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    To Be Taught, If Fortunate
    To Be Taught, If Fortunate
    To Be Taught, If Fortunate
    Audiobook4 hours

    To Be Taught, If Fortunate

    Written by Becky Chambers

    Narrated by Brittany Pressley

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    “Extraordinary . . . A future sci-fi masterwork in a new and welcome tradition.” -- Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

    A stand-alone science fiction novella from the award-winning, bestselling, critically-acclaimed author of the Wayfarer series.

    At the turn of the twenty-second 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 subzero 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 journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life.

    A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system fifteen light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds. But as Ariadne shifts through both form and time, the culture back on Earth has also been transformed. Faced with the possibility of returning to a planet that has forgotten those who have left, Ariadne begins to chronicle the story of the wonders and dangers of her mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 3, 2019
    ISBN9780062959041
    Author

    Becky Chambers

    Becky Chambers is a science fiction author based in Northern California. She is best known for her Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series, which currently includes The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, and Record of a Spaceborn Few. Her books have also been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the Women's Prize for Fiction, among others. Her most recent work is To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a standalone novella. Becky has a background in performing arts, and grew up in a family heavily involved in space science. She spends her free time playing video and tabletop games, keeping bees, and looking through her telescope. Having hopped around the world a bit, she’s now back in her home state, where she lives with her wife. She hopes to see Earth from orbit one day.  

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    Reviews for To Be Taught, If Fortunate

    4.5/5

    935 ratings65 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Once again Chambers waves a stunning tale of humanity, this time focusing on isolation, connection, and the human need to explore new things. She creates beautiful settings (perhaps except for the "rodents") as a backdrop for the tale. Really, I don't want to spoil anything in this review, but if you haven't read anything by Chambers you're missing out. This novella is a stand alone and does not require any familiarity with her other works.
    • 4/5
      An intriguing take on space exploration as a purely scientific endeavor and the mental and emotional toll of signing up for a journey that guarantees you won't recognize your home on your return.
    • 2/5
      Narration is not good. Sounds pretentious and take attention away from the story. Emotionally monotone. “Whatever” attitude.
    • 5/5
      Really excellent character-driven space novella grappling with important ethical questions about environmental impacts and ideas about place and identity and community. Loved everything about it.
    • 4/5
      It’s a very good story, I’m just not a fan of the long monologue at the end which is why I give it a 4/5.
    • 3/5
      Extremely imaginative and will written but with a very lackluster,disappointing ending..like she just got tired of writing
    • 5/5
      Due the events of the Hugo's in the last few years, I've gotten to read all the works written by Becky Chambers, and fallen deeper and deeper in love with all her hope punk worlds. The whistful beauty of this book is tied up in its ending, which to touch too lightly or too deeply would ruin it for others. Only know, this little novella is absolutely worth the purchase and it fills my heart and soul with the idea of space, and possibility, and what it means to be truly "for all mankind."
    • 5/5
      Fascinating concepts and characters, exciting till the end. Recommend to any sci-fi fans.
    • 5/5
      No other modern author makes me ponder what it means to be human in the vastness of the universe with such precision and yet still, with such warmth.

      Becky Chambers is somehow both approachable and gentle, while bringing readers to the brink of vastness and inviting us to peek over the edge.
    • 5/5
      Amazing storytelling. With subtle links to the overall series. It's nice to read a series without having a lot of rehashing for new readers. It makes you want to fill in gaps by reading more of the series
    • 5/5
      I found this delightful. Becky Chambers writes with a lyricism that takes its simple plot to a point well beyond the norm or expectation. It is rewarding to simply take in her heroine’s private thoughts on the implications of her discoveries. I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for something apart from the typical space western.
    • 5/5
      To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a standalone novella narrated by Ariadne, one of four astronauts on a mission in the 22nd century to explore a series of faraway planets that likely harbour life - but challenges arise that make them question what they're really out in space for.I loved the concept of humans being able to biologically engineer themselves to survive in what would otherwise be hostile environments. In fact, I loved all of the science in this book - it's beautifully and simply explained in Chambers' trademark style. There are also some wonderfully evocative descriptions, both out in space and here on Earth - I so want to visit the gardens of the organisation behind Ariadne's mission in real life!To Be Taught… is a small but perfectly formed ode to the wonders of space exploration and what can be achieved through collective effort. I zipped through this in the space of a day during a week filled with particularly bad news, and it is filled with so much warmth and humanity that I couldn't help but feel soothed. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      Compqred to her Wayferer trilogy, this book is disappointing. Still an enjoyable listening, but not as refreshing as her other books.
    • 5/5
      Becky Chambers' work is spectacular, as always. A wonderful novella.
    • 5/5
      An absolutely spellbinding novella. I loved every second of it.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful writing and very interesting characters, it didn’t seem like a novella at all! In our current reality, humans will never be able to travel the universe, the technology just simply doesn’t exist, it may not happen at all and that’s okay. The novella briefly mentions events on Earth, wars, famine and global climate change that affect us all, and unfortunately that’s a reality we are running towards ?

