Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Becky Chambers has done it again! The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet quickly became on of my favorite Sci-fi reads of all time back in 2017 and ever since I've been following this series closely. And this book did not disappoint, I loved it just as much as I loved the first book way back when, if anything it is a complete comfort series for me and this book solidified that. As always Chambers does an amazing job of social commentary and exploring humanity, morality, and why we so vehemently believe in the things we believe in. Chambers constantly reminds me as a reader why I empathy and compassion for others is so important. Further, I love the characters so so much and while I'm not always the best at keeping space related terms and worlds straight in my head, it's never a problem in these books! I'm here for a good time and a good time! Thank you again for the opportunity to read this book early and Beck Chambers will continue to be an auto-buy author for me.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
By. Becky Chambers
P. 368
Format: eArc
Rating: *****
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I received an e-arc from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is the fourth book in the Wayfarers series. Each book in the series is set in the same universe. While you do not follow the same characters, the books themselves have some connection linking them back to the first book. You do not have to read them in order, it is only my own sense of order that would recommend that you do so.

In this fourth book we are stuck at a fulling station on a lifeless planet Gora that exists under an environmental bubble. Three very different ships visit the station run by a Laru mother and her child who has yet to select a gender. When tragedy strikes the five individuals are stuck together unexpectedly. The next few days will change who they are as individuals and will cement a bond that will continue for the rest of their days.

The brilliance of Chamber’s writing is her ability to create characters. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is the first book in the Wayferer’s series that only has humans in the plot as an abstract concept. All the characters are nonhuman, yet we human readers can relate to them in a way that will leave us emotionally torn. Each species is different, and each person is different within their own species. All these aspects are shown through their every interaction. It leaves us, the reader, also changed on some fundamental level.

I have loved each book in the series, and I would say that this fourth book is not my favorite. The plot is almost nonexistent and it took me a bit to center myself on where I was and what was happening. However, I would also say that this is the most impactful book in the series, to date. It is the one that has stayed with me on an emotional level more then the others. So, perhaps it is my favorite after all.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but have not read the rest. This book can standalone as the characters--with the exception of one--are not related to the earlier book. The first book had more action; this is much more about the characters, all of whom are NOT human. Some of the interactions felt like human interactions with alien actors, but it was still a fun read.

My favorite section of the story was the conversation about humans and cheese. (I guess some people might not get it, but I developed a reaction to whey, so I can't eat dairy, and people regularly tell me they would "literally die" if they couldn't have cheese. Um, no, you definitely wouldn't literally die without cheese.)

I received this audiobook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I also won a physical copy from Goodreads and an so excited to add this book to my physical shelves.

Becky Chambers is not for everyone. Her prose is flawless. Her characters are all one of a kind. Chambers uses intergalactic characters to teach us more about ourselves here on Earth. However, there is virtually no plot to her books. If you are a plot driven reader, you will probably not enjoy her style of storytelling.

Becky Chambers will always be one of my favorite authors and I will recommend her with all of my heart.

The planet Gora is a desolate wasteland, notable only for its convenient location along several space routes to much more hospitable planets. It is here that Ouloo and her son Tupo run the Five-Hop One-Stop, one of the many rest stops built on Gora to cater to space travelers waiting for their turn to use one of the intergalactic tunnels that connect to other destinations. Ouloo is hosting three aliens from three different ships when a major accident in orbit prevents anybody from leaving the planet. Stuck with nothing to do but converse with the other guests and contemplate their individual reasons for traveling, all the inhabitants at the Five-Hop One-Stop are forced to take some time to evaluate their lives and where they’ll go from here.

I have never regretted reading a Becky Chambers book (a streak that continues with THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN). Most of the sci-fi I read is high-stakes, with giant battles or intergalactic politics. Almost none of that can be found in the WAYFARERS series, something I find utterly refreshing. I once saw the series referred to as “domestic sci-fi,” and I find it a perfect description. These are characters just going through their ordinary, daily lives, facing problems that are mostly personal. It’s lovely and cozy, heightened by the pure creativity of Becky Chamber’s sci-fi universe.

