To Be Taught, If Fortunate
by Becky Chambers · first published 2019
75% recommend25% neutral
At the turn of the twenty-second century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. With the fragile body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to explore exoplanets long suspected to harbour life.
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Of recent laureates I really loved This Is How you Lose The Time War as well as Binti (this is a trilogy, but combined form something novel-length). Becky Chambers's recent novella To Be Taught, if Fortunate was a major step up imo, and the more utopian view of space exploration (less SpaceX hype machine, more cooperative citizen science) is incredibly welcome for me. (I also liked her previous novels, but…
You may enjoy Becky Chambers's To Be Taught, if Fortunate and Ruthanna Emrys's A Half-Built Garden. Neither is very Butlerian in its writing but they's taking aim at the same question of how we may do space colonization without space colonialism.
on “The Life of Octavia Butler” ↗The novella "To Be Taught, If Fortunate," the only Becky Chambers book not part of either of those series, is also good.
on “We need more optimistic science fiction” ↗Lots of great recommendations here. I'll add the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers: - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - A Closed and Common Orbit - Record of a Spaceborn Few (Her more recent "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" is unrelated to the series but also a great read.) EDIT: Formatting.
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…shouldn't write about a male protagonist". Hell, at times their male protagonist was better written as a male protagonist than books I've read written by men! There's a book on my reading list now, (to be taught, if fortunate) about humans genetically modified for specific environments, like space! The discussions these books generate is important, in many cases. Some are meant to, others meant to just be enjoyed. Intent…
on “A new moralism is gripping the literary world” ↗