      I’m impressed by the research Becky Chambers put into this book, even though she says it’s all made up, I think the themes are very real. I highly recommend this quick read if you are a fan of science fiction!
    • 5/5
      Not a long book but a rich one. Full of meaning and hope. It is also an affimation of the power and nobility that drives the spirit of discovery.
    • 5/5
      This was absolutely outstanding scifi, and one of the best books I've read this year. Full of heart, science, and contemplation. Ugh, so good.
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly, desperately human, with all the love and hope of scientists and of the horizons of space flight, and the terror of time's passage. Masterful.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This is not so much a novel (or, more accurately, a novella), as a philosophical and ethical examination of space travel within a fictional context. Becky Chambers’ work tends to be short on plot but long on characters that touch your heart. And while the relationships of the tiny cast of characters will strike a chord, it really is more a novel of ideas and ethics. While I didn’t need as many kleenex as for other Chambers novels, I did need a couple, and I appreciate the food for thought.
    • 1/5
      Don't listen to the people telling you that you have to read more contemporary SF. Why? Because you cannot judge contemporary SF with any authority without having read a reasonable amount of old stuff. SF is an evolutionary genre, so it needs to evolve to stay relevant: you'll actually find that much contemporary SF is not that much more advanced in a literary or thematic sense than what was produced in the late 1980s - as that decade ended, progress in SF's evolution slowed enormously and a lot - not all of it, but a lot of it - is simply riffing on themes that were covered extensively between 1950 and 1990. I find that almost everyone who sticks to what is new has no contextual or historical overview of the genre, which you need to make informed judgements. For example, I find Weir very traditional and he's done nothing to move SF forward - 'A Fall of Moondust' is fairly routine even for Clarke - Charles Logan's 'Shipwreck' and Joanna Russ' 'We Who Are About To...' tackled Weir's first novel concept and put it to bed in the 70s. Chambers is pretty much a soap opera writer who seems unable to handle conceptual breakthrough - for example, 'To Be Taught If Fortunate' really fails to take Blish's concept of Pantropy from the 1950s any further. Her character-focus approach is a lighter version of what Maureen F. McHugh did in the early 90s with far more facility and maturity - not that I'm averse to characterisation, anything but, but Chambers isn't that great at it. I agree that turning a mirror toward society is important, but SF does this metaphorically, through a glass darkly rather than directly like mimetic fiction - SF reflects in a distorting mirror rather than just holding it up to nature such a representational view of Art is pre-modern and a bit simplistic for the fractured realities of the contemporary world, I feel. The vast majority of contemporary SF writers don't really signal paradigm shift very well and are pretty unsurprising in their lack of innovation - they're comfort reads only in my opinion. Look at the work of Dave Hutchinson, Nina Allan, Adam Roberts, Chris Beckett, Tom Toner and old master Gibson, Priest and M. John Harrison. These are the people pushing the envelope. Emma Newman is fine too and Tchaikovsky has his moments (and lots of crap too). I'm not saying don't read contemporary SF at all, I'm saying it really isn't that vibrant currently - especially when compared to (for example) the 1980s. I respect the opposing points of view, as it does mirror that of a large number of readers I see on Goodreads saying this is a masterpiece, but most contemporary SF is inherently explored by conservative writers with seemingly low literary ambitions. There are not truly evolutionary writers right now in contemporary SF (maybe Ada Palmer, and K. J. Parker could fit the bill but what do I know…), though admittedly this is a very tough call for all SF writers now, to innovate after a century or more of mass media - after all, we've all seen everything now...or have we? Have a good day. SF = Speculative Fiction.Book Review SF = Speculative Fiction

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      i've rediscovered a love of sci-fi and this novella was perfect to ease me back in.
    • 5/5
      Well this is a little gem of a book -- not the usual interstellar hijinks I've come to associate with Chambers, but a thoughtful and detailed imagining of exoplanet exploration, based on now and near-now tech. The idea of body adaptation in order to solve gravity challenges (not her idea, but a genius one which she talks about more in the back matter) is mind blowing. The ethics of the current generation of scientists is a beautiful thing (and a heartbreaking one). The quiet imaginings of what life in the universe might be is a constant and riveting wonder. Not a loud book, not a high action book, but deeply satisfying.

