Synopsis:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built:

Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.

Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers’ series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy:

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.

Becky Chambers’s new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

They’re going to need to ask it a lot.

Review:

I’d been meaning to pick up the Monk & Robot books by Becky Chambers for a while, and the start of the new year seemed to me to be a fitting moment for them. This dulogy, as I expected it would, combined some heavy topics with whimsy and gentleness to tell a wonderful little story.

Our two central characters are Sibling Dex, a human, and Mosscap, a robot. In their world, Panga, a long time before Sibling Dex was born, the robots used in manufacturing gained sentience and decided to leave human civilization and live free in the wilderness.
We start the tale with Sibling Dex realizing that they need something else from their life and so they set off from their home as a ‘tea monk’. Along their journey, they meet Mosscap – the first robot-human contact since that day the robots left. Mosscap asks, “What do you need…?”

And therein lies the main thread for this duology. What do we need? We gently explore questions such as life’s meaning, what someone’s purpose can be and we also touch on the impact of people on the natural environment. While these subjects can be heavy and difficult to think about, the way Chamber’s approaches them here is with hope.

I am sure many of us can relate to Sibling Dex when they question what they should be doing with their life. I certainly have spent a lot of time wondering if I am on the right path, are my efforts going to be wasted, etc, etc. This sweet tale tells us… it doesn’t matter. Having a singular purpose is not the be all and end all of life. To quote:

“…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.”

And I think that is a really important lesson to learn. It is okay not to know what you want to be doing. It is okay just to take the days as they come. And, a cup of tea really can be the answer to your problems.