Homo sapiens is largely absent from much of the narrative, until a certain point when the plot turns to the news that the human species has been granted full membership of the GC (Galactic Commons).

While most space operas will have aliens, not many have the confidence in their worldbuilding (or species building) to push humans onto the sidelines.īut The Galaxy, and the Ground Within does precisely that. The cyberpunk-influenced thriller aspects from earlier in the series are gone, and we are left with one last opportunity to spend time with the various alien races introduced thus far. That said, something about the novel’s tone makes it a fitting conclusion to the sequence – a long wind-down after the past ordeals. The volumes in the series are loosely-connected in terms of plot, although they share a universe, and while this fourth book does have some direct connections to its predecessors – Pei, a character from the first novel, is prominent here – it also works as a standalone story. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is the fourth and final novel in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, the others being The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, and Record of a Spaceborn Few. It has become the place where a group of beings, representing multiple races and cultures, must work together as a single community.

Surrounding the planet is a satellite grid governing the communications and transport that anyone visiting Gora relies upon – and once that grid hits a technological failure, the planet has become something other than a stopping-off point. The planet Gora sits at a convenient intersection between worlds, and so serves as a stopping-off point for galactic travellers of sundry species. WWAC’s coverage of the 2022 Hugo Awards continues…

The galaxy and the ground within review