      Advanced readers copy provided by Edelweiss.
    • 5/5
      This book makes me ache. I'm doused in feelings of wonder, homesickness, awe, despair, guilt, regret, and intellectual joy. It has flaws. It's not perfect. The characters don't, I believe, change much or learn new things. But we see them go through good and bad very realistically, and they do have their own personalities. They also seemed to perfectly fit within the range of "NASA's ideal astronaut personality," which added realism.

      The details of their explorations and discoveries seem probable and realistic, too, and I enjoyed reading what I suspect is a distilled version of things and experiences scientists expect to encounter on life-bearing exoplanets.

      The story takes a while to get going. I was wondering why Ariadne was being so wordy in what was essentially a progress report. There's not much of a story arc, per se, either.

      I don't care. This book brought the feels. Wondrous, and devastating. I thought of Bradbury and Interstellar.

      But please, never send me to Opera. Thx.
    • 4/5
      To Be Taught, If Fortunateby Becky ChambersI love all the other books she has written and enjoyed this one too but I was disappointed with the ending. Of all the choices that was possible, the least rational one was chosen and didn't fit with the book.The characters and plot were good. The book was short so the character's development wasn't the usual Chambers exquisite but still I felt I knew them enough to know they would not have chosen the ending! Ugh!I gave the book a 3 1/2 rounding to a 4!Terrific narration. I got this from Audible.
    • 4/5
      Loved this story of space exploration, while too short to have the kind of character development of the Wayfarers series, it had more plot and Chambers terrific writing style. The world building was great and the "Rats" will have me awake in bed at night listening for sounds around me.
    • 5/5
      I found the book intriguing. The story explores what happens to these travelers as their bodies change as they adapt to the environment s of the new planets and as events on Earth change When they return to Earth will either group recognize the other? Will the inhabitants of Earth even value the new knowledge of the these explorers bring back?

      .The story is written in the form of a Diary / mission log from the perspective of the pilot of the mission. I was captivated by both the science and the exploits of the crew on new planets. Chambers does and excellent job in showing the difficulty of code switching scientists must go through in translating scientific discoveries into layman’s language.

      It’s set in universe where the governments of the world have all but abandoned the exploration of space. That job is now left to the private sector and is internationally crowd funded

      Long duration spaceships are sent out to survey planets in a given sector of the galaxy. Man women are put into hibernation during the travel time between star systems and while hibernating they are genetically modified to explore the plants of that solar system.

      Mission control on earth continuously sends updates on mission parameters and the changes that that earth has gone through since their last communication. Then suddenly those Messages stop. The question is what do the explorers do next.
    • 3/5
      I listened to this book and got 43% into it when I stopped. It's all description. I never figured out what the protagonist was emotional about... She was just happy and content the whole time and describing things. The descriptions were interesting because I want to make stories about space travel... But not worth continuing further.
    • 3/5
      This is a novella about a crew of four humans who are sent on a scientific mission to explore distant planets that may contain life. Some of the planets they explore are delightful, and some are horrible. As they are exploring, they lose communication with Earth.I enjoyed the descriptions of the scientific exploration, and the geeky scientists' excitement about their discoveries. Aside from that, the book fell pretty flat for me. It is written in the form of a diary, and only the character of the narrator is developed at all. There isn't much of a storyline: the book feels more like a series of loosely-collected vignettes.
    • 5/5
      I am so full of feels right now...as if anything else is to be expected after finishing a work by Becky Chambers. Admittedly, the first half was slow, but then the turning point happened--seriously, right at halfway; I did the math--which itself almost made me cry in the middle of a very unsentimental meal at an unsentimental restaurant. But then there was the WAY it ended, the closing epigraph, followed by the Acknowledgements, FOLLOWED by Chambers' conversation with her mother. BIG SIGHS.

      One thing that came to mind as I was barrelling towards the end was about how this compares with other SF predictions. How we love to talk about how this or that technological development that was seemingly predicted in earlier SF works, and it so often--I feel--is couched within this air of eeriness, if also awe. I suppose Becky Chambers could be seen as making plenty of predictions of her own, and time will tell if they ever come to pass. But to me the most startling prediction she makes is not some technological advance or discovery of lifeforms elsewhere in the universe, but that of beings being not so shitty to each other. While this seems almost more difficult to imagine than new technology or aliens, it absolutely does not inspire uncanny feelings. All I'm left with is "I hope, I hope, I hope..."