About the book
Author: Becky Chambers
Publisher: Harper Voyager
More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.
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My review
Becky Chambers is one of, if not the, most beloved (including by me) authors working in soft sci-fi today, and for good reason. She gives us other worlds to escape to — some better than ours, others worse, but all of them filled with big hearts and found families that restore your belief in love and the inherent goodness of people. As You Wake, Break the Shell is no exception.
If you’re looking for an action-packed, pew-pew, fast-paced sci-fi novel, this isn’t it. This book is a slower-paced but no less compelling story about two women in two timelines, one where they meet and fall in love and one years later with a subtle mystery beginning to unfold. Life is strictly regulated by the government in the far future when the book takes place, as humans have been forced to colonize other planets and ration resources to those with the health and abilities to contribute most to society. Cora is a pilot who is bonded to and “drives” a member of a giant alien species out to retrieve ice and minerals, and Signy is a botanist whose plant shop is a front for her off-the-books medicine lab she runs to help those who can’t get it via legal methods.
I don’t think I’d call this “cozy” in the genre sense of the word (stakes are high and plenty of bad things happen!), but it might be halfway there. It’s introspective and concerned with the way we love and respect people and other beings. It’s about plants and soul bonds and chosen sisterhood and deep, enduring love. It’s about our humanity and our capacity for good even when it would be easier to just duck our heads and see to our own needs first.
This is the first in a duology, and what an ending! We don’t have a title or even a release date yet, but I’m extremely eager to see what shape the second book takes.
Do your heart a favor and pick this one up.
Content and trigger warnings
Death and grief
Chronic illness
Medical content
Animal cruelty
Sexual content (moderate)
Panic attacks
