The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

This is a hard book for me to review and to rate because I really didn't enjoy it much, but I really appreciate (in the abstract) what the author is trying to do. I'm realy trying to meet it where it is. I've read interviews with her and I've read a little bit about "hopepunk" (which I know Chambers didn't coin or create, but is a label she accepts.) I really, really like the idea -in theory - of a kinder, gentler, more inclusive brand of science fiction. I just wish I didn't find this book to be so boring. I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up - I thought i was going to be a little more like The Expans novels, which also feature a ragtag crew doing a job in space and getting entangled in galactic politics. And that's kind of happens here, a litlte. But mostly, it's a lot of the non-human members of the crew explaining to the new human member of the crew how their species works, and there are a lot of descriptions of imaginary alient space food. It was a little like what i imagine a Gen Z's travel blog/Insta feed, if they lived 1000 years in the future. I was able to settle in after deciding to think of this book as more like watching Star Trek - the rhythm of the plot felt very episodic, with a discrete crisis (of varying levels of intensity, but mostly not dangerous) being introduced and then resolved (usualy through talking and kindness) before moving on to the next. It was fine, just not for me. I might have found it more interesting if the chracters themselves had had a little more "bite" to them. The author clearly worked hard to make them interesting, but everyone was just so GOOD. I think the author's desire for conflict-avoidance in the story meant that she shied away from giving any of the characters truly challenging pasts to overcome and when characters do anything "wrong" (which they always do for the most well-intentioned of reasons) they are quickly forgiven. It seemed to lower the stakes of the novel even more and presents the somewhat uncomfortable (at least to me) idea that only the unblemished or purest of heart deserve happy endings. I'm sure not how the author intended, bu it's how it read to me. But, at any rate, if you're in the mood for something like a sweet, unchallening space sitcom, this would be the book for you.