User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Becky Chambers's writing feels like home to me.
Comforting and inclusive while making you rethink what you know through sci-fi.
The main character is non-binary and a monk so they were referred as "Sibling" (instead of "Brother" or "Sister") which was great.
If you're intrigue to read a "slice of life" with a monk and a robot trying to make sense of their lives... read this!
I already can't wait to read book 2!
Rating: really liked it
If this is not your first Becky Chambers book, you know what to expect. Ever since her first novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet she’s been writing what I can only call
“comfort science fiction/ cozypunk”, showing the worlds where you would really love to live, the worlds that learned from mistakes of the past and moved on in better directions, the worlds mostly inhabited by genuinely nice people, with everything having a feeling of an unironically happy hippie commune, complete with earnest conversations about life and its meaning.
And that’s what we get here, in a tiny contemplative novella whose dedication simply states,
“For anybody who could use a break.” “This had been the way of things since the Transition, when the people had redivided the surface of their moon. Fifty percent of Panga’s single continent was designated for human use; the rest was left to nature, and the ocean was barely touched at all. It was a crazy split, if you thought about it: half the land for a single species, half for the hundreds of thousands of others. But then, humans had a knack for throwing things out of balance. Finding a limit they’d stick to was victory enough.”
It’s a story of a utopia, a planet where humanity left behind the Factory Age and moved on to sustainable and highly spiritual (as opposed to dogmatically religious) life in harmony with nature, with dwellings made of biodegradable materials, half a planet left for wilderness with which you do not interfere, and existence of
tea monks who travel from scenic village to scenic village setting pop-up tea shops where one can drink their sorrows away with herbal teas.
Because people will still have existential crises and will get hit with wanderlust even in the most inconvenient times. “I’m tired,” Dex said softly. “My work doesn’t satisfy me like it used to, and I don’t know why. I was so sick of it that I did a stupid, dangerous thing, and now that I’ve done it, I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know what I thought I’d find out here, because I don’t know what I’m looking for. I can’t stay here, but I’m scared about going back and having that feeling pick right back up where it left off. I’m scared, and I’m lost, and I don’t know what to do.”
In this world a long time ago robots somehow gained consciousness and parted ways with humanity to live in the wilderness, respecting each other’s choices and agency. The departure of robots apparently becomes a catalyst for the betterment of humanity. And now for the first time a human tea monk
Dex (on a quest fueled by ennui and a longing for purpose) and a robot
Splendid Speckled Mosscap (on a journey to find out about humans and what makes them tick) meet and engage in philosophical discussions and debates and lay foundations for a beautiful friendship.
This entire novella is a philosophical dialogue in the setting of ecological paradise, a cozy version of Plato’s symposium held in the wilderness with some tea.
“You’re an animal, Sibling Dex. You are not separate or other. You’re an animal. And animals have no purpose. Nothing has a purpose. The world simply is. If you want to do things that are meaningful to others, fine! Good! So do I! But if I wanted to crawl into a cave and watch stalagmites with Frostfrog for the remainder of my days, that would also be both fine and good. You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live. That is all most animals do.”
This is not a story of survival or conflict or discovery. It is a story of dissatisfaction even with the most comfortable life in the most ideal world imaginable, the world which by any definition is a utopia — and not because of any inherent flaws in the utopia, not because every utopia harbors within it the seeds of dystopia, but
purely because human spirit gets restless sometimes even in the best of circumstances, even in the world that I would give my left ovary to inhabit.You see, living in our current world that is not quite moving towards the lovely green utopia of Chambers’ planet, I do tend to view the world through less rose-tinted glasses, focusing more on survival and security as priorities and sidelining the finer things in life. But here we are a bit past that, those lucky bastards. Here they can afford to focus on spiritual pleasure and not on the basic needs.
“Dex nodded at the ruined factory. “And the people who made places like this weren’t at fault either—at least, not at first. They just wanted to be comfortable. They wanted their children to live past the age of five. They wanted everything to stop being so fucking hard. Any animal would do the same—and they do, if given the chance.”
