To Be Taught If Fortunate (2019) by Becky Chambers opens with an undisclosed situation on a exo-planet in the 22nd century and then recounts the story so far. Told by engineer Ariadne, it details the mission of Lawki 6 to visit and research four very different astronomical bodies outside our solar system.

Anyone who has played No Man’s Sky will understand the joy of landing on a new planet and discovering its bizarre life forms and this novella features myriad creatures all waiting to be taxonomically arranged. Indeed this is partly the mission’s raison d’être, to catalogue over a few years’ study each the nature of these planets and send findings home. As such we get geology, meteorology, and other areas of empirical interest.

The science is clear and the narrator handholds (a conceit borne from not knowing the intelligence level of whomever receives Ariadne’s message; a boon to the layman reader) through what seem to hew close to real science, whether real or speculated. One fantasy element allows for a technique called ‘somaforming’, whereby the body is transformed for new planets rather than the planet terraformed. It’s a curious idea (eg thickening skin against radiation) which an afterword suggests has some theoretical interest.

What works within this novella is its sense of realism. When the crew of four lie in torpor between planetary objectives, their bodies still age (a little) but natural things like hair and nail growth continue and have an effect on people for whom, going to sleep was just the day before even though years have passed. Plus the variety of the planets keeps it interesting, despite being somewhat a repetitive series of arrive, document, depart.

People, as Ariadne says, are secondary to their mission. And they take a backseat here too as this is a paean to space exploration. It’s a shame there’s less conflict between the crew as the slices of waking life and their harmony makes for less interesting interactions. But such bickering would be microscopic to cosmic concerns and there’s enough intrigue between the crew and Earth command to keep that side interesting. The mystery of space should be enough to enjoy this work.