That creativity has always been one of my favorite parts of the WAYFARERS series, and it is on full display in THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN. There is not a single human amongst the five main characters of the book. Instead we have four different alien types, all with different cultures, body types, and ways of processing sensory inputs. Ouloo, who runs the rest stop, tries her best to create accommodations that won’t be grating or uncomfortable for any one species. That means using subdued colors in the building paint, since Aeluons communicate in color and view bright colors as shouting. It means avoiding certain scents and making sure that every species’ dietary restrictions are considered, as a certain kind of flour might be perfectly normal for one species and a deathly allergen to another. As someone who adores world-building in both sci-fi and fantasy and is fascinated about reading about cultures other than my own, the WAYFARERS book always scratches a very particular itch.

I had a lovely time with the story and would happily recommend it to others. While it didn’t leave me with heightened emotions or contain a mind-blowing twist, THAT’S OKAY. We need quiet sci-fi in our lives, just as much as we need stories with galaxy-level stakes. While there’s nothing earth-shattering in the story, THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN is a wonderful escape from our ordinary Earth lives, and that’s plenty enough reason to read it for me.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
(Wayfarers #4)
by Becky Chambers

This is a brilliant and well thought out book! It's a book I requested from the publisher and NetGalley and the review is my own opinion. Thanks so much for letting me read this wonderful book!

Chambers has a way of creating characters that are so extremely different from each other from their looks, physical traits, background, politics, worlds, upbringing, society norms, and well, everything about them. But at the same time Chambers makes them so similar and relatable.

This is about a Way Station of sorts with a variety of species each on a different mission of their own. They stop for fuel and rest but are then forced to stay due to unforeseen circumstances. There is no "bad guys" in this story. It's a group of characters stranded together with the hostess and her inquisitive son at the station.

During the time they are there, the strangers change. The firm beliefs they held and why they hold said beliefs emerge. Things aren't as they always seem. We as the reader could learn from this. The complete strangers slowly change and it becomes a heartwarming story especially when one of them almost dies.

This is a feel good story with lots of heart, humor, and lessons for all, regardless of species, lol! Recommend this book highly!

Thank you for a copy of this book Harper Voyager, I really enjoyed it.
I love the Wayfarers universe and it was a great pleasure to step back in and see more of the expanding world. I was glad a 'known' secondary character was in this one, and it was nice to find out a whole lot more of her background and actions. And it was also a pleasure to meet new races and new faces. I enjoyed every minute and wanted the book to be so much longer!

I finished this book and sat for a while, just smiling and thinking about it. It made me happy, made me hope, and made me wish I could be stranded at the Five-Hop One-Stop, visit Tupo's museum, and eat some of those cakes. What a marvelous book.

Gora is a rock that is strategically sited near a wormhole, which can transport ships light-years away in the blink of an eye. That makes Gora a good stopping place for spacers who want a break from their ship while they are waiting their turn for the wormhole. An unusual equipment failure results in the wormhole being closed to traffic, stranding ships and their occupants. All communications are shut down.

Several of these stranded travelers end up at the Five Hop One-Stop on Gora, which is run by Oolu and Tupo, her young child. The Five Hop One-Stop is like a small truck stop/motel/restaurant - it offers fuel, supplies, lodging, luxurious baths, and a variety of good food to its guests. Oolu (the proprietor) and her child Tupo are Laru, four-footed marsupials with very long necks, and curly fur.

Their stranded guests include Roveg (an exiled artist who resembles a centipede), Pei (a soldier whose people communicate in colors), and Speaker (a tiny sloth-like person whose home planet had a methane atmosphere). Pei and Roveg have places to be and are running out of time. Speaker is anxious about her sister, who is still marooned on their ship. These five people stranded together get to know themselves and each other better, which leads to some surprises.

