As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers
if read in a different language, put English here – or alternatively put original if a translation
22nd October 2026 | Science Fiction | USA | 480 pages
Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For Signy (botanist with a secret medicine-printing service) and Cora (rorqual pilot suffering from mindbleed), this home might no longer be enough. Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful.
I received an advanced copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. (But when I tell you I squealed when I got the approval email…)
Becky Chambers is one of my favourite authors, and happily this book did not disappoint. I was in love with the characters and I was in love with their love for each other. I screenshotted recipes (even if I’ll probably never actually make them), found biology interesting for the first time in years, and I absolutely need more rorqual in my life. The ending just has me hoping that book 2 comes my way sooner rather than later.
I even cried at the death of a side character – that very rarely happens in book 1 of a series, but I was invested.
I will admit that I’m very weak for worldbuilding involving some kind of different brain wiring/way of experiencing the world or connections with other people/creatures. This is partially what I enjoyed so much about Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture series, and it’s part of what I loved so much about the relationship between Cora and her rorqual (read: alien animal they use for quarrying ice between moon and planet – piloting these animals requires a mental bond that allows them to experience the totality of each other’s thoughts).
My one slight criticism would be that it can be slightly hard to follow at times as the timelines get more and more mixed as the story progresses and some of the dialogue is missing dialogue tags. However, although it took some getting used to, I found that it really added to the overall vibe of the story and I really enjoyed it. Dual timelines are often a big turnoff for me (I struggle to be invested in them both at the same time), but in this case it worked really well: I was curious enough about both stories that I was never waiting to get back to the time period I enjoyed more. I do think that reading this as a physical, fully-formatted copy would also lower some of the friction I felt in regards to figuring out what was happening when, so I imagine this will be even less of an issue for readers of the final book!
One thing I always like to do when reviewing a book is look at the criticisms of people giving the book around 3 stars – people who liked it, but didn’t love it. This helps me think critically about my own opinions and sometimes it can help me figure out what kind of people might like a book. Some reviewers have been saying that they wanted more sci-fi out of this and that it read more as a literary romance set in a sci-fi world than true sci-fi.
I don’t completely disagree, although that obviously didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book. In fact, I would say that that assessment is true of many Becky Chambers books, with her Wayfarers series being perhaps the most firmly sci-fi and also the most popular – even though for me, it’s actually my least favourite (around 4 stars, as opposed to 4.5-5 stars, so I still really like it). That being said, because of a lot of the worldbuilding is not the centre but just background for our characters’ lives, you do have to be comfortable with some inference, so I’m not sure I would recommend it for total sci-fi beginners either.
My verdict: You have a high chance of loving this book if you enjoyed To Be Taught, If Fortunate or the Monk and Robot duology, and a pretty high change if you prefer the Wayfarers series. Do just be aware that the vibes are less space exploration and more an exploration of everyday life – I’m a big believer in having the right expectations means enjoying the book more.
That also makes this my official first 5 star book of the year! I’ve had a couple 4.5 but we’ve hit 5 for the first time. To Be Taught, If Fortunate was one of my three 5 stars last year as well. My only concern is that if I don’t get a review copy of the next book it’s going to be even longer until I get to know what happens next. No regrets though.
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Are you looking forward to this release? Please scream with me in the comments (and then come back when you’ve read it so we can gush together).
Keira x
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