A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Sally Strange reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Solarpunk tale of self-discovery and grappling with one's history

5 stars

A compelling yet soothing tale about a non-binary monk having a midlife crisis.

Topics: finding purpose in life, wilderness, the nature of consciousness, and more.

No violence, no struggle apart from that of a person against the pressures of exertion and survival outside of human civilization, and yet it is a page-turner.

It gets the "solarpunk" label because the setting is a human society which fits the bill: non-capitalist, low-impact technology. Main transport method: "ox-bikes," apparently the author's neologism to refer to electronically assisted bicycles that pull carts around. Personal computers are computers that last a person's entire life. Half of the available land is set aside for wilderness. Etc.

100% recommend. It would probably be a good introduction to science fiction for someone who's not familiar with the genre as it exists in the 21st century.

steampunkLemur reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A breath of fresh air, the wild-built could be us

5 stars

Content warning Spoilers

The prose is powerful. The attention to detail, opens up our imaginations towards the possibilities of a solarpunk world. High tech only when needed. We're not the center of the cosmos.

This is the kind of science fiction that makes me hopeful. Makes me sad as well. Sad that I will not live to see this world, but it could have been different, if history were to take a different course.

I wish the book was longer. I want to become a tea monk. I want to be a robot that stares at stalagmites for 30 years in a row.

There's a sequel, I know. But I wish there were a thousand sequels.

steampunkLemur reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A breath of fresh air, the wild-built could be us

5 stars

Content warning Spoilers

The prose is powerful. The attention to detail, opens up our imaginations towards the possibilities of a solarpunk world. High tech only when needed. We're not the center of the cosmos.

This is the kind of science fiction that makes me hopeful. Makes me sad as well. Sad that I will not live to see this world, but it could have been different, if history were to take a different course.

I wish the book was longer. I want to become a tea monk. I want to be a robot that stares at stalagmites for 30 years in a row.

There's a sequel, I know. But I wish there were a thousand sequels.

Tindra reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Cozy

5 stars

This hit my radar when I asked for some relatively cozy reading. And did this ever deliver! It's not a full novel, audiobook only about 4 hours, but it's a wonderful possible future full of people who genuinely care about the world. It's really more of a character study than a story, but still left me really eager to see what the characters get up to next.

Bert Schal reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Mesmerizing

5 stars

I love Becky Chambers’ books. All of them. A Psalm for the Wild Built is slightly different, because it’s not set in the Wayfarer series. With subtle sci-fi story elements. And again with the focus on the protagonists.

It follows the tea monk Sibling Dex, refreshingly having they/them pronouns and their fortuitously met companion the intelligent robot Mosscap.

They are both on a journey, on the land and in their mind. So actually … they are wayfarers.

I particularly liked the last chapter. It captured the whole spirit of the book and has a meaningful message for me (and us) as readers.

I’m absolutely looking forward to reading the next part.

Tania reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Heart-warming utopian future

4 stars

Utopian futures are not usually my thing (dystopia any day), but this was thoughtfully crafted and heart-warmimg so I enjoyed it. The only thing that bothered me a little was the gender pronoun usage. The main character is referred to as "they" throughout, which of course is fine but a little distracting for me.

enne📚 reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

5 stars

Content warning minor spoilers

Having the #SFFBookClub pick this book for this month was a good excuse to read this book for the third time. My bias here is that I have deeply enjoyed everything I've read from Becky Chambers, so take from that what you will.

This is a slow-moving, character-focused novella that is more focused on existential questions and feelings than on plot. It's got some very funny moments, comfy world-building, and has incredibly endearing vibes. I love the idea of Allalae, god of small comforts so so much. (Also, yay non-binary protagonist, you love to see it.)

The short plot summary is that tea monk Sibling Dex struggles with finding satisfaction with their life and takes a jaunt off the beaten path to find it. On the way, they befriend inquisitive robot Mosscap who is trying to learn about how humans are doing and what they need. This novella is definitely the friends you make along the way. In a strict plot sense, the book ends the journey almost as it is getting started (setting up nicely for the next novella), but the emotional arc is amazingly crafted to deliver a gut punch.

