#exodan fleet

[limnrix]

So this was inspired by the Exodan ships in Becky Chambers' Record of a Spaceborn Few and how they're laid out in recursive hexagons. I kind of just did it to see if I could, and started thinking architecturally / city planner style, so things aren't necessarily how they're described in the book, but how I would want a utopian nested hex city. I put in actual doors in the residential areas which was maybe unnecessary. It doesn't include manufacturing really, and I'm not totally sure where education goes, but there's some flexibility for a lot of things under the "retail" category. I preferred to make it all symmetrical rather than making district centers different. There could maybe be a bigger park around the Center, for composting, instead of "administration", which a society with internet may not need actual rooms for. Instead of handwaving that there's a transport level above this, I specifically tried to lay out a way to walk/ride through from any place to another, with some consideration for privacy, although sometimes traffic will go through your yard. Arguably there could be a 7th scale level, but I'm not going to torture InDesign any more.

The smallest unit is the hexagonal room. Homes are 5 rooms (sometimes 1 or 4 depending on throughway placement) and a half bath around a living room, which has a hallway going to the center of each hex. Hexes are made up of 6 homes around a yard and eating area with a kitchen in the middle, with households taking turns making one big 30 person meal a day. There are six hexes in a neighborhood around each park, and each park has a gym, pool, and public bath center servicing about 180 people. Six neighborhoods surround each district with shops, public spaces, services, and a clinic in the center for around 1080 people. The districts surround an administrative center, and death services in the middle. The whole ship houses around 6500 people.

[queerbookgeek]

Record of a Spaceborn Few & The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

Record of a Spaceborn Few

 Hundreds of years ago, the last humans left Earth. After centuries wandering empty space, humanity was welcomed – mostly – by the species that govern the Milky Way, and their generational journey came to an end. 

 But this is old history. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who have not yet left for alien cities struggle to find their way in an uncertain future. Among them are a mother, a young apprentice, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, a man searching for a place to belong, and an archivist, who ensures no one’s story is forgotten. Each has their own voice, but all seek answers to inescapable questions: 

 Why remain among the stars when there are habitable worlds within reach? And what is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

I have previously read, The long way to a small and angry planet, and A closed and common orbit, I am a big Becky Chambers fan and have been meaning to read this for a long time. 

What's interesting about Record of a space born few is that where the previous two books need to be read consecutively to each other Record of a space born few could be read as the 3rd installment, as a standalone read or if you are the type of person who can get overwhelmed by all the alien terminology of sci fi as the introduction to the Wayfarers series due to it predominantly taking place in the human Fleet. 

In a similar vein as The Long way to a small and angry planet, Record of a space born few is far more character driven then plot, which is something I really enjoy, give me a good character study any day. 

I seriously enjoyed this, a beautiful and comprehensive look at day to day life within the Exodus Fleet and humanity's ever evolving place within the universe of the Wayfarers.   

[nimium-amatrix-ingenii-sui]

As much as I enjoy The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, the fact that apparently All Of Future Humanity (TM) has a contemporary Northern American approach to nudity, sex and just plain talking about sex is starting to seeeeeriously get on my nerves

[des8pudels8kern]

So, the future liberals want? You know, that future? Where we have overcome both capitalism and heteronormativity? That future is where Becky Chamber’s Record of a Spaceborn Few, one of the books in the Wayfarers series, is taking place.

Form of address for everybody in the Exodan fleet: M [name]. Is it a gender-neutral solution that unites Mr., Miss, Ms., and Mrs.? Probably. Since I am a German native-speaker, in my mind it also stands for Mensch, because it doesn’t matter what gender someone is or what their relationship status is, we are all human.

Food and a place to live: provided for everybody in the fleet. There is no money, there are no privileged few who have grown rich off of the labor of others.

Coincidentally, your last name is that of the flat you live in. Many people live with family and/or romantic partners, but if you and a bunch of your friends decide to form your own household, then you all automatically take on the last name of that household. I cannot explain to you how much that idea appeals to me, an aroace with no strong ties to her blood family, who loves family of choice.

