Becky Chambers is balm for the soul.
This is the final Wayfarers book, and if you’ve read any of the previous ones, you have a good idea of what to expect here. If you haven’t, what you’re going to get isn’t a book with a ton of plot. This book is *all* about characters.
This time around, we have a few people at a highway rest stop when a major accident means the roads are closed and they’re stuck there for a few days. Just all space-y, because this is a sci fi story. They all have reasons to be anxious to be gone. They’ve all got schedules to keep, appointments to make, people they care about they are eager to see again. And they’re stuck waiting around, with no one for company but each other and the woman (along with her teenage son) who runs the place.
As A Closed and Common Orbit and A Record of a Spaceborn Few, we get a connection back to the crew of the Wayfarer in the first book without actually seeing any of them. In this case, one of the people stuck waiting is Ashby’s Aeluon girlfriend.
Interestingly, none of the people waiting are human. We get one human making a brief appearance, but otherwise this book is all aliens.
Pei is returning from the front lines of the war against the titular small, angry planet from the first book. She’s on her way to meet Ashby, and emotionally exhausted from the sneaking about required by her species’ taboo against interspecies relationships.
Roveg is a Quellin (Rosemary described them as lobster-centaurs), but has been exiled from his homeworld for not sharing their xenophobia. He’s returning to Quellin space to apply for a visitor’s permit, and is understandably eager and reluctant both to get on with his journey.
Speaker is an Akarak, a race forced to live a nomadic life and generally looked down on as thieves and pirates by the more respectable citizens of the Galactic Commons. Because of this distrust, Speaker isn’t comfortable interacting with anyone but her twin sister, and Speaker being stuck on the surface with no communications while her sister is in orbit (with the big accident and all) has her more than a little upset.
Ouloo who runs the rest stop wants everyone to feel comfortable and welcomed, and she is very determined in this regard.
Her son Tupo is a teenager who mostly wants to eat and ask endless questions.
They talk. They get to know one another. They share stresses and hopes and stories. There’s some drama that has me worried. And then the roads are cleared, they all move on (with heartfelt promises to stop at Ouloo’s again whenever they’re passing by) a bit wiser.
It is, as I said, balm for the soul. It comes out on April 20th.
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