a psalm for the wild built by becky chambers

Much like Dex’s mobile tea shop, which is attached to a bicycle, the story doesn’t go fast. It was intriguing and easy to sink into, with a plot and pace that invited me to savor each scene.

This is a quiet, thoughtful, short and meditative book. Until Sibling Dex, struggling with many feelings, among them frustration and dissatisfaction, looks up from their campsite to meet Mosscap, a robot who walked out of the woods and asked, “What do you need?” Humans learned to get along without the robots, and they’ve become almost a legend. Humans asked them to stay, but the robots said no, thanks, and headed off into the wilderness. Hundreds of years prior, the robots humans had invented gained sentience, and wanted to leave and experience the world. In this world, set far into the future, humans exist on half of the planet, with the other half given over to wilderness. Sibling Dex has chosen a new path in life, and with the support of their community (literal support – the community builds Dex build a trailer and provides everything needed) they become a tea monk, a roving administer of tea and comfort. (Jul.TL DR: if you like science fiction, comforting tales about comfort and care, and stories that are the literary version of warm late afternoon sunshine slanted through leafy branches on a day with perfect temperatures when all the biting insects are on vacation, you’ll like this. Fans of gentle, smart, and hopeful science fiction will delight in this promising series starter. Their plans quickly go awry when they are approached by Mosscap, an inquisitive robot elected by its fellows to make first contact with humanity and find the answer to the question: what do humans need? Written with all of Chambers’ characteristic nuance and careful thought, this is a cozy, wholesome meditation on the nature of consciousness and its place in the natural world. Seeking solitude, they venture into the protected wilderness zone, where no human has set foot in centuries. When Sibling Dex, a tea monk, leaves The City, Panga’s only metropolis, to travel the countryside offering tea and a listening ear to anyone who needs it, they are forced to acknowledge a deep sense of dissatisfaction with their life. Hundreds of years ago, when the robots of Panga first gained sentience, they chose to retreat from human society rather than live in it as free citizens-and they haven’t been seen since. Hugo Award winner Chambers (the Wayfarers series) launches the Monk and Robot series with this contemplative, bite-size novel.

A psalm for the wild built by becky chambers