I think the first three books are all so amazing and they made me cry and I struggle to rank them they're all amazing in their own very different ways.
The fourth book was fun but definitely the weakest of the series and didn't feel like a very fitting end. I think it suffered from the same issues most 2020-Inspired works do of clearly pulling too obviously from the events of 2020 but then having an easy end to whatever emergency is standing in for COVID. So now in 2022 the story has immediately aged poorly as a quaint thin Quarantine story that ends with everyone just getting to put it all behind them and go back to normal, which simply isn't what has happened in real life. Maybe in ten years it'll be easier to feel something when reading some of the scenes that clearly are referencing experiences from 2020 that were held by people not classified as essential workers. The characters were likable but none as deeply compelling as the earlier books. It was fun and I enjoyed it but it didn't feel like a series finale. I think I'd say Wayfarers feels more like a trilogy that ends with Record of a Spaceborn Few and has a Bonus Book you can read for fun that isn't a part of the main trilogy.
Gosh though this series is good how is Becky Chambers so good at writing damn
They're marketed as standalone sequels that can be read in any order but that's definitely not true because the world building in later books assumes you already know details from the earlier books. So definitely read them in order. Definitely read them.
The Long Road to a Small Angry Planet is like reading the best season of Star Trek ever
A Closed and Common Orbit is like a laser targeted psychic attack to make neurodivergant queer people with found families cry
Record of a Spaceborn Few is such a beautiful exploration of community and how people value heritage and culture in their lives it will also make you cry especially if you are Jewish.
The Galaxy and the Ground Within is about the most adorable genderless noodle dog going through quarantine with all the species from the earlier books that haven't had a POV character yet and something something tolerance and hospitality
