Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Record of a Spaceborn Few
    Record of a Spaceborn Few
    Record of a Spaceborn Few
    Audiobook11 hours

    Record of a Spaceborn Few

    Written by Becky Chambers

    Narrated by Rachel Dulude

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series!

    Brimming with Chambers' signature blend of heart-warming character relationships and dazzling adventure, Record of a Spaceborn few is the third standalone installment of the Wayfarers series, set in the sprawling universe of the Galactic Commons, and following a new motley crew on a journey to another corner corner of the cosmos—one often mentioned, but not yet explored.

    Return to the sprawling universe of the Galactic Commons, as humans, artificial intelligence, aliens, and some beings yet undiscovered explore what it means to be a community in this exciting third adventure in the acclaimed and multi-award-nominated science fiction Wayfarers series, brimming with heartwarming characters and dazzling space adventure.

    Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way.

    But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life—and is it worth saving at all?

    A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one’s story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 9, 2018
    ISBN9780062898968
    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.  

    More audiobooks from Becky Chambers

    Related to Record of a Spaceborn Few

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Concerning The Future Of Souls

      Mar 19, 2024

      As a toddler she had caused a sensation in her family when she announced she wanted to live in a little hole like the ant. Not an ant, the ant. This might have been misheard. She was an easygoing child, not particularly thoughtful and stubbornly inar

      13 min read

    • Article

      Failure to Thrive

      Dec 15, 2019

      Alice read John Mark’s letter, her eyes narrowed, as I paced our tiny apartment. The envelope contained instructions for retrieving two sets of human remains from the University of Florida. I sometimes worked for John Mark, the director of the Milwau

      20 min read

    • Article

      The Silence of Witches

      Dec 10, 2019

      The Silence of Witches
      6 min read

    • Article

      Red Kite Grey Shadow

      Nov 3, 2022

      Red Kite Grey Shadow
      6 min read

    • Article

      Defy the Stars

      May 11, 2017

      Count to five, Noemi decides. If she’s cracking up—if the terror of the past few minutes has scrambled her mind to the point where she’s hallucinating—then this will all go away in a couple of seconds. If this is for real, the mech will be standing h

      25 min read

    • Article

      Me & Davey Waters

      Jan 15, 2023

      Me & Davey Waters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Truth As We Know It

      Dec 10, 2021

      Celia had just finished prepping meals for the week when she first heard the sound. She was stacking entrees in the fridge for the coming week. A mountain of dishes slid into the sink. She was wearing her apron, the one she always wore, over her stan

      15 min read

    • Article

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary

      Jun 17, 2020

      Mrs Macarthur’s Secret Diary
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      How the Lark Got Her Crest

      May 30, 2023

      How the Lark Got Her Crest
      15 min read

    • Article

      THE GIRL In The TOWER

      May 11, 2020

      THE GIRL In The TOWER
      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuskers

      Jul 1, 2018

      Tuskers
      9 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Cat With No Meow

      Jan 1, 2021

      “JESSALYN, ARE YOU trying to merge with your chair at the cellular level?” Mrs. Lockwood asked me in her low, croaky voice from the front of the classroom. Twenty heads turned in my direction, to witness whatever cellular merging was. My plan to disa

      6 min read

    • Article

      Hollywood Baby

      May 10, 2022

      Hello. You may have frequently heard my name in the news these past few weeks. You may have heard it uttered as if I am a criminal or a reprehensible celebrity having a breakdown, which is what the broadcasting network would have you to believe. Howe

      20 min read

    • Article

      How the Cicada Screams

      Dec 1, 2020

      How the Cicada Screams
      7 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Jul 12, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    • Article

      Taking Sides

      Apr 1, 2022

      Taking Sides
      7 min read

    • Article

      READER Reviews

      Apr 8, 2020

      One of my favourite parts of this book is the map because it maps out the routes that all the female adventurers took. Each of the women went on their own adventures and through this book, I got to explore with them. Most of the time, the journeys we

      5 min read

    • Article

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?

