The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
When Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer, she isn't expecting much. The Wayfarer, a patched-up ship that's seen better days, offers her everything she could possibly want: a small, quiet spot to call home for a while, adventure in far-off corners of the galaxy, and distance from her troubled past. But Rosemary gets more than she bargained for with the Wayfarer. The crew is a mishmash of species and personalities, from Sissix, the friendly reptilian pilot, to Kizzy and Jenks, the constantly sparring engineers who keep the ship running. Life on board is chaotic, but more or less peaceful - exactly what Rosemary wants. Until the crew are offered the job of a lifetime: the chance to build a hyperspace tunnel to a distant planet.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Rosemary Harper takes a clerk job aboard the tunneling ship Wayfarer with paperwork that does not quite match her real name. The crew, a tech, an algaeist, two pilots, a cook, captain, and AI, is hired to punch a wormhole back from a recently joined civilization in a dangerous part of space.
Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series has four books: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. The series is complete.
Yes. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is widely cited as a defining cozy science fiction novel, alongside Becky Chambers's later Monk and Robot novellas. The found-family ship setting is the main draw.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet was written by Becky Chambers, published in 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is 445 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a standalone novel by Becky Chambers, not part of a series.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.