My review:?????
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 4) is the last book in the Wayfarers series, and whilst we don’t go back to the Wayfarer ship, we do have a character from that first book! This time it’s Pei, who is the Ashby’s lover.
This book is set on Five-Hop One-Stop, on the planet Gora, which is at a nexus of wormholes, and so is a popular stopping point for many travellers.
Pei is on leave, and heading for Ashby on the Wayfarer, Speaker is an Akarak, travelling with her twin, and Roveg is a Quelin, heading for an appointment. They all stop at the Five-Hop One-Stop, and so are the guests of Ouloo, and her child, Tupo.
They all have to stay on the planet for longer than they had planned, and so have to rub along together, which means, as in the other books in this series, we learn more about the people, their motivations, and their fears.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed about this series is that unless you know the person, you don’t assume their pronouns, and in fact there are some people who use the gender neutral pronouns for various reasons. Instead xe and xyr is used. In this book, Tupo has not chosen a gender yet (and might not), and so is referred to as xe and xyr.
This was a lovely end to the series of books, which the description of quiet was really made for. Yes, they’re in space, yes, there are aliens, but this is about characters rather than space battles, and it was very good.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers 4) was published on 18th February 2021, and is available from Amazon, Waterstones (signed edition!) and Bookshop.org.
You can follow Becky Chambers on her website and Facebook.
I was given this book in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton.
You can read my review for previous books in the Wayfarer’s series:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers 1)