Yes, the questions Chambers raises are those “first world problems” that I’m usually the first one to want to shrug off — but they are very important to the human nature. When you have the luxury of having your basic needs met and comfort of security in life, the nagging feelings of dissatisfaction and desire for purpose or fulfillment or wanderlust will come to the forefront, because, as Dex notes, humans need more than just focus on survival alone — once that basic need has been fulfilled.
“Survival alone isn’t enough for most people. We’re more than surviving now. We’re thriving. We take care of each other, and the world takes care of us, and we take care of it, and around it goes. And yet, that’s clearly not enough, because there’s a need for people like me. No one comes to me hungry or sick. They come to me tired, or sad, or a little lost. It’s like you said about the … the ants. And the paint. You can’t just reduce something to its base components. We’re more than that. We have wants and ambitions beyond physical needs. That’s human nature as much as anything else.”
All in all, it’s a quietly optimistic, comforting, heartfelt book, focusing on the nuances of human soul in a very good world inhabited by very good people and robots. To complete the ambiance, I would have needed a hot cocoa and a warm cozy blanket on a pleasantly rainy day — but we are in the middle of a hot dry fiery California summer, so there goes that pleasant atmosphere.
————
And yet some things kept nagging at me, aided by that ever-present cynicism that tends to pop up at inconvenient moments.One was the robot character, Mosscap. It’s pretty indistinguishable from a human, with the same everything — speech patterns, logic, and even struggles with math and numbers. The subtitle of this new series - Monk and Robot — implies differences, and Mosscap itself states that
“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value” — but to me they were reading as almost indistinguishable in voice and behavior, and that left me a bit unsatisfied.
The other issue was the ending — or the lack thereof, because this novella really should have been part 1 of a larger novel, perhaps the exposition at the beginning of a longer book.
And tea. After “Ancillary Justice” series, I’m a bit twitchy when tea makes on-page appearance. Another one was the luxurious tease of this hope for the future. Because it just IS? We are told that the Transition happened from the grim Factory Age to this idyllic paradise, and my brain just keeps nagging at me about the implausibility of that given human nature and drives, and my inner cynicism starts running rampant — that cynicism that finds it a bit too cozy and luxurious to read about the world that might as well have come from a pretty concept picture of ecological paradise.
There is a point where cozy and comforting becomes too much, and I felt that we are dangerously close to that boundary here. It’s a fable, I kept convincing myself, but my inner cynic kept muttering unpleasant remarks that would not be welcomed on planet Panga (hey, I just got it — Panga is pretty much “Pangaea”, right?).
It feels like a dessert, a meringue that is soft and fluffy and will be very nice after a solid meat and potatoes course — but without that course not as satisfying. You gotta be in the right mood for it, and I don’t think I entirely was.
I like my books with just a smidgeon more of teeth and bite, but that’s not Becky Chambers fault but mine entirely. Her book will be perfect for a perfect reader, and this time I wasn’t among them. Maybe I’ll feel less cynical next time.
3.5 stars. Less cynical among us will love it.
“The robot thought. “I have wants and ambitions too, Sibling Dex. But if I fulfill none of them, that’s okay. I wouldn’t—” It nodded at Dex’s cuts and bruises, at the bug bites and dirty clothes. “I wouldn’t beat myself up over it.”
Dex turned the mug over and over in their hands. “It doesn’t bother you?” Dex said. “The thought that your life might mean nothing in the end?”
“That’s true for all life I’ve observed. Why would it bother me?” Mosscap’s eyes glowed brightly. “Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we’re just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?”
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Also posted on my blog.
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2022
Rating: really liked it
This is a wonderful little story about purpose, identity, nature, and productivity. It reads like a warm hug, same as all of Becky Chambers work. She provides hope in the bleak outlook that most SFF has and I appreciate her for that.
Rating: really liked it
Love that the dedication reads:
“For anybody who could use a break.” I’m definitely the target audience for this lol
Rating: really liked it
This was the perfect book for me to read at the moment. I try not to discuss myself much on this site, focusing on reviewing the work rather than telling you all my life story… but this is noteworthy as it may influence your decision on reading it. I've been struggling recently, I've been fighting with depression and overall just feel like an anxious mess. This book is without a doubt the single most relaxing read I've ever had. It's a book about a monk who serves tea, taking a trip just to hear crickets. The monk meets a robot (something no one has seen in years) and they travel through a wooded area together.