Work: Valued for its use for the community. There is no money, so there is no low-paid work. Some professions are more respected than others - e.g. undertakers are treated with a lot of respect since they take care of the dead and help the living in their most vulnerable moments. Some jobs are just not something people want to do but they need to be done, and since there are no desperate poor to force those tasks on, they are distributed fairly: there is a lottery to determine whose turn it is for sanitation work, and sanitation workers are applauded for the work they do for the community while it is their turn.

It’s a community that is, above all, for the people.

There are some aspects, some problems the book doesn’t explore. Some, it does to the point that it actually made me uncomfortable because I don’t want to think about how my escapist fantasy of an alternative to the society we live in is bound to be flawed and imperfect, too. And precisely for that, I think it’s my personal best and at the same time least favourite of the Wayfarers books.

[eelhound]

"The young couple stood before her, smiling, proud, perhaps a little shy. Their infant daughter wriggled in the woman's arms, more interested in the glint of her mother's necklace than anything else.

Isabel raised her head to the room as the song reached its end. Faces looked back at her, smiling, waiting. Everyone there knew exactly what would come next. She'd said the words hundreds of times. Thousands, maybe. Every archivist knew how to say them, and every Exodan knew their sound by heart. But still, they needed to be said.

Isabel's body was old — a fact it constantly reminded her of — but her voice remained strong and clear. 'We destroyed our world,' she said, 'and left it for the skies. Our numbers were few. Our species had scattered. We were the last to leave. We left the ground behind. We left the oceans. We left the air. We watched these things grow small. We watched them shrink into a point of light. As we watched, we understood. We understood what we were. We understood what we had lost. We understood what we would need to do to survive. We abandoned more than our ancestors' world. We abandoned our short sight. We abandoned our bloody ways. We made ourselves anew.'

She spread her hands, encompassing the gathered. Mouths in the crowd silently mirrored her words. 'We are the Exodus Fleet. We are those that wandered, that wander still. We are the homesteaders that shelter our families. We are the miners and foragers in the open. We are the ships that ferry between. We are the explorers who carry our names. We are the parents who lead the way. We are the children who continue on.' She picked up her scrib and addressed the couple.

'What is her name?'

'Robin,' the man said.

'And what name does your home carry?'

'Garcia,' said the woman.

'Robin Garcia,' Isabel spoke to the scrib. The scrib chirped in response, and retrieved the citizen registry file she had created that morning. A blue square appeared on screen. Isabel gestured for the mother to step forward. The baby frowned as they manoeuvred one of her bare feet onto the square, pressing tiny toes and heel against it. The scrib chirped again, indicating that a new file had been added to the mighty towers of data nodes that stood vigil a deck below.

Isabel read the record to the room. 'Robin Garcia,' she said. 'Born aboard the Asteria. Forty Solar days of age as of GC standard day 158/307. She is now, and always, a member of our Fleet. By our laws, she is assured shelter and passage here. If we have food, she will eat. If we have air, she will breathe. If we have fuel, she will fly. She is daughter to all grown, sister to all still growing. We will care for her, protect her, guide her. We welcome you, Robin, to the decks of the Asteria, and to the journey we take together.'

She cupped the baby's head with her palm, weathered skin cradling new. She spoke the final words now, and the room spoke with her. 'From the ground, we stand. From our ships, we live. By the stars, we hope.'"

- Becky Chambers, from Record of a Spaceborn Few, 2018.

[chapterchapterbook]

Book Review: Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3)

Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3) by Becky Chambers

Published July 24, 2018

Synopsis: Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.

Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened.

Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn't know where to find it.

Sawyer, a lost and lonely newcomer, is just looking for a place to belong.

When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question:

What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

Review: This series is genuinely one of my favorite things ever. It just speaks to my soul. That being said, I didn't love this one quite as much as the other two. I think because we don't really get much, if any, interactions with any of these characters until this book. But it still scratched that itch. Every time, these books hit me right in the feels. They make you question what does it really mean to be human and, while I'm in a different life stage than some of the characters, what is your purpose.

Each book in this series is a spinoff of the first one. They can be read independently if you aren't interested in the others but they all tie in together and are part of a larger universe. I've listened to all of them as audiobooks and have had a fantastic time. The narrator has been a perfect fit and has added so much to my listening experience. I could honestly gush about these books forever. They have a special place in my heart, and I can't wait to own my own physical copies. If you haven't given this series a try, I would highly recommend.

