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Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers
Sep. 5th, 2023 10:55 pmThis is the third in the Wayfarers series, even tho only the first book in the series is _set_ on The Wayfarer. This entry mostly takes place in the Exodan Fleet, and Ashby’s (from the first book) sister, father, niece and nephew are important characters. But as always, it’s a big cast. Setting is always important in Becky Chambers’ books, and often, the setting is the housing for an AI (the ship in the first book, the shuttle in the second book and also the bar at the end).
But the Exodan Fleet doesn’t have that kind of tech or the credits to get that kind of tech (at least not for most of the book). The setting is the setting, and because the author is Chambers, we get to see that setting through a lot of different lenses.
SPOILERS!
The most tragic of lenses is Sawyer, whose family left the fleet at the first opportunity, and then got wiped out in a plague, except for Sawyer. Sawyer gets sick of life planetside, and when he sees other Exodans creating shrines and memorials to the wrecked homesteader, he gets the idea he’d like to go back and live on the Fleet. When he gets there, tho, there really isn’t anyone to show him the ropes. His accent doesn’t fit in, even tho he looks about right, and other than Eyas, a Caretaker, no one will explain anything to him. There’s plenty of housing, but he’s stuck in a “hex” — space for a sprawling, multi-generational family — all by himself, because the Fleet has a lot of room what with so many people leaving for the Colonies and elsewhere in the GC. He tries to get a job, but doesn’t realize that everyone starts in sanitation. Once Eyas sets him straight, he reapplies for a sanitation position, but then is hired on the spot by a shady looking guy doing entirely too much day drinking and similar outside the employment office. Despite his distinctly unprivileged younger years, Sawyer is not real sophisticated, so it doesn’t occur to him until much too late that the crew he has signed on with is operating illegally, salvaging off the wrecked homesteader.
And the day drinkers don’t really understand that someone who didn’t grow up Fleet maybe doesn’t understand how to be safe on a wrecked generation ship.
The moment where I realized that Exodan Fleet society’s xenophobia is directly responsible for Sawyer’s death is the moment where I went from wanting to move onto the Fleet to concluding that the Fleet is right up there with certain countries on this planet that I will not name, but where I will never go, because they don’t want me there and I definitely understand that. He wasn’t born on the Fleet, but his entire ancestry is Exodan, and he’s the last of his family. Despite arriving at the Fleet wanting to work and wanting to integrate, there was no one there to show him how Exodan society functioned. They only wanted to blame him for not understanding their way of doing and being. Even after they’d killed him.
Good news, tho — I mean, this is Chambers — one teenage fuckup, stoned with another teenage fuckup, reports what he overhears about what the crew did with the body, so it is found relatively quickly. He then attends the funeral, and that starts him on a much better path. Eyas, the Caretaker, deeply regrets not giving Sawyer more than a few minutes of her time while he was alive, and hatches a plan for creating classes for people who _do_ want to learn the Exodan way of life, whether that is because they intend to join that society, or they want to better understand that society because they trade with and/or host Exodans.
I _really_ liked the way Tessa is depicted through the book. She’s frustrated by the breakins and thefts, and somewhat bored by her job. She understands the breakins and thefts are driven by people who want access to the salvaged resources from the wrecked ship. The legitimate access to those resources is painfully slow. But when she learns that there is talk of bringing in an AI and more equipment to speed that process up, Tessa initially assumes they can’t possibly afford it, and then when she learns it will be happening as a result of a personal gift from someone in the GC to the Exodans, the loss of her job category in combination with the trauma her daughter experienced witnessing the destruction of the other homesteader and subsequent bullying of her daughter by other Exodan children and then, finally, the isolation of her daughter — _all that_ precipitates a massive change. Chambers really rings the changes on all the possible reasons why people migrate — and sometimes return.
I’m still pretty frosty about the Exodans treatment of Sawyer, but I did really love how Eyas and Sunny and a few others worked really hard to make sure that didn’t happen again. It really would be sad for the GC to lose the Exodan Fleet culture. It is delightful in so very many ways.
But the Exodan Fleet doesn’t have that kind of tech or the credits to get that kind of tech (at least not for most of the book). The setting is the setting, and because the author is Chambers, we get to see that setting through a lot of different lenses.
SPOILERS!
The most tragic of lenses is Sawyer, whose family left the fleet at the first opportunity, and then got wiped out in a plague, except for Sawyer. Sawyer gets sick of life planetside, and when he sees other Exodans creating shrines and memorials to the wrecked homesteader, he gets the idea he’d like to go back and live on the Fleet. When he gets there, tho, there really isn’t anyone to show him the ropes. His accent doesn’t fit in, even tho he looks about right, and other than Eyas, a Caretaker, no one will explain anything to him. There’s plenty of housing, but he’s stuck in a “hex” — space for a sprawling, multi-generational family — all by himself, because the Fleet has a lot of room what with so many people leaving for the Colonies and elsewhere in the GC. He tries to get a job, but doesn’t realize that everyone starts in sanitation. Once Eyas sets him straight, he reapplies for a sanitation position, but then is hired on the spot by a shady looking guy doing entirely too much day drinking and similar outside the employment office. Despite his distinctly unprivileged younger years, Sawyer is not real sophisticated, so it doesn’t occur to him until much too late that the crew he has signed on with is operating illegally, salvaging off the wrecked homesteader.
And the day drinkers don’t really understand that someone who didn’t grow up Fleet maybe doesn’t understand how to be safe on a wrecked generation ship.
The moment where I realized that Exodan Fleet society’s xenophobia is directly responsible for Sawyer’s death is the moment where I went from wanting to move onto the Fleet to concluding that the Fleet is right up there with certain countries on this planet that I will not name, but where I will never go, because they don’t want me there and I definitely understand that. He wasn’t born on the Fleet, but his entire ancestry is Exodan, and he’s the last of his family. Despite arriving at the Fleet wanting to work and wanting to integrate, there was no one there to show him how Exodan society functioned. They only wanted to blame him for not understanding their way of doing and being. Even after they’d killed him.
Good news, tho — I mean, this is Chambers — one teenage fuckup, stoned with another teenage fuckup, reports what he overhears about what the crew did with the body, so it is found relatively quickly. He then attends the funeral, and that starts him on a much better path. Eyas, the Caretaker, deeply regrets not giving Sawyer more than a few minutes of her time while he was alive, and hatches a plan for creating classes for people who _do_ want to learn the Exodan way of life, whether that is because they intend to join that society, or they want to better understand that society because they trade with and/or host Exodans.
I _really_ liked the way Tessa is depicted through the book. She’s frustrated by the breakins and thefts, and somewhat bored by her job. She understands the breakins and thefts are driven by people who want access to the salvaged resources from the wrecked ship. The legitimate access to those resources is painfully slow. But when she learns that there is talk of bringing in an AI and more equipment to speed that process up, Tessa initially assumes they can’t possibly afford it, and then when she learns it will be happening as a result of a personal gift from someone in the GC to the Exodans, the loss of her job category in combination with the trauma her daughter experienced witnessing the destruction of the other homesteader and subsequent bullying of her daughter by other Exodan children and then, finally, the isolation of her daughter — _all that_ precipitates a massive change. Chambers really rings the changes on all the possible reasons why people migrate — and sometimes return.
I’m still pretty frosty about the Exodans treatment of Sawyer, but I did really love how Eyas and Sunny and a few others worked really hard to make sure that didn’t happen again. It really would be sad for the GC to lose the Exodan Fleet culture. It is delightful in so very many ways.