      Aug 8, 2019

      Are You Lonesome Tonight?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Sep 1, 2020

      Five Poems
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Apr 1, 2020

      Linden, age 9 Green Bay, WI Ophidia, the medusa, tried desperately to sketch a self-portrait. Later she would add color. Her problem was every time she looked into the lake at her reflection, the snakes of her hair were in a very different place. Sh

      8 min read

    • Article

      Part 2 A BOY CALLED EVEREST

      Feb 1, 2022

      Part 2 A BOY CALLED EVEREST
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Record of a Spaceborn Few

    4/5

    917 ratings60 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      You've heard of cozy mysteries? This is cozy science fiction. The narrative in the first book in this Hugo-winning series jumps around among several people in one habitat ship in the Exodus fleet, the home of the descendants of the final humans to leave Earth. The plot, such as it is, is a devise to explain their history, their way of life, and their relationship to other more advanced races in the galaxy. No particularly momentous storyline.
    • 3/5
      In the human remnant fleet, small struggles occur with big individual consequences even though politics and economics are relatively stable (but changing with exposure to the larger galaxy). There are fake IDs, theft, deadly accidents, and other challenges, so the stakes are higher than in many of Chambers’ other books, but it’s definitely still on the cozier side.
    • 5/5
      I've been looking forward to reading Record of a Spaceborn Few ever since Becky Chambers first revealed that she was working on a follow-up to A Closed and Common Orbit, and I'm happy to report that it doesn't disappoint.The latest installment of the Wayfarers series focuses on the Exodans, descendants of the humans who originally left Earth to find a less broken home. The Exodans of the present have chosen to stay on their ships in space, in orbit around an alien sun, rather than settle on a planet.Chambers returns to the structure of A Long Way… with chapters that alternate between various characters, who include an archivist, a cargo worker with a young family, a caretaker of the dead, a new immigrant from the colonies, and a teenage boy, as well as reports from a visiting Harmagian looking to study the Exodans from an anthropological perspective.I think this structure works really well to offer different perspectives on Exodan life, humans’ place in the universe among other species, life and death, and - a favourite theme of this series - the very nature of humanity itself. I enjoyed all of the characters’ stories, which are sensitively told with plenty of love, some sadness and lots of humour.I absolutely loved reading this novel, and tore through it in 2 days. I really hope there's another installment on the way, because I can't wait to visit the Wayfarers universe again!
    • 5/5
      I love a book that without action sequencers or intense drama pull you in by the characters stories. With minimal reference to the characters from the first two books this book builds the universe even more.
    • 5/5
      I was very sad when I came up on the ending of this book. I didn't want to walk away from it. I wish I could continue to hear about the lives of these people.
    • 5/5
      A clear view Through The Eyes of six main characters of what life would be like in the future if you Humanity lived in space. Very well written. And very well read. We'll be looking for more books from this author. And I will be adding this book to my permanent collection of audiobooks.
    • 5/5
      excelente, me gustó mucho la historia cotidiana, era algo que me interesaba saber
    • 5/5
      I love Chambers cozy take on science fiction. It is generally acknowledged that science fiction takes our current major concerns and conflicts and sets them in the future, usually a more scientifically advanced future. Becky Chambers tweaks that a bit by having her characters preoccupied with the same minutia that preoccupies us all – our relationships, our work, our families, our place in our community, what is our purpose and what is the point?
    • 5/5
      Amazing everything! Relatable characters that you’ll remember and think about on your drive to work for a while.
    • 5/5
      Good writing. It’s hard to describe why I liked this particular book so much, even better than the first two in the trilogy.

      There isn’t one overarching storyline or main character. There are several main characters, with no particularly strong storyline, and yet their individual (but intertwined) stories are captivating, and the anthropological lens is intriguing.
    • 5/5
      Another incredible entry to the Wayfarers series, completed with awesome writing, fully fleshed out characters and gripping story. The continuing saga of a universe full of sentient beings just trying to keep on keeping on.