[readingaccountability]

record of a spaceborn few - becky chambers

final thoughts:

YESSSS. YESS. what the fuck. SO GOOD. i liked this one just as much as the first, somehow. it was so insanely emotionally powerful, weaving death and life and the exodan fleet into a tapestry that felt comfortable and meaningful. this one made me cry. the pov shifts feel really natural and go chapter by chapter, and ultimately the pov characters are interwoven together as they encounter each other. i am obsessed with the exodan fleet, and being able to visit them in this book through the harmagian ambassador, as well as through the eyes of the fleet citizens, was perfect. for whatever reason this book tonally reminded me of the battlestar galactica reboot episode where they do the documentary series on the galactica? but like, BETTER. which is a high bar in my book. anyways yeah please please read this one, especially if you liked the previous books, but it also works fine as a standalone.

[booksandtreesplease]

#24 Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

Following the lives of a few humans who are part of the Fleet who live permanently in space. Becky Chambers creates a fully formed world that immediately pulls you in. Exodans, as they are known, may not be as technologically advanced as other species but they care for all who are part of the Fleet; no one goes hungry, nothing is wasted. An almost utopian society who have learned from the mistakes of their ancestors but who still struggle with very human problems.

If you are looking for a comforting read at this time, might I suggest Becky Chamber's books, the whole series is one big hug.

[incorrect-wayfarer]

Sissix: What’s wrong with her?

Kizzy: She didn’t take well to alcohol

Rosemary: I’m going to steal the Exodan Fleet

Jenks: All of-

Rosemary: ALL OF IT.

[lornaslibrary]

Title: Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers #3)

Author: Becky Chambers

Genre: Sci-fi

My Rating: ★★★★☆(4)

Plus

Very strongly character-driven

Slice of life

I loved the use of Ghuh'loloan as an outsider coming to learn about the Fleet as a way of explaining the Exodan's way of life to the reader. Chambers is really good at delivering a lot of important information in a way that doesn't pull the reader out of the story or bore them

I loved the different traditions the Exodans have developed

Some really good questions about what the point of humanity actually is

Sex work portrayed as a good, accepted, and positive thing

F/f relationship

I loved Kip and Sawyer

Minus

While I prefer character-driven stories, this was just a little too lacking in plot. There were long stretches of time where nothing all that interesting was happening at all and I got kinda bored

This was my least favourite Wayfarer's book purely because we've been introduced to so many fun and interesting aliens and AIs in the previous two books, and this one revolves entirely around humans which...I don't find as interesting

Not the fault of the book, but I thought the blurb was a little bit misleading. Some character's plotlines mentioned in it don't happen until the last 100 pages

CW: Murder

[afieldofheather]

Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.

When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

[theorenwulf]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarer Series 1)

Again not a Hugo nominee, but one that is kind of on the way to one, since the third book of this series is on the shortlist this year. I actually picked this book up ages ago and never finished it, which is not at all an indictment of this books quality, I just sometimes lose intrest in things. 

This book is about the Wayfarer a tunnelling vessel, that drills artificial wormholes through space. Those wormholes are the common travelling method in the galaxy that Becky Chambers has crafted and tunnelling is a pretty routine task. 

In Chambers galaxy humans had to flee from a enviromentally devastated Earth and are now split in two factions. One of those factions lives on Mars and consist of former rich people establishing a colony on Mars, that through bleeding out massive amounts of resources, accellerated the destruction of Earth. The other faction are the Exodans, survivors of Earths downfall, that fled from Earth in a giant fleet of spaceships. 

The Exodans got taken in as refugees by the Galactic Commons, a kind of multi-species galatic UN and settled on several colonies throughout the galaxy. Some of them still consider themselves Exodan, others are fringe colonies not recognizing anyones authority. The fleet despite not really having a purpose anymore is also still around. And by the time of the book Humans have actually become members of the GC, which has forced a reconciliation between Exodans and Solans, since a species can only join united.

