#9 A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, Rachel Dulude (Narrator)

This book follows directly after the first one but only 2 characters that had minor roles are now center stage. Pepper is a mechanic with a horrible background and the story of her childhood is told in flashbacks for the entire book. When you get to the end of the book you understand why you have heard all about her growing up with only an AI for company after escaping a factory using child labor. Lovey is an AI that was freshly booted up and is given the choice to move into an illegal host body. The body mimics a human, but she is having difficulty integrating use of it when she had so much more input previously. Lovey takes on a new name to fit in and become Sidra someone that was born in space. She learns about her kit and working on fixes to her software that doesn’t make sense as an independent AI. Pepper helps when she can, but her character growth is all told in flashbacks so not much new happens to her until the end of the story. I really liked this one as much as the previous one and I’m sure I’ll be reading the third book soonish.