To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Synopsis
"In her new novella, Sunday Times best-selling author Becky Chambers imagines a future in which, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the solar system instead transform themselves.
Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with different features. Her experience is one of fluid body and stable mind and of a unique perspective on the passage of time. Back on Earth, society changes dramatically from decade to decade, as it always does.
Ariadne may awaken to find that support for space exploration back home has waned, or that her country of birth no longer exists, or that a cult has arisen around their cosmic findings, only to dissolve once more by the next waking. But the moods of Earth have little bearing on their mission: to explore, to study, and to send their learnings home."
My Thoughts
This book was phenomenal. Becky Chambers knows how to craft amazing characters. To Be Taught If Fortunate is a novella told from the perspective of Ariadne on a space mission to explore other planets. It follows the crew of four through the several planets they explore.
I found that this book raised a lot of questions but left the reader to ponder them. No real answers were given, but it also wouldn't have made sense for the book to have all the answers. This book is about questioning and exploring, but it's also really about grief. The astronauts know going into this trip that when they get back Earth may not look the same. Everyone they know may be gone. And how do you deal with that?
“At some point, you have to accept the fact that any movement creates waves, and the only other option is to lie still and learn nothing.”
― Becky Chambers, To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Another aspect of this one that I adored was how diverse the characters were, but they also just were. A lot of my rep tags below are guesses to try and encompass everything. Almost everyone on the ship is queer is some way, but it's not the focus at all. There's also a strong theme of "home" being people and not places. And as someone who loves found family tropes, I adored the little family these characters became.
This was a really quick read, but one that sticks with you as well. I listened to the audiobook of this one and it was amazing! I definitely recommend this one!
Genre: sci-fi, lgbtqia+
Representation: bi/pan/queer, trans, poly, ace, lesbian, African, Latinx
Content Warnings: animal death, suicide attempt