      The best slice-of-life you've ever stumbled across, that's an Exodan guarantee!
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed all of the wayfarer books. I can’t wait for more to come out
    • 5/5
      Once again this book is like the rest of the trilogy, life stories instead of huge stories. The interconnecting plot threads revolve around people living on the Exodus Fleet. The writer uses two threads of the stories to explain what living on space stations that make up the Fleet. One is a visiting academic alien and the other is a new immigrant, a descendant of Exodans that had left several generations ago. I could read so much more written this way.
    • 3/5
      No two books end up being the same. This is indeed what one should be aware of when approaching a new novel in Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, because each one takes the readers in a different direction from the previous ones. And so I went from the group of space travelers in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet to the personal journeys of Lovelace and Jane 23 in A Closed and Common Orbit, only to find myself sharing the lives of the people from the Exodus Fleet - a cluster of connected spaceships that had left the Earth in its decline to create a space-faring society - with Records of a Spaceborn Few.The story starts with a catastrophic explosion aboard one of the vessels in the Fleet and with the aftermath - emotional, psychological and also practical - of this event, seen through the eyes of a number of characters: Isabel is one of the Archivists, people tasked with recording the history of the Fleet, as well as presiding over the births, and the deaths, of its members; in the latter case, Eyas the Caretaker pays homage to their remains and their return (sort of) into the cycle of life; Tessa (the sister of Captain Ashby from book 1) works in the salvage department and has to deal with huge issues like her daughter’s trauma after the explosion, her father’s failing health and the need to move to a different job; and then there’s young Kip, who’s still trying to find his way and is not sure that his future will take place in the Fleet. The only non-Fleet character we follow in the novel is that of Sawyer, a descendant of former Exodans who choose a planet-bound life: he takes the inverse journey and comes aboard the Asteria - the ship on which most of the story takes place; his destiny will cross that of a few of the people mentioned above, influencing their outlook and their choices for the future.There are many themes I enjoyed in the novel, not least the one about a space-faring society that forsook a ground-based life to forge its existence in the depths of space, with all the interesting social modifications that such a life implies: there is a similarity here to one of my favorite SF tropes, that of generation ships forging the unknown, and even though the Exodans have established their society in the proximity of a sun they were allotted by the Galactic Commons, their way of life is not so different from that depicted in generation arks traveling in search of a new planet to colonize. The sense of community is the strongest element at play here, together with that of legacies passed from one generation to the next: one of the most fascinating details comes from the descriptions of the quarters allotted to the various families and of the way each group of dwellers left the imprint of their hands on a wall, as a mark of their passage and as an encouragement to those that came after to improve and build on that ground. Exodans left their home with the keen awareness of having mortally wounded their home planet, and with the burning desire to avoid such mistakes in the future: keeping score of their progress toward a better society, a better breed of people, is indeed a way to try and avoid those mistakes - as Isabel says, we tend to be:[…] a longstanding species with a very short memory. If we don’t keep records, we’ll make the same mistakes over and over.It’s not surprising, then, that a similar focus on trying to create what sounds like an utopia, and a sort of insistence on traditions, might feel suffocating for younger generations, here represented by young Kip who struggles between the love for his family and his desire to look beyond the metal walls of a ship, no matter how comfortable or secure that existence might be. So it’s interesting that he ends up being profoundly touched by the inverse journey taken by Sawyer (who does not seem much older than he is) when he chooses to join the Fleet and finds himself on a very unexpected path. (I apologize if this sounds a little cryptic, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers…)Given all these intriguing premises, it came as a surprise that I was not as invested in this story and these characters as I hoped: while I enjoyed the book overall (by now I know that Becky Chambers’ novels will always play well with me), I felt as if something was missing, and I’m still struggling to understand what it was. My involvement always remained on the surface, and while interested in what was happening to these people, I could not form any emotional ties with them, even in the direst of situations. Probably the contrast with the more adventurous bent from the first book, or with the deep personal journeys of the second, led me to believe that I would be able to get the same level of in-depth perception here, but the chronicle form of the narrative seemed to prevent that - even though the title itself should have represented something of a warning…Still, Record of Spaceborn Few turned out to be a pleasant read, and my hope is that with the next issues in this series I will be able to recapture the sense of wonder and the character involvement that I experienced in the previous books.
