Guys, I think I may have found a new favorite author! The (kinda) sequel to her awesome The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit focuses on a few minor characters from the first book, offering both a continuing story and a backstory for them. In this book, techie fix-it gal extraordinaire Pepper and her partner Blue take in an AI that has been illegally moved into a very realistic humanoid kit. Sidra, as the AI has named herself, is struggling to adjust to the limitations of her new existence, and figure out her purpose in a non-ship environment. Interspersed with Sidra's story, however, are chapters that give Pepper's backstory as a genetically engineered factory slave who escapes and lives in a broken down ship with only a motherly AI named Owl for company.
Like she does in her first book, Chambers examines the nature of found families, identity, purpose, and love in this book. She gives as much heart and dimension to the artificial intelligences as she does to the other sentient characters, and while this book is narrower in scope than her first outing (only two main characters instead of the half-dozen or so of The Long Way...), its stories are expansive and universal. I absolutely love her books.
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