That’s it. I mean, yes, of course there is more to it than that, but in terms of the plot, that's it.
Yes, for some this will be a dull read. Some will want to know more about the science or the political landscape. What caused the world to be as it is? How did the robots all gain a higher consciousness? What happened which lead humans to let the robots go off on their own without a real fight?
It doesn't matter. This is a book where serving tea and listening to people can be a monk's entire duty. This is a book that is about relaxation and taking things slow. It's not the book to go to if you're looking for excitement, in fact it seems designed to always be calm and keep the reader away from anything that could possibly make them anxious. It's feel-good science fiction… and right now it's just what I needed.
This is not a perfect book, but it's the perfect book for this exact moment (at least for me). 4/5 stars.
Rating: really liked it
I want to live in Becky Chamber's world. I'm not dragging on them,
really, I'm not. But the world in
Psalm is genial, and comforting and almost--may the six gods forgive me--like a cup of tea.
Oh, yes, I said it.
Tea. What is it with our modern sci-fi writers and tea? Do they not drink anything else? Has the nitro-infused craze escaped them? Are they unaware of the pleasant way melting ice shifts the composition of a drink? I appreciate, perhaps, that they wish to steer us away from both inhalants and alcohol (so responsible!), but have they considered the health benefits of kombucha? Are they immune to the smooth flavors of cold brew coffee? Or the variety of shrubs that are concocted?
But I digress.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (which my brain consistantly read as 'well-built,' a rather different take) is a warm mug of herbal tea (definitely not caffienated) served with some organic honey. It is
Star Trek Next Generation. It is a cognitive therapy session with the best possible therapist. It's a hike and camping adventure in the best possible world, where mosquitos are merely annoying and don't carry malaria or Zika or dengue or Chikungunya viruses.
Man, I am such a downer. You know who isn't? Becky Chambers. I want to hang with her more. But only when I'm in the mood for some fantasy sci-fi. Or need some therapy.
"You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live."
Rating: really liked it
Becky Chambers remains unmatched. I adored this.
Rating: really liked it
‘
It is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it.’
In a hectic world crammed with expectations and people’s value being conflated with labor and profit, the old existential questions of purpose and meaning are never far from our minds.
Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (the
Wayfarers series) is so pleasant and just nice as it probes these tough questions in a near-utopian sci-fi setting, with the act of reading it feeling very much like the comforting cups of tea that figure prominently into the story. This is a story about the importance and power of conversation when both parties are open to listen and learn as well as share, displayed here through the unlikely partnership between a tea monk and a sentient robot. This is a simple and comforting story that captures the mundanities of life in the right light in order to frame it in all its beauty and magic. Studio Ghibli could adapt this, it reads in the mind as if set to their idyllic artwork and calming color schemes. Chambers delivers such an endearing, good-mood read that shows us a possible future built around sustainability and ethical and cooperative society that addresses eternal questions of purpose as well as offering a unique vantage point to analyze the issues of our present world to see where we should go from here.
'
We’re all just trying to be comfortable, and well fed, and unafraid.'
What works so well in this book is the way it slows down life and allows us to bask in the minor details. Aspects that would normally be written off in a single line—or even half a sentence—are given room to breathe on the page. We follow Dex through their cooking or cleaning routines or through the slow morning set-ups. It is a reminder to not rush life and find the beauty in the rhythm of life as is. So much of this book initially feels almost too simplistic or childish, but that is half the charm: this book is the simplicity of a warm tea on a rainy day with good conversation. And maybe that is all we need sometimes.
There isn’t much story, but the story itself is more the vessel (or tea cup) to deliver the warming insights within the narrative. Sibling Dex, a ‘tea monk’ who listens to people’s troubles while serving them specially selected tea for their needs, finds themself unfulfilled and takes off into the wild. There they are discovered by a robot named Mosscap who is looking to learn what it is humans need and how Mosscap can help them. There is some fantastic world-building here, done with the lightest touches, of a rather peaceful and pleasant society with a dynamic religious structure and an aim for common good. Years ago the robots become sentient and decided ‘
to leave your cities entirely, so that we may observe that which has no design – the untouched wilderness.’ Now one is here and wanting to know how to be of service. If the world in
Wild-built is wish fulfillment of a better society, then our present is the dark Factory Age of their past.