It is the first book in the 5 book series I'd read, but I didn't find myself lost. I recommend this book to everyone.

At this point, the last book.in the Wayfarers series, if you know, you know. Nothing much happens, just a handful of aliens trapped for a few days on a boring planet that's mostly a galactic gas station, and the friends (and children) they made along the way.

There is this one section where the (all non-human) characters discuss humans and their weird obsession with cheese, and how it's made, and how they eat it, it is hilarious.

I'm looking forward to what Becky Chambers does next but I'll be sad to never visit her creative, found-families, literal universe again.

I’m sad that it’s over, but what an ending.

Ouloo and her child Tupo live on Gora: literally translates to “useless.” Gora is a seemingly lifeless planet surrounded by nothing but rocks. Ouloo owns Five-Hop One-Stop, a resting and fueling place for a quick break before travelers head to their next destination.

Three ships arrive to pick up supplies before heading on to their own separate destinations when a freak technological disaster forces them to stop and wait. Speaker, an Akarak, is determined to help her fellow species left on the fringes; Roveg, a Quelin with a strict appointment to keep; and Pei, an Aeluon ready to start her vacation with her life partner, join Ouloo and Tupo in this mismatched group of completely different species.

In true Wayfarers style, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is a fantastic character-driven science fiction story. It has very minor ties to the first three books, like little Easter eggs sprinkled around. It can probably be read alone, but I definitely recommend reading all four of them. Since the world-building has already been established, we can focus completely on the emotions and drives of each of the characters.

All of the characters in this story provide a different viewpoint of the universe, all coming from different backgrounds. They argue, don’t understand each other’s priorities, but ultimately come together to try to understand each other. It has such a positive vibe... really the perfect ending to this series.

I’m so glad this series was introduced to me, and I can’t wait to return to Becky Chambers in A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

Thank you to the author, Harper Voyager, and Net Galley for this advanced review copy!

I was given the opportunity to pick Becky Chambers “The Galaxy, and the Ground Within” not long after I had just read and finished the first book in her Wayfarers series. So I ended up skipping the next two books in the series not knowing what to expect, besides a general expectation to meet up again with the cast of characters that I got to know quite well in “The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.” As a result, I ended up for a bit of a surprise to find a plot that involved an entirely new cast, with only one familiar face.

However, this had no negative impact on my reading experience. If anything, the book was made all the more enjoyable, as there isn’t a human to be found amongst the main characters. If there is one thing that Becky Chambers does extraordinarily well, it’s worldbuilding, and I loved learning even more about the various species and worlds of the Galactic Commons as much as I did being first introduced to it in “Small Angry Planet.”

Of course, that is not at all the only thing that Chambers does well. Besides constructing rich galaxy-wide worlds, she is also excellent when it comes to writing relationships - between friends, lovers, parents and children, and in the case of this book, several strangers are thrown together for an unexpected while at the equivalent of a rest stop due to a massive satellite mishap. A bunch of characters mainly waiting around until some space wreckage is cleared doesn’t sound like it could possibly be the starting point of an even remotely engaging read. But that is precisely what Chambers crafts here. The bonding that occurs amongst the characters here is so naturalistic, so funny at times and surprisingly tense in others, and ultimately so heartwarming that it was frankly a bit of a disappointment when the book finally reached its end.

Chambers once again proves herself to be an absolute master at feel-good science fiction.

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the author and publisher for providing me with an electronic review copy of this book.

In a word, "The Galaxy, and the Ground Within", the latest book in the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers is fantastic! This novel is not simply a sequel but a firm standalone in the same universe. The main premise of this book is how five sentients from four entirely different species with many reasons to distrust and dislike each other overcome mutual prejudice to handle a series of emergencies. Along the way Chambers does an excellent job of helping the reader understand the specifics of and identify with the uniqueness of each species in the course of this very readable and entertaining story. I look forward to continuing to read more from Becky Chambers.

