiger auch etwas bedrückendere Momente stattfinden, was die Bindung an die Charaktere aber umso mehr verstärkt.
Besonders angetan hat es mir Protagonistin Sidra. Nicht nur, weil ich es interessant fand, einen Großteil der Handlung aus der Sicht einer KI zu erleben. Sondern auch, weil ihre Persönlichkeit einfach lieb und herzlich gezeichnet ist.
Außerdem fand ich es bewegend, mitzuerleben, wie sie sich als empfindungsfähige KI in einem Bodykit unter Organischen anfangs schwer tut, sich in der Situation entwickelt und dabei liebevolle Freundschaften schließt.
Wie schon Band 1 ein wirklich optimistisches und wohltuendes Buch. 😌
i enjoyed A Closed and Common Orbit even more than the prequel one. (which has not enough story to keep up--for my taste at least) i think of it as a kind of double bildungsroman, with two developing characters between which the novel is split.
Chambers connects her scifi(-world) convincingly and smoothly with the problems most of us are facing and can relate to. it's how scifi should comment the present. and although the focus is always on the personalities, there are also a lot of social themes and thoughts.
a lot of readers mention the caring characters throughout the story, which make it so satisfactional to follow. I can support that! but it would be sad to think, it's just another form of escapism, a tweak to the genre. this is a shortcoming of understanding the themes Chambers is working on.
the real impact makes Chambers skill in building …
i enjoyed A Closed and Common Orbit even more than the prequel one. (which has not enough story to keep up--for my taste at least) i think of it as a kind of double bildungsroman, with two developing characters between which the novel is split.
Chambers connects her scifi(-world) convincingly and smoothly with the problems most of us are facing and can relate to. it's how scifi should comment the present. and although the focus is always on the personalities, there are also a lot of social themes and thoughts.
a lot of readers mention the caring characters throughout the story, which make it so satisfactional to follow. I can support that! but it would be sad to think, it's just another form of escapism, a tweak to the genre. this is a shortcoming of understanding the themes Chambers is working on.
the real impact makes Chambers skill in building up and writing emotional scenes. and because i was listening to the audiobook: R. Dulude did a great job on this one (too).
More feel-good scifi. (No spoilers:) It's Pepper backstory, and another minor character from A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I think this one benefits a lot from taking it slowly and focussing on just two characters.
Review of 'A Closed and Common Orbit' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It had compelling themes and interesting things to say, but somehow still managed not to be compelling to me. I felt like it was two stories that weren't enough on their own mooshed into one. They were well woven together though, and definitely had dependencies on each other in the story telling. I dunno. It just didn't grab me.
I absolutely adored this book. I realise that part of this is that it was a perfect little escape while I was stuck at home with covid, but I do also think it's really wonderful.
It has some similar strengths to the first in the series, in that it's mostly about the relationships between a few outcast characters that become a chosen family and just happen to be in space. But if anything I think it's better written (I guess Chambers getting into her stride with book 2), and benefits from being a more focussed story of a smaller number of characters. And has some weightier things to say about embodiment, the tension between fitting in and freedom, and loyalty & reciprocity.