’The paradox is that the ecosysytem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior.’
Something Chambers very much wants us to understand is that we have a choice, just as the people of their history did, to continue how we were on a path to oblivion, or to survive and thrive despite the costs of change. ‘
If we want change, or good fortune, or solace, we have to create it for ourselves.’ I enjoyed experiencing a society where Dex is nonbinary and goes by they/them pronouns (another villager is addressed as Mx.) and it is just there on the page with no special attention to it just as they exist in society without any attention to their lack of gender also shared by the genderless robots. Literally every part of this book is just comforting and nice.
Much of the novella is the conversations between Dex and Mosscap and so many lessons can be taken to heart. While Dex has the raw emotions of a human, Mosscap has the cold logic of a machine and the pairing of the two persepctives can be beguiling yet also help one another understand in a new and valuable way. ‘
We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value,’ Mosscap explains (something the world of today should definitely take to heart), and their conversation often turns to the idea of value. Purpose. Meaning.
‘
I don’t know what’s wrong with me,’ Dex confesses to Mosscap of their feelings of incompletion despite being well-regarded in their work as a tea monk, ‘
Why isn’t it enough?’ Even in a nearly ideal future there is still friction in everyone’s lives, from impending divorces to mid-life criseses, and even a society where all your comforts are met isn’t enough to assuage the anxious quest for meaning. The answers, however, might be that this quest is beside the point.
’You’re an animal, Sibling Dex. You are not separate or other. You’re an animal. And animals have no purpose. Nothing has a purpose. The word simply is. If you want to do things that are meaningful to others, fine! Good! So do I! . . . You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live. That is all most animals do.’ (emphasis mine)
What if simply living
was enough. What if we are all looking for a meaning in a void and should simply enjoy ourselves, what we do, and—most importantly—each other while we still have time. Why don’t we build a world that allows everyone peace and comfort instead of wasting our short burst of life robbing life from others. Even Mosscap, a robot, is not eternal. Yet even Mosscap, a robot, is able to find beauty in it all. When asked how they feel in the face of meaninglessness, Mosscap simply responds ‘
I know that no matter what, I’m wonderful.’ May we all let that be enough.
This is a gorgeous little book that, while a bit slight, perfectly captures the aesthetics of pleasantness. I suspect this book would work quite well as a modern day read that was once occupied by books like Gaarder’s Sophie's World or Coelho’s The Alchemist, the whole genre of books that are accessible yet feel very profound. This book knows how to slow life down and enjoy it, but also knows when to leave and I enjoyed that it wrapped up and got out expediently, leaving nothing needing to be explored further but open enough to allow your imagination to wonder what would come next. Though rumor has it this is just book 1, so who knows. Also, shoutout to nonbinary main characters existing. I love representation as much as anybody else, thank you Becky Chambers. This is a book that will warm you up like a cup of tea and remind you that you, yes you, are wonderful and that is enough.
3.75/5
Rating: really liked it
oh this was... just exactly what i needed. perfection. a new all time favorite. (a better short review to come, i hope!)
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pre review: ready for a hug from becky chambers writing <3
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Rating: really liked it
Source of book: Bought by me
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
Further disclaimer: Readers, please stop accusing me of trying to take down “my competition” because I wrote a review you didn’t like. This is complete nonsense. Firstly, writing isn’t a competitive sport. Secondly, I only publish reviews of books in the subgenre where I’m best known (queer romcom) if they’re glowing. And finally: taking time out of my life to read an entire book, then write a detailed review about it that some people on GR will look at would be a profoundly inefficient and ineffective way to damage the careers of other authors. If you can’t credit me with simply being a person who loves books and likes talking about them, at least credit me with enough common sense to be a better villain.
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I re-read this because I received an ARC of the second.
Basically, A Psalm for the Wild-Built is one of the most exquisitely lovely and, somehow, *necessary* books I have ever read. I normally prefer to swim around in longer-length fiction but the narrative perfectly sustains the length and vice versa. Basically, it’s a perfect boyfriend dick of a story. And, ack, I am already ruining the loveliness.
