The Galaxy and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers

The fourth and final instalment of the Wayfarers saga takes place on a barren planet that serves as a waystation for interstellar travellers. Laru Ouloo and her adolescent child Tupo run a ‘truck stop’ on the planet – a rest space providing food, fuel and creature comforts for all species. When a mechanical malfunction shuts down traffic and communications, three diverse travellers are stranded at the Five-Hop One-Stop. As with the previous sequels, the link to the original Wayfarer novel is with setting and theme rather than characters, although one of the stranded travellers is making a reappearance. Aeluon Pei is on her way to visit her Exodan partner Ashby and is agonising about whether to go public with their taboo interspecies relationship. She and her fellow travellers, Quelin Roveg and Akarak Speaker, could hardly be more diverse in species, occupations, circumstances and personalities. In their enforced rest stop, with limited access to comms, they and their hostess find common ground and even friendship by sharing skills and resources to help everyone. Becky Chambers does an amazing job of blending the fantastical with the fundamentally relatable, to demonstrate how much better life can be for everyone when difference is accepted and accommodated. She covers a huge range of issues, including bodily autonomy, balancing work and family and post-colonialism, against a backdrop of a complex political system. Kindness is the key to the Universe; if only that message could be spread far and wide.