“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” by Becky Chambers

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Rating: 3/5 Stars

An interesting, character driven story that starts with a monk that is dissatisfied with the way their (singular they) life is and goes on a voyage of exploration as a tea monk, serving various kinds of teas they has selected to people who just need to unwind.

But even this proves not to be enough to quell the unease in the monk, and they go on a journey to visit an abandoned place in what would be the wild part of the moon the monk inhabits. On the journey, they would encounter the first sentient robot (the robots left for the wild woods after gaining sentience) to be seen by man for many years, who is also on a journey to find out what people need.

In their journey together, they would converse on the nature of man and robot, their desires and curiosity about each other and the world around them. By the end, the monk may, perhaps, have found what they want. But their journey to find out what other people want may be just beginning.

Not much is actually revealed about the world they inhabit (how it came about, etc.), but a quiet, gentle book about a person and a robot with differing points of view discussing the nature of how people might live and see the nature of their world.

An interesting change from the usual plot and science driven SF that I usually read.

Book read from 2022/08/17 to 2022/08/19