So I read this in a single day. (The day involved a few hours of trains and a 10 hour flight.)

After the previous two Wayfarers books it should come as no surprise that Becky Chambers delivers on the emotionally engaging characters and thought provoking storylines. She has indeed done that again!

There’s a cast of point of view characters this time who all move the story forward in more and less interconnected ways. I was particularly taken with Eyas and her contemplative way of moving through her life, of giving herself to others in every conversation. Eyas’s regret after Sawyer’s death was extremely touching. She gave him good advice and she helped him. But she helped him less than she could have, and that difference could have saved him. We see that Eyas feels guilty, but the book also never chastises her for it, because it did come from a place where she was also too drained to put in more.

Kip was a lot of fun, and his morality journey was surprisingly rich. His relationship with Ras also follows a super interesting trajectory.

And Sawyer. Hoo boy. I feel incredibly sorry for Sawyer. He deserved better than he got. He really did want to do better. And I’m glad that one of the people in Eyas’s school at the end rounded out that path, hopefully ending up on a better path than he did. Sawyer was a bit dense, but not in a way that I’d hold against him.

I was also surprised that even the bad guys weren't "bad" guys. Oates was imprisoned, and rightly so, but he also seemed to express genuine remorse.

I’m also glad that Sawyer’s death was fast. There was a version of this where he died in a way that ripped your heart out over several pages. The suddenness meant that the somber, heart-wrenching moments were for later.</spoiler>

Overall I’m very impressed. Again! I see the fourth book is the final in the series, which fills me with dread that I’ll finish it and then there will be no more Wayfarers for me to read, and I’ll be bereft. And yet, I’ll read it next.

Record of a Spaceborn Few

By Becky Chambers

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Reference links: Why I like Storygraph, My concerns with Goodreads, How my scoring system works