To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers is a standalone novella, complete separate from her brilliant Wayfarers series. This book follows four intrepid space travelers as they go from inhabitable planet to inhospitable moon, and while it is about their adventures on these worlds, it's not a rollicking adventure that many sci-fi readers are used to. It's an introspective book, mostly focused on the character of Ariadne, an engineer who chose to travel lightyears away from Earth and her family with three other people, to learn new things.

It does cover a lot of the well-trod sci-fi questions. Should humans go to these other worlds?  Is just the presence of the humans changing the native flora and fauna?  If the purpose of scientific expeditions is to merely learn and observe, does it matter?  What are the responsibilities of humans if life is discovered?  There's a powerful scene where one of the characters has to dispose of a native creature and it was hard to read because it was hard to argue with the truth that the creature had to die, but only because the humans were there in the first place.  

But it's also a book about chosen family.  When these four souls left Earth, they left their families, knowing they'd never get back to see them. One of the things that makes Chambers' writing stand out is that she doesn't really talk about race (in the human contest, but we definitely spent a lot of time talking about alien races in Wayfarers) or sexuality. It's just what it is. So while I tried to figure out if people were gay or straight in this novella, I was temporarily confused before I realized that it didn't matter and the relationships were what the relationships were at that moment. It was a learning moment for me and a smart move on the part of Chambers.

It's also a book about day-to-day life. There's nothing in here like a big space race or battle with guns blaring. There's looking for a news feed, battling depression, and many long descriptions of routine maintenance and cleaning.  If you're not into what I think of as "competence porn," this type of deep dive into drudgery and normalcy may not be your cup of tea, but if you're the kind of person who eagerly listens to the answer of "what's your writing process?" in every single episode of the Longform podcast, this will be something you enjoy reading. 

It's a calming book, reassuring that even if the worst happens, it will somehow be okay. Chambers has risen to the top of my list as sci-fi authors worthy of keeping an eye on.  I'll definitely be reading her next book when it comes out in May 2021.