    • 5/5
      Series Info/Source: This is the third book in the Wayfarers series. I bought a copy of this as an ebook for my Kindle.Thoughts: This book was fairly wandering plot-wise compared to the previous two books. However, I ended up completely drawn into this world and loved learning about these characters.This book alternates between a number of different POVs. All of the characters we read about are somehow tied into the Exodus Fleet, the original human fleet that left Earth. Humans still live in the spacefaring Exodus Fleet and there has been a horrible tragedy that is affecting them all. We join the story after the tragedy and get to see how it affects these different characters and their lives.This is a very character driven book. The plot here is thin; there is a slight mystery about the death of one character but aside from that this is a more day to day life type of story. This book looks at these individual characters' lives and we get to watch as they weave in and out of each other. This is a fascinating world and a fascinating way of life. All of the characters we spend time with are completely engaging and utterly intriguing. As you can tell this is more of a space opera than some action-packed sci-fi thriller. There are heavy themes around the importance of tradition but also around the acceptance of growth and change. Throughout we see the very traditional Exodans being forced to (and willing to) accept alien technology and changes in life. There are ebbs and flows in people's lives that people need to learn to accept and move forward with. We watch young people embrace both new ways of life and learn the importance of history. We watch older Exodans decide it's time to embrace a new way of life and leave the fleet. It is all very thought-provoking and at times emotional, but still contains a lot of humor and wit and stays intriguing.My Summary (5/5): Overall I loved this. It was completely not what I was expecting it to be but I was completely drawn into this world and loved being a part of these characters' lives. Chambers continues to surprise me with her creativity, thoughtfulness, and great insight into what it means to be sentient and human (or not human). I am eager to read the final book in this series and incredibly eager to see what Chambers comes up with next.
    • 5/5
      This one was back to full form for me - I absolutely devoured the third volume in this wonderful series. Great tales, interesting new characters and more backstory about the world as it is.
    • 5/5
      This ended up being my favorite of the four because of it was about a somewhat closed society with values I share, and growth and change within it. There’s almost no adventure compared to the first 2, nor is the story propelled by revealing characters’ secrets like the 4th. It’s the slowest, and I imagine I may be in the minority in loving it best.
    • 5/5
      Like her other books, the appeal of the series is based in a speculative fiction ideal of a world where humanity does better, where we fundamentally change our behavior in response to our past as a species. The detail of imagination that goes into the Exodus fleet, into the characters and their stories is astonishing and absorbing. Not a fast paced book, not high adventure, but a really incredibly well done story of mundane life in a totally different kind of world. Comforting, fascinating, an anthropologist's view of space based civilization.
    • 4/5
      Record of a Spaceborn Few tells the story of a fleet of colony ships escaping ecological disaster on Earth, but long after humanity has made friendly contact with aliens and been incorporated into galactic society. The humans aboard this Exodus Fleet cling to the traditions of their fleeing ancestors in a time when one could question why this fleet even still exists. The book reads a little like an anthropological documentary (one part actually features an alien anthropologist), moving between five residents of the fleet and giving the reader a sense of what their lives are like. While the characters' stories do minimally intersect later in the book, each story is intended more to give a feel of a different aspect of fleet life. While I did enjoy this book, it was not as strong as the author's previous books in the series.
    • 5/5
      This one took longer to really grab me, but I loved it by the end.
    • 3/5