The Wayfarer which has a multispecies crew with a majority of Human crewmembers is one of the best tunnelling ships operated by a Human captain, but apart from that not really affected by big galactic politics. Until they get send out for the biggest job of their lives, drilling a tunnel from the space of the Toremi, a formerly extremmely hostile species that the Humans have brokered an alliance with, to the capital of the GC. Since the space around the Toremi planet is very volatile they take nearly a year to get there, on a long way to a small, angry planet, one of several claimed by a constantly infighting unstable species divided in countless clans, only one of which made an alliance with the humans.

This book is as the titel indicates more about the journey, than the destination, even though what happens there, is also important. This book is a slow, pondering read, consisting more of vignettes that in the end tell a whole story and showing of the incredible, beautiful galaxy Chambers has crafted piece by piece and also showing off the characters and developing them in a slow and measured way. Kind of similar to a TV show, only the last pretty short part can actually be descried as action packed. Which I think is fantastic since I love slow, pondering, thoughtful reads like this, you just have to know what you get yourself into, when you pick this up.

I especially loved the characters and the character development in this one. From the first to the last crewmember I really got a feel for everyone of them and they felt like whole developed people, with real, fascinating relationships. So I can really wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone, that likes this kind of book. It is an amazing and really touching piece abou love, friendship, loss and space.

I would have really loved to pick up with those characters again and see how they continue their journey. Unfortunatelly the name of the series is kind of a misnomer, probably the publishers fault, because the second and third books are not actually about the crew of the Wayfarer at all. The second book picks up some minor characters from the first one and tells their story and the third book picks up with a wholly different cast of characters again, judging from the blurb. I didn’t know this when I started reading the second book earlier and was pretty diasppointed, so I thought I’ll put in a word of warning here. The themes and characters of the second book are not really my cup of tea, so I’m not exactly shuffed about it, but so far I’m only two or three chapters in, so I migt still fall in love with it. You’ll certainly be reading about my thoughts on the second book here, once I’ve finished it.

PS:

Favorite scene: The final Kizzy and Jenks scene is just incredibly emotional and resounding, absolutely loved that one. It is a tie though with Ashby in front of the committee. That scene was just gold.

Favorite character: Dr. Chef is just a wonderfully kind and loving character with a heartrending story to boot. And being both a cook and a doctor is just amazing, so I’ll definetely go with him.

[rhetoricandlogic]

Sleeps With Monsters: The Spaceborn Communities of Becky Chambers

Liz Bourke

Tue May 15, 2018 11:00am

This week, I want to gush about Becky Chambers’ Record of a Spaceborn Few.

Becky Chambers writes novels that don’t have plots in the traditional science-fictional sense. We’re used to novels where every explosion is part of a conspiracy, every disaster planned, every death part of someone’s intent. Chambers’ novels apply gentle literary conventions to a science fictional setting: these are novels where character and theme are the most significant parts, and where the characters—richly human, believable, compelling—each in their own way shed light (or highlight) the thematic argument that Chambers conducts.

Record of a Spaceborn Few, Chambers’ third and latest novel, is an argument about change and continuity, community and belonging, and what it means to have (or have to find) a place in the world; what it means when the place you have in the world changes, or when it’s not everything you once thought it might be; and about the tension between the preservation of the past—of tradition and the way things have always been done—and the need to adapt to the present and the future.

Record of a Spaceborn Few takes place in the human Exodus Fleet, which has in the last few generations come in contact with, and to a degree become part of, the Galactic Commonwealth. The Exodus Fleet left Earth behind a long time ago, and has sustained a way of life alone among the ships in the Fleet—alone in the galaxy. But contact with the other sapient species of the galaxy has brought change. Many young people of the Fleet are leaving it behind for life on planets, and visitors and merchants coming to the Fleet have disrupted the communal barter-and-gift system that formed the bedrock of Exodan exchange. In many ways, the Exodus Fleet is an explicitly utopian society: no one goes hungry or without shelter, everyone’s basic needs are met, people are not required to work—although they do, largely at jobs they find satisfying or personally important. But that doesn’t mean everyone’s happy.

