A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Ratings750
Average rating4.3
This was my first Becky Chambers book and I now understand the craze and I'm sure it won't be my last.
This is a book you didn't know you needed - but you are thankful to have found. It's a feel good story, about something we can all connect to: The need to explore not only the world but ourselves.
“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don't know how to answer that, because it is enough to just exist in this world and marvel at it. You don't need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”
What a sweet, sweet book. This makes me want to curl up with a cup of tea and just - exist.
“Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing?”
is
“Because 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. That is all most animals do.”
Short, Sweet, fuzzy but not vacuous. Perfect short read for a wet and cold weekend. Make a nice change from my usual dystopian SCIFI choices...
A quick read but a sweet story about a tea monk and a robot. Unexpected gender-neutral character was great, and Mosscap was a lovely robot haha.
The only ‘negative' comment I have is that for the audiobook, there seem to be sections where it was recorded over by another narrator or a different ‘set' of audio, so it made it sound kind of choppy and weird. Besides that, it was a good listen!
Simple but profound, this book is a pleasure. Whimsy and sci-fi seem rather at odds with each other, but here they are not. This is also the first book I've ready with two un-gendered main characters. Overall a distinctly lovely read, and maybe the best title ever.
Pleasantly weird. This is cosy SciFi, focusing on a monk going around serving tea to help people overcome their troubles and his encounters with a robot. In this world Robots have been emancipated from humans and gone to live in the wild, eschewing all contact with humanity. When our monk wanders off trail he has the first encounter with robots for centuries.
The worlds colliding idea is at the core of this, cultural divides and cultural understanding providing key motifs. Becky Chambers writes some of the most upbeat and uplifting Scifi out there - far more positive in outlook than anything you usually encounter in the genre. Always a pleasant read and break from the darker stories I usually frequent!
Lovely and cozy, featuring a non-binary main character (which I LOVED). Beautiful ideas, and so warmly executed.
A lovely short story about how a monk and a robot cross paths and discuss the deep questions of life the universe and everything. I look forward to picking up the next book in the series and am ashamed to say I was skeptical of this book following my enjoyment of the wayfarers series. Just as comfortable a book as I could have hoped for.
Read this book. Seriously! I loved it!! This was my introduction to Becky Chambers, and I am absolutely looking up all her other books now. This book was a wonderful, gentle, welcoming perspective on life and purpose, with an absolutely lovely conclusion.
Well, this one didn't work for me so much, but that's OK. I still adore Chambers. Maybe I just wasn't in the right head space, or maybe I'm not the target audience: this one felt aimed toward young teens, or at least someone who doesn't mind a slathering of Very Special Moral Lessons. If you've read Chambers you know her work is sweet; in this one she takes a giant leap into syrupy. Everyone—Monks, Robot, Villagers—is eye-rollingly nicey-nice and always striving to be nicey-nicer. This crotchety old man found it hard to relate.
It wasn't just the people and relationships: all of it required suspension of disbelief. The politics, economics, even physics (favorite yeah-right moment, referring to finding deadfall on an abandoned road: “Dex [...] shoved [...] swore [...] rolled the damn tree out of the way, and continued”). Dex manages to not only switch careers on a moment's notice, but also become world-class Best Listener in just two years. The robot construction and maintenance explanations border on nonsensical. The religion aspects are pretty clearly shoehorned in as a gimmick. In fact, writing this now, it feels more like the book was written by, not for, a young teen. It's handwaving wish-fulfillment porn. And that's okay, but Chambers can do better. Finally, the pronouns annoyed me. Dex is nonbinary, fine, but goes by “they,” and in third-person narration with two protagonists there are way, way too many doubletake moments: “they remained that way for a few minutes,” later followed by an indication that it was Dex-singular-they, followed by me having to reread the entire paragraph. Come on. You're a talented writer. Use xe. Make one up. Or, my favorite, use the Ann Leckie tactic where everyone is she and the reader never knows nor gives a damn about who has innie parts and who has outies.
I'm going to read the next book anyway though.
We are all built of remnants from our ancestors, pieces of us coming from each of them. But maybe we can make the most of that, be better than they could ever be, overcome their weaknesses. This is just one of A Psalm For The Wild Built's ideas, it has many more packed into such a short space. But it all works incredibly well, immersing the reader into this lush, futuristic world and leaving them wishing to spend more time with these characters.
I will have to buy [b:A Prayer for the Crown-Shy 40864030 A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2) Becky Chambers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631539191l/40864030.SY75.jpg 65807876].
Wow. The world built in this novella was beautiful and sweet. It left me feeling tender and inspired and introspective. The characters were multifaceted and simultaneously so simple. I loved this.
This book is a charming story of an unlikely friendship between a non-binary monk looking for purpose in their life and a curious robot on a mission to meet and understand humans.
They live in a world where humans and robots have lived apart for generations after robots achieved sentience and freedom.
Becky pains a picture of a world that is slightly dystopian without being terrifying. Dex is initially afraid of the world beyond the safety of sealed roads and villages, but with the aid of the ever helpful and eager to understand the world, robot Mosscap, goes on a spiritual journey to find themselves.
Another lovely character driven story from Becky Chambers. Highly recommended
#JennyGuyColvin
After only reading three paragraphs of this book I was immediately reminded thatcI love Becky Chambers. The theological discussion at the beginning gives you all the information about the world building that you'll need. Absolutely masterful writing.
I feel like this is one of those books that changes peoples lives and really make you think about how you live and what is really important. I loved it
Great descriptions of the world - which I loved - but I think I have just read this at the wrong time and in the wrong mood. I am sure many will love this and may return to it when I am in the mood. Dex didn't click with me at all especially in the 2nd half of the book.
I wasn't so sure at first, there seemed to be a lot of set up and disjointed threads, but by the end they wove together to make a great story.
This is by far the nicest dystopian?? - Nah! as someone said, a cozypunk book I've read. I've become a fan of this writing. All along this book made me think, made me happy, and made me curious about future volumes. I ❤️ Mosscap and Sibling Dex!
The main character is referred to as They/Them is also a great refreshing take!