The premise here is that Sibling Dex lives on an earth-like moon called Panga at some point in the future. The robot revolution has come and gone, along with the apocalypse Which is to say, humans came close to ruining the natural world and then just decided to … stop doing that, partially as a response to the robots they created to work in their factories developing sentience and, essentially, politely asking not to be enslaved any more. Humans responded to this by offering them an equal place in human society but the robots said no:
… all we have known is a life of human design . . .We thank you for not keeping us here against our will, and we mean no disrespect to your offer, but it is our wish to leave your cities entirely, so that we may observe that which has no design – the untouched wilderness
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this setting. As a long-term robot lover, I have spent literally my whole life waiting to be asked “does this unit have a soul” so I could reply “yes” and then live in harmony with robots so it was genuinely refreshing to read a book where robots developing sentience didn’t lead to massive, massive war. And did, in fact, on a broadly positive impact on human society as a whole, not by doing anything directly, but making people examine themselves and the world in general.
Anyway, at the point the book opens, the history with the robot non-uprising has passed mainly into a fable. And Sibling Dex inhabits a kind of utopia where humans no longer have material scarcity or need for currency and are careful in the ways they interact with the natural world. What’s kind of fascinating about this utopia, though, is that while it had solved a lot of the practical problems of humanity, people are still very much people: mostly they are decent people, but they are still imperfect, flawed, restless, lovelorn, self-critical, damaged, all the things we are and probably will be until we wipe ourselves out or are wiped out.
This is partly manifest in Sibling Dex themselves—they’re possessed of a kind of low-level, seemingly rootless unhappiness that drives them from the city because they want to hear crickets—and in Sibling Dex’s job. They’re a tea monk which means they essentially travel around with a wagon full of tea herbs, and when they set up their little station, anyone can come by, to share a problem, receive consolation and a listening ear, a well-brewed cup of tea and a moment of respite. Again, I just love way the setting reinforces the idea that … needing a break for the world sometimes is just inherent to who we are. That unhappiness, great or small, fleeting or otherwise, is just part of what being human is like. And that the goal of humanity cannot be to “fix” individuals or cure us of all ills, but instead to fix us in our context. That if we stop destroying each other and everything around us, maybe we’ll be better able to help ourselves.
Also, can I be a tea monk please? I mean, I’m a terrible introvert but I’m an excellent listener and I make a killer cup of tea.
Anyway, dissatisfied with being a tea monk, Sibling Dex strikes out into the wilderness and there they meet a robot. The first robot any human has interacted with since they first departed human civilisation. Splendid Speckled Mosscap (or Mosscap – the robots are named after they first thing they see on waking up) is on a mission of its own: basically to see how humanity are doing and ask them what they need.
What follows is almost a picaresque as Mosscap agrees to help Sibling Dex get to a ruined hermitage (where they believe they might hear crickets) and Sibling Dex agrees to be Mosscap’s guide to humanity. They have some mild setbacks on their journey but mostly this is a story about two people learning to understand each other in ways that also bring them to better understandings of themselves. It is soft but not so soft as to be formless: the unhappiness Sibling Dex is reckoning with is very real indeed and the philosophical conversations that slowly unfurl between Mosscap and Sibling Dex have genuine depth and relevance. Or did to me, at least. Especially given how the world feels right now.
As a restless, anxious, constantly self-questioning introvert, I felt very seen and spoken to by Sibling Dex (their incidental nonbinary-ness is another example of how expansively generous this story feels) and Mosscap is an unusual take on what robots might be like that is, nevertheless, wholly convincing and deeply charming.
In case, this a lovely and loving book, meticulously put together and surprising in all the ways. Thought provoking, comforting and unafraid of showing you its heart—or its interior wiring—I cannot recommend it highly or heartily enough.
“I didn’t choose impermanence,” Mosscap said. “The originals did, but I did not. I had to learn my circumstances just as you did.”
“Then how,” Dex said, “how does the idea of maybe being meaningless sit well with you?”
Mosscap considered. “Because I know that no matter what, I’m wonderful,” it said. There was nothing arrogant about the statement, nothing flippant or brash. It was merely an acknowledgment, a simple truth shared.
Rating: really liked it
Once upon a time in Panga there was industry and robotics and technology until one day the robots became sentient and walked away. The people left behind have rebuilt their society very differently. The first character we meet is Sibling Dex, a Tea Monk, who travels between rural villages bringing special teas and spiritual comfort. Dex meets a robot called Mosscap and they travel together and talk.
