To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

National Bestseller!

A Hugo and Locus Award Nominee!

"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 Wayfarers 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 of space exploration 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 exoplanet survey mission, in the hope that someone back home might still be listening.

Becky Chambers is a Northern California-based science fiction novelist. Her Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series is her most well-known work. In addition, her books have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Among these are the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Becky has a background in the arts and comes from a family with a strong interest in space science.

She enjoys playing video and tabletop games, keeping bees, and staring through her telescope in her spare time. She's returned to her native state, where she lives with her wife, after a trip across the world. One day, she wishes to see Earth from space.