The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

The Wayfarer isn’t the most beautiful ship ever to roam the galaxy, but for Rosemary Harper, it’s now home. Rosemary isn’t a spacer—someone who lives primarily out in the open of the Galactic Commons—far from it. In fact, she’s never even left her home planet before. But open space does seem to be the ideal place to escape her troubled past, so she accepts a job aboard the Wayfarer. The ship has a truly motley crew, both human and alien, and life aboard tends toward the chaotic. When the captain decides to take a lucrative commission building a wormhole on the other side of the galaxy for a strange and largely unknown race, things get downright dangerous and Rosemary must learn to trust her crew mates in order to survive.

Though this is Becky Chambers’ debut novel, her writing is masterful and already feels classic. The galaxy she has created feels lived-in and true, thanks largely in part to the care with which she crafts the many species that people it. An absolute must-read for sci-fi aficionados and fans of series like Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Even readers who have never picked up a science fiction title before will appreciate Chambers’ quirky characters and careful world-building.