Book Review: Record of a Space Born Few

Record of a Space Born Few, by Becky Chambers, is a character-driven book.

I didn't know what that meant until right this minute.

Like all Becky Chambers books that I've read so far, this book sticks in your head for days after its finished, the struggles that the characters faced still percolating in my mind. It's lovely--and I nearly quit reading so many times. About 50 pages in, I texted the friend who sold me on Chambers books, "does this have a plot?"

"Not really," she answered.

Of course there's a plot--you just can't see it until the end, after all of the character arcs are neatly tied off. It took me until over halfway through the book to be able to recall who each character was at the beginning of their chapters--a lapse in memory that I've been struggling with since getting COVID last summer. I think if my short-term memory were stronger, I would have enjoyed this book a lot sooner. This book explores ideas in a way that feels like a perfect successor to The Left Hand of Darkness.

Overall, I really enjoyed the ending of this book, and my struggle with the beginning I blame on my brain functioning. As I continue to plonk out my own novel, I'm holding this book in mind as an example of where it's okay for the pace to be a little slow, where it's okay to relish in a character's experience of their world.

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