In some ways, Sibling Dex feels like a stand-in for the reader themselves where Mosscap the robot as an outsider is positioned to be able to interrogate Dex about humanity itself and its self-perceptions. Mosscap's quest is to ask humans and find out "what they need", and ultimately this is the same question Dex struggles with themself. Dex feels like they need to get out of the city, or listen to crickets, or become a tea monk, or get away from their routine, or or or

I think it could be easy for this story to feel like it's about something very far from our world. Everybody's basic needs are taken care of. Capitalism seems to be in the past. The environment is being respected and rewilded. The autonomy of rebellious robot workers to stop working and fuck off is respected by all of humanity. All together it's a lovely and hopeful worldview that is hard to hold onto these days. But, the fact that Sibling Dex does not have any easy answers to pin their internal dissatisfaction on some obvious material lack makes their existential struggle and their worries about wasting their life that much more poignant.

I think I keep coming back to this book because it's an extremely hopeful view of the future that I want to hold onto, but also because the message is one I very personally need to keep hearing at this point in my life. It hasn't sunk in yet, but maybe on the next reread...

enne📚 reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

5 stars

Content warning minor spoilers

Having the #SFFBookClub pick this book for this month was a good excuse to read this book for the third time. My bias here is that I have deeply enjoyed everything I've read from Becky Chambers, so take from that what you will.

This is a slow-moving, character-focused novella that is more focused on existential questions and feelings than on plot. It's got some very funny moments, comfy world-building, and has incredibly endearing vibes. I love the idea of Allalae, god of small comforts so so much. (Also, yay non-binary protagonist, you love to see it.)

The short plot summary is that tea monk Sibling Dex struggles with finding satisfaction with their life and takes a jaunt off the beaten path to find it. On the way, they befriend inquisitive robot Mosscap who is trying to learn about how humans are doing and what they need. This novella is definitely the friends you make along the way. In a strict plot sense, the book ends the journey almost as it is getting started (setting up nicely for the next novella), but the emotional arc is amazingly crafted to deliver a gut punch.

In some ways, Sibling Dex feels like a stand-in for the reader themselves where Mosscap the robot as an outsider is positioned to be able to interrogate Dex about humanity itself and its self-perceptions. Mosscap's quest is to ask humans and find out "what they need", and ultimately this is the same question Dex struggles with themself. Dex feels like they need to get out of the city, or listen to crickets, or become a tea monk, or get away from their routine, or or or

I think it could be easy for this story to feel like it's about something very far from our world. Everybody's basic needs are taken care of. Capitalism seems to be in the past. The environment is being respected and rewilded. The autonomy of rebellious robot workers to stop working and fuck off is respected by all of humanity. All together it's a lovely and hopeful worldview that is hard to hold onto these days. But, the fact that Sibling Dex does not have any easy answers to pin their internal dissatisfaction on some obvious material lack makes their existential struggle and their worries about wasting their life that much more poignant.

I think I keep coming back to this book because it's an extremely hopeful view of the future that I want to hold onto, but also because the message is one I very personally need to keep hearing at this point in my life. It hasn't sunk in yet, but maybe on the next reread...

sifuCJC reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Great idea for a story

4 stars

Although the book has a little bit of exposition along the way, the idea is just too good. I'll read the next one too.

By the way, the idea is just like the series says: a monk and a robot.

peter reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Gentle, thoughtful, optimistic sci-fi

No rating

If I were able to write fiction, I think this is the kind of fiction I’d like to write. The first book in the Monk & Robot series is gentle and thoughtful, but manages to pick at some anxieties I’ve been having for a long time, about purpose and direction and satisfaction. There’s not much in the way of conflict, but plenty in the way of insight, and it’s short enough that I basically inhaled it.

