The Long Way... To a Common Orbit flash group discussion

The art district had every bit as much noise and detail as the others, but it was less crowded, at least. In the other districts, everything was always being pushed and sought in an important rush, as if your credits might not be good enough if you didn’t buy something now. But here, where the items for sale were anything but practical, both merchants and patrons seemed to have all the time in the world. Sidra could see little barrier between culture or medium. Everything was crammed in together – wooden Laru sculptures, Harmagian rock carvings, fusion artists mixing traditions with abandon, body artists offering to alter flesh and scale and shell. The shops reflected the same mix. On one end of the spectrum, there were pristine galleries with clean walls and echoing ceilings; on the other, you had people selling prints and figures from behind portable tables, or sometimes straight off the ground.

A few thoughts about the last handful of sections:

- The argument with Pepper and the question of memory: the scene with the argument just tickled me, maybe because Sidra spent the entire thing "as a camera," presumably standing on a piece of furniture. In other sections, her behavior has been childlike, curious and innocent. Here she is being childish, acting out against something she doesn't like! The difference between the chemical processes of a human brain reconfiguring themselves for more memories, vs. an AI that has a limited amount of memory space, was interesting, and I think the level of detail was just right, not too hard-SF.

- Sidra feeling a kind of kinship with a non-intelligent travel AI: very cute, especially the part where she affectionately pats its "head."

- The scrap heaps outside the sorting building in Jane's sections inevitably bring Wall-E to mind for me. The setting definitely has a post-apocalyptic, survivalist vibe.

- "...maybe you're a misfit, too. Doesn't mean you're not deserving. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be here. Lovey's gone, and that's horribly sad. You're here, and that's wonderful." Aw. ♥ I don't think we'd heard anything about Blue's background previous to this, aside from his being from a similar background as Pepper--(view spoiler)[and maybe a clone? (hide spoiler)]--and we get another tiny corner of it here. I'm hoping to see more!

Beth - great point about Blue! That's a weakness of the book for me, he's not as fleshed out/real a character as he could've been (and as Chambers did so ably in Long Way with some of the secondary characters).

Athena wrote: "Beth - great point about Blue! That's a weakness of the book for me, he's not as fleshed out/real a character as he could've been (and as Chambers did so ably in Long Way with some of the secondary..."

That IS a great point. He's less fleshed out that even Tak which (now that you mention it, is a bit odd for this series).