A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Becky Chambers is an unpredictable author, at least from my point of view. I like at least two of her books enough to reread them regularly. Another one, I found so tedious that I couldn't finish it.

This one is amiable and pleasant enough, but it's short (a novella) and rather aimless. Not a lot happens. It feels rather like reading the first half of an Arthur Ransome novel.

When I started it, I immediately found that the third-person protagonist, Sibling Dex, is very frequently referred to as ‘they', despite being apparently singular. I found this so distracting and irritating that I had to stop reading.

After a while, I decided that Dex is suffering from a personal peculiarity, a delusion of being plural. And I've been reading sf all my life, so I can cope with characters more peculiar than that, surely? OK, I managed to finish the story. I still found Dex's peculiarity pointless and somewhat irritating, but indeed, I could cope with it; and in fact the frequency of ‘they' diminished as the story went on.

After a while Dex encounters a sentient robot named Mosscap—full name Splendid Speckled Mosscap (taken from the name of a mushroom). Mosscap is referred to as ‘it', to which it has no objection, and I have no objection. I think I prefer Mosscap to Dex. It seems equally friendly and more sensible.