A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

This is a sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so it’s disappointing at first to find that the focus is on two minor characters from that epic space opera. The crew of the Wayfarer don’t appear at all and they are missed, but the story of tech specialist Pepper and AI Lovelace mark two, who renames herself Sidra, is just as engaging and fascinating as its predecessor. The chapters alternate between Sidra’s new life on the moon Coriol and Pepper’s backstory, when she was Jane 23. Sidra struggles to adjust to her very changed circumstances and to accept the limitations of her new body. An AI assisted Pepper’s escape from a horrendous childhood and virtually raised her, so she is uniquely positioned to understand and help Sidra to adapt. Becky Chambers writes with empathy and intelligence, creating brave new worlds full of diversity and adventure. At the same time she draws topical, meaningful and relatable parallels with real world issues of politics, technology and interpersonal communication. Entertaining, engaging, moving, thought-provoking and satisfying, you can’t really ask much more of a book. There is a third novel in the series, so it will be exciting to see where Chambers takes the story next.