Record of a Spaceborn Few follows several characters in an exploration of their lives among the Exodus Fleet. Tessa, Eyas, Kip, and Isabel are all native Exodans. Tessa is the mother of two young children. Her daughter witnessed a catastrophic accident—the destruction of one of the Exodus Fleet vessels—at an impressionable age, and is terrified of the fragility of her surroundings. Eyas is a caretaker, one of the people who take care of the Exodans’ dead. It’s a job she always wanted, but now she’s finding that people see her job first: she’s rarely able to be just a regular person, and that’s leaving her a little unsatisfied. Kip is a teenager, restless in the Fleet, unsure what he wants from life. Isabel is an archivist, dedicated to preserving—and documenting—memory and history. The heart of the Exodus Fleet, for her, is the archives.

There are two other major characters in Record of Spaceborn Few. Sawyer is a human descended from members of the Exodus Fleet, a young man who comes to the Exodus Fleet because he wants to “try something new.” But he doesn’t fit in, and it leads to an entirely avoidable tragedy. And the alien anthropologist Ghuh’loloan Mok Chutp has come to the Exodus Fleet to observe its inhabitants and their adaptation to the Galactic Commonwealth. A colleague of Isabel in the academic sense, Ghuh’loloan’s observations look at the Exodus Fleet from a complete outsider’s perspective—but a different perspective to the one the reader brings.

Like Chambers’ previous novels, Record of a Spaceborn Few is a quiet, almost domestic work, underlain with a deep compassion and a feeling for community. The community of the Exodus Fleet is a character here, as much as any of the individuals, and as Chambers explores it from different angles the reader becomes aware that this is a meditation of sorts on the point of communities: on how they change, and on the people who live in them.

I deeply appreciate Chambers’ science fiction, and I really enjoyed this novel. Quiet, kind, character-driven books are wonderfully restful. Delightfully soothing.

What are you guys reading lately?

[silver-leaf-girl]

so I read Record of a Spaceborn Few

so, I just finished the audiobook of Becky Chambers Record of Spaceborn Few last night, and haha do I have some feelings. it is a beautiful, and lovely book?

mild spoilers, and initial review-y thoughts below?

I think a lot of my friends will be familiar with Becky Chambers’ stuff, but for context (since context is such a theme in this book) - they’re queer-positive, fairly soft sci fi, focusing on the relationships (shipmates, romantic, rivalries, friendships) between individuals in the world, rather than colossal Events of Galactic Significance (esp. compared to stuff like Ann Leckie, who I also like a lot). they’re also focused on humans (and their creations, <3 Lovelace in Book 2) as a kind of marginal and hardscrabble recently discovered species that’s not up to much, rather than casting us as the kind of ‘Humanity F- Yeah!‘/humans are special/have a unique manifest destiny that a fair amount of other sci fi does (a lot of people compare Chambers with the Mass Effect universe, which I genuinely don’t like because of this).

RoSF is very much in the tradition of this kind of small-scale ‘cosy’ sci-fi, dealing with the Exodan Fleet and its inhabitants who fled an environmentally devastated Earth, and who are under the three strains of the loss of one of their Generation Ships to metal fatigue, the visit of a well-meaning but intrusive alien anthropologist (whose broadcasts back home to her wealthy alien planet are really well-captured), and the issue of emigration/immigration/decline (?) of the Fleet. It follows a variety of plot lines - a fleet archivist, a recent immigrant, a restless teen guy, a caretaker (a kind of priest/funerary worker, really interesting), and a harried mum who’s considering leaving the fleet. It really inhabits their everyday lives and concerns; it indirectly tells a bigger story about uncertain cultural identity, but is focused on these small intimate stories.

The big through-line in the book is a sense of community, shared history, and what we owe to the past. The ships of the Exodan Fleet are maintained and patched together from their own scraps; people carry on identities, meanings and (as is discussed in one rather haunting bit towards the end) even bodies and ways of living as relics from a planet they will never set foot on; and (a really key theme) the nutrients of the bodies of the dead are recycled in a really emotive and heartfelt funereal ritual. How different people struggle with the past - rejecting it, chafing against it, seeking it out to fill holes in themselves, finding meaning in it, preserving it, making it - is so key throughout the book, both in the fiction, in the language, and the structure (bookended by two naming ceremonies, using a form of words that is so beautiful I feel I have to put it in a reblog), and it puts together a beautiful picture of a changing society where people are trying to preserve the values they built it on. The notion of recognising the fleet/the fleet you grew up in - is really powerful, and honestly a bit heart-in-throat.

