When I get into a book that I’m really enjoying reading it gets to the point that I see it all in my mind’s eye. Some books not only get the theater of the mind rolling, but make me feel at home and comfortable with the characters and the environment within pages of starting and those are books I love.

Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is now welcomed into that exclusive club. Chambers’ prose takes you in and and makes you at home, just like the way Rosemary, a human clerk with a secret, is made to home aboard the Wayfarer.

The Wayfarer is a tunneling ship, designed to help establish wormholes connecting the Galactic Commons together. She’s captained by a spacer human, Ashby, and piloted by an Aandrisk named Sissix. Rounding out the crew is a Grum who serves as cook and doctor, Dr. Chef, a human algaeist, Corbin, who grows the ship’s fuel, a pair of human techs, Kizzy and Jenks, Ohan, a Sianat pair is the navigator, and Lovey, the ship’s AI.

They’ve just picked up a huge contract, they are to travel to Toremi space, a violent collection of warring clans, one of whom has made an alliance with the Galactic Commons. They have to travel the long way round, as there are no wormholes yet. It’s their job to punch a hole from Toremi space back to Galactic Commons.

The journey is the story, and the characters are fantastic. They each have their secrets, and through them we see the power of friendship, the family we choose, acceptance and love. I loved every minute I spent aboard the Wayfarer, laughing and yes crying, with them. I loved how Chambers crafted her tale, setting up moments and beats that let the character shine.

I read in some reviews that it reads like a cross between Firefly and The Expanse, and I couldn’t agree more, except that as much as I love both, this one has more heart. This was a joy to read.

Chambers sets up payoffs, and the characters are so wonderfully written that I didn’t want this story to end. But that last few pages are perfect as it wraps up the narrative with loss and hope.

I was partway through this book when I put the second novel in the series on hold, A Closed and Common Orbit. I can’t wait to see where that one takes me, because the worlds and characters I encountered in The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet make me want more and more.

If you want something wonderful to read, even if you aren’t a big science fiction fan, check out this book. The characters are wonderful and real, and this may be one of my new favorite books.

Hope, family, friendship and love out there in the open of space. This is a bright shining light of storytelling and characters.