Book Review:: A Psalm for the Wild-Built | Becky Chambers

What is it that drives us?
What is our purpose?
What happens when we actually achieve what we set out to do?

What comes next?

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Book Cover

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a unique experience of a book that I highly recommend. It is set in a futuristic world where robots in the long-past “Factory Age” became sentient, and an aspirational-level society decided to split the world territory in half and let them pursue their own desires. This is all in the past when we meet Sibling Dex, a genderless monk with a seed of discontent sprouting within themselves. They change their vocation from a garden monk to a tea monk who travels the land with an ox-cart listening to the troubles of others over a well-made cup of herbal tea. It suspends the growth of discontent for a while, but eventually it resumes its invasive presence, rooting down deep. Just when it becomes impossible to ignore, a chance meeting with one of the robots, who hadn’t been seen or heard from in generations, disrupts their plans and the two of them contemplate philosophy on the trip of a lifetime.

The languid prose of this novel (novella?) gives the impression of an idyllic future where humans have made decisions for generations on the basis of morality and impact rather than efficiency and greed. The culture contemporary to the characters seems to be mostly one of leisure and desire. Currency is exchanged for goods and services, but neither the shop keepers nor the consumers are in any hurry. There are still traditional jobs somewhere, but we aren’t shown any examples outside of some complaints of visitors to Sibling Dex’s tea-wagon. I’ve heard this book referred to as both cozy and as a ‘hug-in-a-book’. I would have to agree. Both the setting and the language used to describe it is almost meditative in its attention to detail.

Where the book really shines in on the philosophy. When you give yourself space in your day/routine/life to think, thought usually occurs. It is a lesson we could all take away from it.

Sibling Dex is both curious and reflective. They have ambition; not for the sake of it, but because they feel it is their work is their calling and hope that if they succeed, their feelings of inadequacy might dissolve. They wonder about the good of the world and of nature and of people (past and present), sometimes almost in a way that sounds as if was prescribed to them in their early education. They have opportunity to ponder some foundational topics surrounding personal actions, moralit, consciousness, existence in general, and the motivation behind decisions made by figures long lost to the sands of time. It is an incredibly thought-provoking book I think is valuable for any reader.

My one complaint is with some of the jarring language choices surrounding Sibling Dex. At one point they are referred to having ‘hooked up’ with someone. They occasionally curse and say things like ‘my mom would be pissed’. It felt out of place among such an otherwise lullaby style writing. Then again, perhaps that was the point; an occasional reminder that humans have some sharp edges, no matter how hard we try to smooth ourselves out.

Details

Title:: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1)
Author:: Becky Chambers
Genre:: Cozy Science-Fiction
Publisher:: Tordotcom
Length:: 151 pages
Audio Length:: 4h 8m
Audiobook Narrator:: Em Grosland
Audiobook Publisher:: Macmillan Audio
Published:: July 13th, 2021
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars