Review: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

Everyone has their touchstones when it comes to recommending Sci-Fi, and particularly spacefaring Sci-Fi. Mostly we gravitate toward the classics. We mention Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, Ringworld and The Culture, often all in the same breath. What piqued my interest in the fantastically titled The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet; was that most of the buzz around the book mentioned none of these. Instead, the most common phrase attached to it was ‘It’s a bit like Firefly’.

And it is, but it also kind of mis-sells the book a bit.

Small Angry Planet does share Firefly’s scrappy attitude and excellently realised characters. The influence is particularly visible in the Wayfarer’s brilliantly dizzy engineer, Kizzy. A whirlwind of a woman who would give Firefly’s Kaylee a real run for her money if they ever found themselves in the same engine bay.

Strangely, what I found myself comparing Small Angry Planet with most was 20^th Century Fox’s half-forgotten animated Sci-Fi; Titan AE. As they are in that film, humanity in Small Angry Planet is for the most part a homeless nomadic people, held in fairly low regard by the rest of the galactic community. And just like in Titan AE, the universe of Small Angry Planet is a mess of alien cultures, conflict, and grimy cobbled together tech, with underground markets and dodgy dealings galore. It’s refreshing to read something that doesn’t put humanity in the centre of its universe.

But what of the story?

Well, as its title suggests, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a spaceborne road novel, but it’s the relationships the novel’s characters develop over the course of the story’s journey that are the real heart of it. Small Angry Planet follows the crew of the Wayfarer on the contract of a lifetime to tunnel a shipping lane through space from galactic commission territory to the titular small angry planet. The catch is they have to start from the destination. Cue an epic, horizon expanding journey across the galaxy for protagonist Rosemarie.

What I like most about Small Angry Planet is that it’s a novel in vignettes. Each chapter tends to focus on the events surrounding one character at that particular moment in the journey. We jump to an event, the spotlight shines on a person and the rest of the cast take on supporting roles. As we read on, we learn more about that character’s past and background, which we then weave into the overarching web of our own understanding of the crew and their place in the universe. It’s a really interesting way of building a story, and by the end of it I had real affection for even the less likable members of the cast.

And what a cast. I’ve already mentioned Rosemarie, the sheltered and fresh-faced new recruit, but there’s also Ashby, the ship’s human captain, reptilian pilot Sissix, many handed Dr Chef, furry but not at all cuddly Ohan the navigator, gifted human engineers Kizzy and Jenks, grumpy and introverted Corbin who handles the fuel, and Lovey the ships AI, as alive as any other organic crew member. They’re as diverse a crew as you could ever hope to meet, and whilst some may grumble about diversity for diversity’s sake, Small Angry Planet is all the better for it.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about Small Angry Planet is that like all of the very best Sci-Fi you could take the science away from the fiction and the story would still have the same impact. It’s just that good. I’m really looking forward to where Becky Chambers takes these characters in the future.

Read it.