But the notion of keeping shared history for its own sake isn’t enough - what’s worth preserving? Politically, it’s v. interesting too - there’s quite a lot of (well-blended-in) exposition and description of how the Fleet operates, and it’s ... well, if not Post Scarcity Fully Automated Luxury Gay Pacifist Space Communism, then at least Low Scarcity Labour-Egalitarian Lib Fem Space Anarcho-Socialism. The way that humans live and coexist alongside each other - where people come together, and where the faultlines between them are - is really well-illustrated without becoming didactic, and the idea of the fleet as this utopian, half-realised, desperate-but-now-slightly adrift project is really beautiful and well-evoked. The book is hopeful and convincing about the liberatory potential of this project (there’s a beautiful bit towards the end about even people leaving the fleet still being part of it and embodying what it values and means, but is ultimately clear-eyed about the fact that it’s the marginalised, minority part of a species that is nothing special on the galactic field and is surrounded by wealthy and powerful neighbours. It’s clear about the lingering crud of human social structures, about being undercut by intense, tragic disaster, by unequal external trade and internal corruption, and about the dubious appeals of the austere space-borne (and spaceborn) life compared to what the capitalist world beyond offers - but it’s hopeful nonetheless that people can make something of it, and that the fleet can carry on.

In terms of ~queer content~, it’s not quite as rich a vein as some of the previous books (first one had a lot more queer aliens and relationship structures, second had an incredibly strong trans metaphor as a through-line with an AI working out embodiment), but it’s got a lot of stuff that works with this too? Isabel, one of the main characters, is in a beautifully described and lovely wlw relationship, and her date with her wife where they’re remembering how they met is one of the most lovely bits of the book? Sometimes it’s OK not to have difficult queer feelings be an important part of the book. Sometimes just happy elderly lesbians is all you want/need! There’s also some interesting stuff with Sunny - a sex worker - and his relationship with Eyas, a funerary worker/caretaker - about the concept of ‘caring for bodies’, and the emotional labour that goes into that?

In terms of writing, it’s beautiful and lovely, just as much a warm hug and cup of hot chocolate as any of the other books in the series - it’s not super-lyrical or evocative in its use of language, but that’s not the point - it’s heartfelt and evokes real, flawed-but-good people in messy but fixable situations. The narration by Patricia Rodriguez on the audiobook version that I listened to is fantastic - I particularly like the way that she subtly changes language and accent on the different viewpoint characters to evoke the way different cultural perspectives and denaturalising the protagonists’ narrative voice.

So yes - it’s a small, beautiful, character-focused book with an extremely evocative sense of community and history. I cried a few times listening to it.

I’d definitely recommend it - probably on its own, but ideally in the context of the other two books before it, to flesh and round out the world(s) it evokes.

[eelhound]

"Everybody had a home, and nobody went hungry.

That was one of the foundational ideas that had first drawn Sawyer in when he'd started reading about the Fleet. Everybody had a home, and nobody went hungry. There was a practical necessity in that, he knew. A ship full of people fighting over food and space wouldn't last long. But there was compassion, too, a commitment to basic decency. Too many people back on Earth had been hungry and cold. It was one of the copious problems the first Exodans had vowed not to take with them.

Sawyer stood in a home now - one of the empties left behind by a family that had gone planetside, now opened to travellers like himself... The home was tidy and filled with basic furniture, all signs of previous ownership erased by cleanerbots. There were tables and chairs, a couple of couches. Cupboards for food and belongings. Empty planters waiting for seedlings and a guiding hand. It looked like a package home, like something that popped out of a box. There was no sign that anyone else had ever lived there - except one.

Sawyer walked with reverence toward the wall in the common room, the one the cleanerbots had known to leave alone. It was covered with handprints, pressed in paint of every colour. Big handprints, little handprints, smudged infant feet. Belkin, someone had painted above it the name of the first family that had lived here, and the name that every other family who lived there after had taken, regardless of genetics. This was one of the many Exodan customs he admired. When born, you took your parents' name. When you grew up and started a family of your own, you took the name of the home you settled in. In a lot of cases, your name didn't change at all, not if you kept living with your parents and grandparents and so on. If you settled in the home of your partner, you took your partner's family name. If you both decided to live in a separate home entirely, apart from both of your families, you'd both get the name of whoever'd taken care of that home before you. Sawyer liked that.