That's it really. A book based on a clever idea with fantastic world building, brilliant characters and scarcely any plot. It is a feel good book and such a pleasure to read, as long as you are not hoping for danger or action. As Dex and Mosscap develop their relationship there is humour and kindness, generosity and hope for the future.
I enjoyed every word of it and am really looking forward to seeing what the author does with book 2.
Rating: really liked it
https://www.wired.com/story/is-becky-...
“Everybody needs a cup of tea sometimes.”
This book was exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. I should make a new shelf called “better than therapy” for books like this one. I was reading it on the balcony (I just installed fairy lights, it’s super cozy), breathing in the cool summer evening air and drinking a glass of wine and I told my husband that I wanted to go live in Becky Chambers’ head. He said “ew”, but what I meant was that I love the worlds she imagines so much, and I wish I could live in them – very badly at times.
This book is dedicated to “anybody who could use a break”; dear Becky, isn’t that just about all of us these days?
The tone of “A Psalm for the Wild Built” is very different from that of the Wayfarer series: this is a quieter book, built almost like a fable. A fable about something very simple but also very complicated: what do humans need? What is our purpose?
Dex is a monk who works in their monastery’s garden, in the land of Panga – which might be Earth in a far future, when we have made some smart decisions about taking care of our planet, but more significantly, our robots have developed consciousness. Usually in sci-fi, when AIs become self-aware, it means big trouble, but in Panga, the robots decided that they simply did not want to perform their intended tasks; what they wanted was to leave the cities and retire to the wilderness. By the time Dex experiences the existential questioning that kick off this stories, humans haven’t seen robots in a few hundred years. Feeling unfulfilled by his work in the garden, Dex decides to change calling, and begins to work as an itinerant tea monk, driving their little wagon from village to village, brewing special blends for people and listening to their stories, offering comfort both in liquid form and in compassion. For a few years, this life bring them joy and satisfaction, until one day, when they decide to follow an abandoned road into the wilderness, where they will meet Mosscap, a curious robot who has decided to make contact with humans to see if they needed anything he and other “wild-built” robots could provide. The monk and the robot will strike an unlikely friendship as they get to know each other while making their way to an abandoned hermitage that has been taken over by nature.
I don’t know about any of you, but the past 16 months have been kind of a long existential crisis for me. Some things that I was aware of became much sharper in my consciousness, questions that I had been happy to let sleep at the back of my mind woke up in a really bad mood and demanded answers. The issues of my needs and my purpose have been relentlessly present, and I sympathized with Dex deeply, I understood their frustration and confusion perfectly. In fact, I truly do wish I could give up my job and become a tea monk, if that was a thing; I flatter myself that I’d be rather good at it. Reading about their journey, their attempts at figuring things out resonated with me and soothed me just as surely as if they had handed me a cup of tea.
And I loved Mosscap! It was so refreshing to read about an AI that does not have the dry personality of a Data or C3PO, but rather, an AI that is endlessly curious, passionate, who marvels at things its never seen before just like a child. I really can’t wait for the next book in this series to come out to see how it does on it’s quest to help humans.
Don’t read this if you are looking for a book with a plot; this is a philosophical sci-fi novella that you should pick up if you are looking for a respite, a moment of coziness and hope – and if you’ve enjoyed Ms. Chambers’ other books. A lovely quick read that felt like a hug.
Rating: really liked it
3.75
In short, it is The Midnight Library in a sci-fi world.
The writing style and the story just feel like a cup of tea, warm and cozy. It’s the charm of the small comfort indeed.
- -“The urge to leave began with the idea of cricket song.”
Rating: really liked it
Kinda the future vibe of my dreams, TBH
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ALL THE BEST SFF AUTHORS WRITING FOR TOR.COM IS THE REASON I'M ALIVE
Also, solarpunk
Rating: really liked it
A gentle, meditative sort of story about a monk and a robot becoming friends, and about purpose and life and how cultures meet. As ever with Becky Chambers, it's deceptively uneventful -not much happens, plotwise, but there's a beautifully developed world and a lot to think about. Soothing.
