In her new novella, Sunday Times bestselling author Becky Chambers imagines a future in which, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the solar system instead transform themselves.
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. They can produce antifreeze in sub-zero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food, and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to explore neighbouring exoplanets long suspected to harbour life.
Ariadne is one such explorer. On a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds fifteen light-years from Earth, she and her crewmates sleep while in transit, and wake each time with different features. But as they shift through both form and time, life back on Earth has also changed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the wonders and dangers of her journey, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.
Staff Choice: Isabelle
I loved how Chambers was able to capture the emotional complexity of space travel and the existential questions that come with it. She created a story about space that wasn't about conquering but about learning, friendship and most of all about wonder. Even in such a short novel she was able to describe the different worlds so richly and create intricate characters. I am eager to read more of her work.
Staff Choice: Iris
I seem to fall in love with everything Becky Chambers writes, and this book is no exception. It's short, fascinating and intense, and the ending is definitely something that will sing around in your head for a while after closing the book. I also love the concept of 'somaforming': adapting the human body to survive on the exoplanets the main characters visit, rather than radically altering other (potentially already inhabited) worlds to support human life.
