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To Be Taught, If Fortunate

A Novella

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To Be Taught, If Fortunate

By: Becky Chambers
Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
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About this listen

In the future, instead of terraforming planets to sustain human life, explorers of the galaxy transform themselves.

From the Sunday Times best-selling author.

At the turn of the 22nd century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. They can produce antifreeze in sub-zero temperatures, absorb radiation and convert it for food and conveniently adjust to the pull of different gravitational forces. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to explore neighbouring exoplanets long suspected to harbour life.

Ariadne is one such explorer. On a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds 15 light-years from Earth, she and her fellow crewmates sleep while in transit and wake each time with different features. But as they shift through both form and time, life back on Earth has also changed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the wonders and dangers of her journey, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

©2019 Becky Chambers (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited Adventure Science Fiction Space Exploration Space Opera Fiction Interstellar Solar System Explorer
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I have now listened to three Becky Chambers novels. I have read science fiction for nearly 60 years and I am so impressed with her work! She has set real characters in her settings, with real emotions and interactions. Not “human” interactions necessarily, and that is soo impressive! I love it. I want more. And you should too. I am also impressed with performance of the reader. I wasn’t initially but I have become hooked. Keep up the good work.
Becky has a strong underlying philosophy and morality that has me identifying her as one of the first people I’d like to share dinner with, in those hypothetical dinner parties we are asked to speculate about.

A new science fiction

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Overall I didn’t really click with the story. Towards the middle of the book I became more invested but that slowly faded away towards the back end. I just didn’t really care too much about any of the characters. The humour also fell flat for me. Learning about the worlds was the highlight by far.

None of this was helped by the narration which was more or less just someone reading the book in their regular voice with minimal effort put into actual voice acting. She also mispronounced a few obvious words consistently which was pretty immersion breaking. “Geysers” is not pronounced “Geezers” 😂

An interesting message overall and it definitely provoked some deep thought but as far as entertainment goes this felt kind of like reading someone’s essay as opposed to experiencing a story.

If you like this book I highly recommend Project Hail Mary which is similar in a lot of ways but succeeds in more than just world building.

Great world building, average story and characters

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Great food for thought. It describes the most surreal possibilities for space exploration and touches on the ethics around this process in a sensitive manner

Profound

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Brilliant story with a excellent insights on humanity and its future. Well written with great narration too.

Brilliant

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An interesting look at the early stages of interplanetary human exploration, Becky Chambers brings both humanity and philosophy to science fiction with a wonderfully compassionate style.

This is a thoughtful book that does not include laser battles or Star troopers so if action is your primary requirement this book is not for you. It is however full of clever ideas and intriguing questions.

Patricia Rodriguez IS the voice of Becky Chambers books and does a sublime narration. She captures the depth of the characters wonderfully and brings the unfolding story to life perfectly.

Heartfelt and thoughtful

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Interesting storyline I guess I expected more to it though. Kind of sad ending for me.

Interesting

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Although short it was reminiscent of Becky's first 2 books which were simply captivating. Can't wait for the next.

Loved it

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I wish Becky Chambers was older, so I had more of her books to read.

Perfect narrator, excellent story

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just wish it was longer!!! but it's was perfectly short too.
I wish there were more Becky chambers and Patrica Rodriguez!
you both amazing.
thank you
looking forward to the next one. your my favourite author and reader.
Rafael x

lovely

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this is my first book of Becky Chambers. it was amazing and I can't wait to read everything by this wonderful author. also the performance was highly enjoyable.
I do have a biological sciences background, so this may factor in my fangirling of this marvellous story.

wonderful and moving as well as intellectually stimulating

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