Even more than the characters, I want to spend more time with the book’s religious system, which is revealed in small details but still largely mysterious by the end of the book. The best fictional religions have a way of concisely showing what’s important in a given world—which I guess real religions do, too, but those are so much more multilayered and convoluted from centuries of revision and interpretation that it takes real scholarship …

If I were able to write fiction, I think this is the kind of fiction I’d like to write. The first book in the Monk & Robot series is gentle and thoughtful, but manages to pick at some anxieties I’ve been having for a long time, about purpose and direction and satisfaction. There’s not much in the way of conflict, but plenty in the way of insight, and it’s short enough that I basically inhaled it.

Even more than the characters, I want to spend more time with the book’s religious system, which is revealed in small details but still largely mysterious by the end of the book. The best fictional religions have a way of concisely showing what’s important in a given world—which I guess real religions do, too, but those are so much more multilayered and convoluted from centuries of revision and interpretation that it takes real scholarship to that heart. A religion in a fiction is more concentrated by necessity, but still abstracted enough to have that feeling of mystical importance, a distilled philosophy dressed in metaphor. I’m hoping Chambers delves into it more in the sequel.

Rachel Unkefer reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Review of 'A Psalm for the Wild-Built' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I wanted to read this because I had heard about this genre of ‚Äúhope punk‚Äù or ‚Äúcozy punk,‚Äù and I was curious. As I expected, there was no real conflict, or any jeopardy or much in the way of stakes. But this is what the genre is about, giving a break from the catastrophe that is our current world, so on that count, I would give it a high score, but I prefer novels with more at stake and more conflict. But I can see how many who are very stressed in everyday life and stressed about the planet and technology might take comfort in this sort of a book (not that I‚Äôm not stressed about these things, but I guess I‚Äôm used to higher level of stress). I don‚Äôt expect to continue with the series, but who knows?

SpiderKitten reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Review of 'A Psalm for the Wild-Built' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I'm such a huge fan of all the Becky Chambers books. The author's work continues to amaze me with futuristic stories full of hope and diversity. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is no exception to that. The ideas I loved most in this story were humanity reacting with acceptance when the robots gained sentience far in the past. That humanity adapted to life without them. But also the idea that what those robots chose to do with their lives was to retreat to nature and study it, with excitement and curiosity. The idea that a robot created to work in industry would then turn around and spend decades just watching a tree grow for no other reason than because it was fascinating, is such a refreshing take. And of course, it's a lot more complex than all of that, but the story doesn't feel overly complicated. These are the kind …

I'm such a huge fan of all the Becky Chambers books. The author's work continues to amaze me with futuristic stories full of hope and diversity. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is no exception to that. The ideas I loved most in this story were humanity reacting with acceptance when the robots gained sentience far in the past. That humanity adapted to life without them. But also the idea that what those robots chose to do with their lives was to retreat to nature and study it, with excitement and curiosity. The idea that a robot created to work in industry would then turn around and spend decades just watching a tree grow for no other reason than because it was fascinating, is such a refreshing take. And of course, it's a lot more complex than all of that, but the story doesn't feel overly complicated. These are the kind of stories we need in this day and age.

Anuradha Reddy reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A wonderful cozy read!

4 stars

I read this book in one sitting from start to finish on Christmas day with hot tea and a blanket. It is precisely what I needed for some relaxation and escape. The book is about breaking patterns, dealing with boredom, trying new things, failing and grappling with what it means to be human - all told through the story between sibling dex, a tea monk and a funny robot named mosscap.

Michael P reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Review of 'A Psalm for the Wild-Built' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Cozy Buddhist Science Fantasy

Wild Woila reviewed A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

A perfect cup of #solarpunk tea

5 stars

Despite living in a utopia, a dissatisfied monk embarks upon a journey of self-discovery, illuminated by a charmingly inquisitive robot. Felt like a perfect cup of tea, served by a best friend with a warm embrace. This is #solarpunk.