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A review by patchworkbunny
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
5.0
Common Orbit is just as good, compassionate and lovely as Angry Planet. I'm just overflowing with love for these characters; despite everything they go through they remain good people.
The story uses two timelines, one following on from the end of the previous book and the other is 20 years earlier and focuses on Pepper's past. Pepper feels she is the ideal person to introduce Sidra to the world because she was brought up by AI. Which AI is not as obvious as it first seems. Pepper’s early life was in a factory sorting scrap, with all the other genetically engineered Janes. I loved her story of how she got to be where she is now; full of true bravery and friendship. Insanely gripping too, I often forgot I knew the outcome.
I love how Becky tries to view the universe in other than human eyes. Sidra doesn't experience her environments as one would expect a human to, despite the form of her body kit. She is meant to be installed in a ship not in a human and the novel explores the challenges of that and how she overcomes them. It's partly about hiding her true identity but I liked that it didn't linger too much on the illegal aspect.
Sidra’s thirst for knowledge helps the story introduce and explore some of the amazing world-building started in Angry Planet. Whilst the Lovelace programming prevents lying, Sidra befriends a species who also has difficulty withholding the truth, btu for biological reasons. It also uses the species’ gender fluidity to show how gender identity doesn’t change the person, just the pronouns used change.
So often there are plot devices used in novels that end up putting the character in a negative situation, but Becky does the amazing thing of writing positive outcomes out of things where the reader might expect something else. It's hard to explain but Josh described it as cosy when I was trying to explain to him. And these books are cosy, but not in an overly simple way.
It is described as a standalone sequel and for once I do think it could be read and fully enjoyed by itself. Although it would obviously spoil Lovey's storyline in Angry Planet. It isn't about Lovey though, as Sidra is a completely new AI, learning and forming her personality from scratch.
I've never known any other books that do so much to humanise AI. Whilst laws mean an AI can just be turned off or overwritten, Common Orbit explores the morals of doing that to a sentient being, even if they are made with code.
The story uses two timelines, one following on from the end of the previous book and the other is 20 years earlier and focuses on Pepper's past. Pepper feels she is the ideal person to introduce Sidra to the world because she was brought up by AI. Which AI is not as obvious as it first seems. Pepper’s early life was in a factory sorting scrap, with all the other genetically engineered Janes. I loved her story of how she got to be where she is now; full of true bravery and friendship. Insanely gripping too, I often forgot I knew the outcome.
I love how Becky tries to view the universe in other than human eyes. Sidra doesn't experience her environments as one would expect a human to, despite the form of her body kit. She is meant to be installed in a ship not in a human and the novel explores the challenges of that and how she overcomes them. It's partly about hiding her true identity but I liked that it didn't linger too much on the illegal aspect.
Sidra’s thirst for knowledge helps the story introduce and explore some of the amazing world-building started in Angry Planet. Whilst the Lovelace programming prevents lying, Sidra befriends a species who also has difficulty withholding the truth, btu for biological reasons. It also uses the species’ gender fluidity to show how gender identity doesn’t change the person, just the pronouns used change.
So often there are plot devices used in novels that end up putting the character in a negative situation, but Becky does the amazing thing of writing positive outcomes out of things where the reader might expect something else. It's hard to explain but Josh described it as cosy when I was trying to explain to him. And these books are cosy, but not in an overly simple way.
It is described as a standalone sequel and for once I do think it could be read and fully enjoyed by itself. Although it would obviously spoil Lovey's storyline in Angry Planet. It isn't about Lovey though, as Sidra is a completely new AI, learning and forming her personality from scratch.
I've never known any other books that do so much to humanise AI. Whilst laws mean an AI can just be turned off or overwritten, Common Orbit explores the morals of doing that to a sentient being, even if they are made with code.