When I saw that my Netgalley Wish was granted by Harper Voyager, I was SO excited! (Thank you Thank you for the eARC!!) I absolutely love Becky Chambers, and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within lived up to even my highest expectations.
When three travelers are stranded at an intergalactic rest stop, the Five Hop-One-Stop they discover that even though their species are very, very different, each has skills and strength to help them all get through it. The thing I love most about the Wayfarer's series is the love and care that the characters show one another. They do their best to learn and understand from different perspectives. I loved seeing cameos from previous Wayfarers books, and I was so glad to be back in Chambers' Galaxy - If I was at the Five Hop, I might never leave.

The thing I've really enjoyed about all the books in the Wayfarers series is they are a little bit like a show on the discovery channel showing you all the intricacies of a species or an ecosystem loosely surrounded by a plot. Each book explores both a species and interspecies relationships somewhere in space. The rumor is that The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is the final book of this series. That makes me a little sad as I've enjoyed the world/galaxy Becky Chambers has created and could read a lot more stories in it.

Oolou and Tupo are a mother-child pair who run a sort of space bed and breakfast on a planet that really doesn't have anything to offer but being close to jumping off points to a lot of other places. They are Laru, a species that in my head was a cross between some kind of very large furry cat and a kangaroo. They have guests in and out all the time, but usually just for a day until the guest refuel, grab some snacks and hit the road, basically think space 7-11 with a few other perks. When three very different guests get stuck at the space 7-11, due to a technical glitch, each has their own worries and each is trying to distract themselves with the other guest.

“I was operating on the hope that such things wouldn’t matter when the sky is falling apart."
"Such things shouldn’t matter at all, regardless of what the sky is doing.”

Pei, an Aeulon (beautiful fish person) has some very large choices to make in her life. She has been in a very taboo relationship for years and while the human she loves has never pushed her to share their relationship openly, she has come to a point where she either needs to be more honest about it and find a way to incorporate her Aeulon life better into it or possibly end it. She also has a once and a lifetime decision to make and will she decided to go with her cultural norms or choose a new path?

Roveg is an exiled Quelin (beetle like creature) artist. He hasn't been to his home in over a decade, but has a chance. He must make his appointment on time or else they will not let him visit his home for a very special event. Learning about the Quelin species as he interacts with the others stuck on the station was fascinating. I really liked the individual he was and how easily he befriended all there.

Speaker was one of the most interesting species we have met to date. She is a Akarak (bird like creatures) and has to interact with the world through a mechanical suit whenever not in a ship of her species. No one seems to know much about her species since they mostly keep to themselves. As she educates some of her fellow guests stuck on the planet, we learn what makes the Akarak so different, they are the only sentient species to come from a planet that doesn't breathe air. It has made their lives extremely complicated after loosing their planet years before to a different species altogether.

Friendships and bonds were made on this layover that I think would stand the test of time. I loved how hopeful it was that even if you are very different there are always commonalities, even between species that don't breathe the same atmosphere, and lasting friendships can be made anywhere. This was another delightful look at a slice of life and culture in the galaxy Becky Chambers created. While it was a great wrap up to the story, I will miss this galaxy and all the creatures in it.

A gentle space adventure linked together by themes of found family and finding yourself as you become the person you were meant to be, together.

I really enjoyed this! Did it feel like a series finale? No, but I think it’s because it’s a series of standalones. I liked the characters a lot, but it could’ve used a bigger plot to make the book feel like a series ender.

THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN - BECKY CHAMBERS

When a technological global failure halts all coming and going from a rest-stop planet, five strangers of a variety of species have to eke out the disaster together at the Five-Hop One-Stop, a "bed and breakfast" whose host is just trying to make it be the best it can possibly be. Together, they must wait, until normalcy is restored, while trying to navigate and learn about each other as well as managing their personal challenges and stresses.

