To Be Taught, If Fortunate

Ages ago at this point, I watched a YouTube video about short science fiction books! Back then I ended up reading and eventually reviewing The Undefeated by Una McCormack. That very same video is what first brought this novella to my attention, but well, it took me a few more years to finally give it a go.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a novella by Becky Chambers, presented as a report sent back to Earth, with the hope of sharing the Lawki 6 mission’s discoveries and data to whoever is there to receive it, fifty years later.

We follow the perspective of Ariadne O’Neill, one of four crewmates and the flight engineer of the Meriam, who were sent to explore four planets in a distant star system, which contain extraterrestrial life. The crew is rather diverse and the relationships between the characters is charming, although they don’t explore them that much, with a lot of things left unsaid. Despite that, I found them relatable and human and I was surprised that I cared so much about them by the end.

The science here was rather interesting, featuring a lot of things that are often unaccounted for in other works—that said I don’t read a lot of hard science fiction. There are pods that let the crew go into “torpor” (basically they sleep and barely age until you arrive to the destination). And there’s lots of details around that, such as how hair and nail would grow so much, or the buildup of crust around the eyes, the weird sensation of having your body grow and age when you feel like you only slept and woke up in an instant, among other things, which something like Alien simply ignores.

There is more science like that, all throughout the book, but the main “gimmick” consists of slight genetic alterations to help the astronauts get used to a planet! They are applied through patches on the skin during torpor, and constantly checked and used during the mission. For example, when the next planet they visit has double the gravity of Earth, they’ll wake up with augmented muscle mass and bone density.

Another thing I loved about it is the focus on preservation during their exploration efforts. There are a lot of procedures to avoid affecting the environment, and as mentioned before, they adapt themselves to the planet, instead of trying to change the local ecosystem. However, there will also be some moments of tension because of this. The balance of exploration and human curiosity and what right do we have to disturb the natural order of these planets when we are not part of it. Is it okay to turn over a rock if the worms under it will be be affected by the sunlight? But how can we even know that’s the case without doing so? There’s plenty of discussions like that which were quite thought-provoking.

My favorite part however, have to be the planets, and the life they contain! Each will be different and it’s amazing to see how joyful the characters are when they explore and categorize the life forms they find. There’s a lot of variety and descriptions that were livid and interesting to me, but of course, not all living beings all the same, and there is always a danger to exploring the unknown. This was handled pretty well.

And then we got Earth. These characters get to be on this mission for a reason, and in this book space exploration has become a community effort. Humankind working together to reach for the stars. It’s nice, but it’s also not perfect. Before getting to a planet, we will often see news and events of what has been going on. Even worse, the news are 14 years behind. Despite how nice space exploration is, the planet continues to warm up and warfare is still present. The news play an important role, and some of the best plot twists in the story happen because of them.

All in all. The different elements of this novella are put to good use! I also love how much I can tell you about it in this review compared to my previous read—which would definitely be ruined if I said any more. In any case. There is a lot to like here, some great hard science, some good character writing, some tense plot twists and emotional moments, and overall, a sense of hope that remained even during the darkest moments. I highly recommend giving it a go. I am definitely going to check more of Becky Chambers’ works.

Maybe I should return to Outer Wilds too…