He looked up at the bold, painted letters above his head. He wasn't a Belkin. It wasn't his custom yet, and this placement was temporary. He ran his hand along where others had been. 'Wow,' he whispered. He didn't need to count the prints to know that there were at least nine generations represented here, all the way back to the first. He crouched down, looking toward where the wall joined the floor. The prints there were faded, and covered with others, but their shapes were clear as day: six adults, three children, one baby. He tried to imagine what they must have felt, watching their planet fade away through a window in the floor, pressing painted hands to an empty wall with the hope that one day the wall would be full.

Sawyer put his hand over the tiny footprint. That kid had grown up never having known the ground. That kid had grown old and died in this ship, and all xyr kids besides. The enormity of it almost made him dizzy.

He straightened back up and looked around the room. The wall was full, but the home was empty. So empty. It was a space meant to house three generations at least, where kids could run around and adults could relax and everyone would be together. But right then, it held only him. Just him in a big room full of ghosts."

- Becky Chambers, from Record of a Spaceborn Few, 2018.

[flowersandfutures-blog]

So I just read Becky Chambers’ brand-new novel, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and it is AMAZING on so many levels.

It also has so many solarpunk aspects, even though it’s not explicitly solarpunk - I can’t wait to see what Chambers does when she does write explicitly solarpunk books, which is her next project.

It’s basically socialism in space - the book takes place in the Exodan Fleet, which is a society of people who left Earth just before it succumbed to ecological destruction and have lived on large, self-sustaining spaceships for centuries. After traveling through space by themselves for a long period of time, the Exodans have recently come across the multiple alien races who form the Galactic Commons. They now have the option to live on GC planets and have access to many new forms of technology, and are struggling with questions of identity, community, and history now that their traditions are no longer necessary for survival.

Some particularly solarpunk aspects that jumped out at me:

-The Exodans protect the artificial environment on their ships carefully because it’s all they have (or at least it was, until they joined the GC). They know that humans destroyed the livable environment on Earth and they have to be much more careful if they want to survive, so ecological sustainability is one of their core values.

-The spaceships are closed systems, so they have to recycle everything - including composting human bodies. One of the main characters, Eyas, is a caretaker: someone who leads the funeral services and comforts grieving families as well as turning the bodies into compost, which is used to grow the plants that provide oxygen for the ship.

-Everyone on each ship is provided with housing, food, education, and healthcare. Everyone has a job that fits their skills, and also a lot of leisure time, and people take turns doing the unappealing jobs like sanitation. All jobs are valued, because they’re all necessary for having a thriving society on an isolated group of ships: from doctors, cooks, farmers, techs, and teachers, to caretakers and archivists, to musicians and artists and even sex workers. (Sex work is not stigmatized, and people of any gender can do it - it’s considered just a particularly intimate type of care work.)

-Teenagers try out many different jobs for short periods of time so they can find the one that’s a good fit for them, and then have longer-term apprenticeships.

-Exodan society doesn’t have a monetary system, and the members mainly use bartering. When they become part of the GC, which does have currency, they struggle with incorporating it while keeping their values of everyone having equal access to resources.

-Queer characters are treated as totally normal and not noteworthy. One of the main characters, Isobel, is an older woman who happens to have a wife, and no one blinks an eye. Gender-neutral pronouns are also common, although they’re used more often for aliens (who have all sorts of different configurations of sex, gender, and family structures) than for non-binary humans.

I highly recommend all three of Chambers’ novels, not just because of their solarpunk and socialist aspects (her second novel, A Closed and Common Orbit, also contains some very pointed critiques of capitalism), but because they’re full of brilliant world-building and thoughtful character development, and they’re optimistic and hopeful while grappling with universal questions of identity, belonging, and community.

I’m so, so, so excited for her upcoming solarpunk novellas, and I’m curious whether they will be set in the same universe as her first three books, or whether they’ll take place in a different universe where people manage to avoid destroying the Earth.