      This was very different from the first 2 books in the series which I thought were primarily focused on character. This book has many characters and is told through 5 different characters POV. I found it much harder to get into as each characters section is very short in general then you cycle through 3 or 4 other characters before returning to the 1st character you are following. While I might not like that part of the book for character it does make it easier to understand the society as a whole that is depicted.
      I'm pretty sure I'll rate this higher after a reread, which I'll be doing sometime in the near future.
    • 5/5
      The first two books in this series were heavily character-driven, but still had some plot. This one has even less plot, which totally works for me but I know that's not for everyone. This is a deep dive into a slice-of-life narrative about 5 POV characters (and a few dispatches from an alien academic visitor) in the Human Exodan Fleet, whose lives don't really intersect much until the last quarter or so of the story. I really enjoyed this look at Fleet life and culture, and finding your place, and the tangledness that comes from cultures intermingling. (And of course I love that one of the POV characters is a space archivist!)
    • 3/5
      This one was a bit of a disappointment, especially after enjoying the first two books . It has been a couple of weeks since I finished the book and now that I have time to write my review, I am struggling to remember the details of the story. I should have expected this since I had trouble keeping up with the various POVs. Maybe I will go back and some point and reread this one, if only to try to sort out the plot. One bright point of note is the theme of finding your place and belonging. I did enjoy that very much. Even though this was not a favorite, I am still a fan of the author and consider her books an auto buy for me.
    • 5/5
      It took me forever to finish this...not because I didn't like it, but I happened to start it right as I embarked on a big-decision cross-country move. My attention was necessarily thwarted; my energy often sapped; and, consequently, the constantly rotating POVs resulted in my having a difficult time following the action until I was able to really just sit down with this book. This is not a criticism--I like that style, and I like how it worked with this novel, but I did find myself frequently flipping back to figure out which story belonged to which person before it sank in (which may have, admittedly, taken longer than the average reader because of life circumstances). I am glad that this read did coincide with my move, though--I cleared my schedule yesterday to just sit in my new place and knock out the second half of this book, and so much of it resonated with what I have and am experiencing with this first big move of my life. The notions of community, tradition, being in one place for a long part of your life and uprooting it, the concept of finding meaning in work and the various extents to which that can factor into your life...it all hit me in fairly significant ways. I also love the Easter Egg of the "Part" titles. :) How beautiful. I remain steadfastly in Camp Becky Chambers.
    • 4/5
      Another great Becky Chambers that I found hard to put down. Sweet and gentle (even the murder isn't much of a murder), the book reflects on leaving and staying, the need to change and the need to know our roots. I did feel it divided a bit into older, wise, women and younger, foolish, boys, and the foolish boys were so very foolish, but it's not a big criticism.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars.

      Becky Chamber's style of slice of life was a much better read in the cozy confines of a small spaceship than across the sprawling expanse of an interstellar fleet. While some of the individual stories were excellent, I did not feel that intimate interconnectedness of A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
    • 5/5
      Wow
      I loved this book.   It follows the lives of five people who all live in space aboard the fleet, the crafts built to carry the remaining humans away from their dying planet.  This character-driven and a fairly plotless book is charming and warm nonetheless. 
    • 4/5
      Liked it, but I didn't love it like the others in this 'verse
    • 4/5
      My favorite of these books is the second one, but Chambers really has something with this series. Each story is about some big concept woven through the stories of several characters that happen to be connected to characters from the other books. This one was about home, home culture, and diaspora.
    • 3/5
      I've bounced pretty hard off the Wayfarers books in the past, and am pretty happy to report that I found this one...perfectly fine! Chambers works better for me the less plot is happening—and this one contents itself to mostly being slice-of-life, just on a generation starship dealing with its quasi-irrelevance in a larger and mostly peaceful galactic community. There's still a few cringey science bits, but they're not central.