I have loved everything that I've read from Becky Chambers. There is no one comparable in terms of writing beautiful character-driven stories. And then putting these characters and their relationships in the foreground of a galactic world filled with a myriad of challenges including interspecies dynamics, politics, and worlds. the stories are narrow, but also somehow incredibly vast at the same time.

This slice-of-life story, features aliens of different types and challenges and personal troubles that come from being who they are. They find themselves together, coming with personal baggage, and end up creating a bond. While this bond may be ephemeral, it's touches the heart. The work of putting aside preconceived expectations of people and learning to trust one another is highlighted in this book. As well as how sometimes, you just need someone to talk to and to listen or just sit and spend the time with you, no matter how different they might be.

I devoured this book. I loved everyone, their troubles big and small, their interactions. What a perfect end to the Wayfarers series. Highly highly recommend that everyone pick this up. Especially if you love character-driven stories and aliens!

Thank you so much to @avonbooks and @harpervoyagerus and @netgalley for providing me with the E-ARC.

So I had no idea this was THE END of the Wayfarers series until I got to the acknowledgments and that makes the book so much more bittersweet. This is probably the... Softest book in the series. No one is running for their lives, there's no action. What it is is people of four different species trapped in one place together, finding common ground.

Physiologically, our main characters are so different, and they come from different backgrounds. Roveg from the people who have all but isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy. Pei whose people are fairly ubiquitous but retain a deep sense of tradition - particularly surrounding child rearing. Speaker, whose people have no home after their planet was destroyed in a long-ago war but were never given leave to settle a new one because their physiology and needs are antithetical to other sapient species. And Ouloo and Tupo who have built their home in a world where people only ever visit but they get to see all kinds.

As always with a Wayfarers book, we dig deep into various species' cultures and biases. In this case, we use a child's curiosity as the catalyst for learning about these species and their interactions with each other. Chambers is so good at weaving in frank conversations about social justice, equality, bias, difference in cultural backgrounds and their effect on things like politics/war/economy. But also always finding common ground, even when characters can't wholly agree. And we get to see how these conversations have lasting impacts on our characters, beyond the mere scope of the book.

TL;DR If you haven't read the Wayfarers series yet, please do so.

📚 To be completely honest, I don't think it's possible for me to write any kind of real review for a Becky Chambers Wayfarers book. I just love them too much and wind up hugging the book while making heart eyes.
📚 This one is even more of a character study than the previous books in the series, with several characters (the only one we'd met previously is Pei) who are essentially quarantining at a truck stop for the entirety of the book. And yet, I couldn't put it down. I was so engrossed in seeing how these disparate sentients - some from enemy species - had to work and live together for a time.
📚 I just love how Chambers creates these wildly inventive alien species and then is able to explore the essence of humanity through them.
📚 I'd happily read any book set anywhere in this universe. I'm sad to be leaving it, but looking forward to Chambers' new series debuting later this year.

I don't really know what I expected when I started The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet a couple of years ago, probably some fast-paced sci-fi with loads of action. Instead I read about characters and their everyday life and I instantly fell in love with them. All four books are character-driven rather then plot-driven and I actually never thought I would enjoy that so much. Becky Chambers is now one of my favorite authors because of how she describes different characters, species and cultures. It all feels so real!
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is of course no exception. The story takes place on the planet Gora were ships stop when traveling between wormholes. One of the places you can get fuel is at the Five-Hop One-Stop which is owned by two aliens, a mother and her child. Three unlucky aliens visit the Five-Hop One-Stop when a technological failure causes all trafic to and from Gora to cease. With all communication down the visitors and the hosts must cope with the situation and each other as best as they can. The book starts with introducing the different characters before they get stuck on Gora. While waiting for the failure to be solved these five aliens start to interact with each other, mostly thanks to the host.
The clash between different species and cultures was really fascinating to read about. Sadly I found the first half of the book a bit slow but I liked the second half a lot.. While I really liked the book it's not one of my favorites in the series but I still enjoyed myself immensely like I always do with Becky Chambers books.