It has probably been years since I last read science fiction. But when a friend, former colleague, and voracious reader added a comment on my year-end-reading post, I quickly jumped on her suggestion. She was noting how much she loved that Small Things Like These was on my list and agreed that it was a remarkable book. Then she added, “For something equally well written and ‘short’ though perhaps not your usual genre might I recommend Becky Chambers A Psalm for the Wild-Built?”

Takoma Park’s People’s Book, had a copy so I bought it and jumped right in. The dedication page is “For anybody who could use a break.”

Yes, my friend Priya had recommended this work at the perfect time.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) by Becky Chambers is an optimistic, charming, and contemplative novella. It takes place on a small moon called Panga, centuries after the Awakening at the end of the Factory Age, when the robots “employed” by humans decided they wanted to depart for the wilderness to observe “that which has no design.” They had long ago faded into myth and legend until Sibling Dex takes a turn off the paved road, heads into the wilderness, and meets Mosscap, a 7-foot tall, metal-plated, boxy-headed, wild-built robot—part of the fifth generation since the Awakening. They meet because Chambers has written a lovely story that reminds us of the necessity of taking a break, of not getting so bogged down in routine that you don’t “set aside time to care for yourself before getting up again to continue caring for others.”

Dex is a tea monk who travels between the human settlements on Panga to provide tea, a sympathetic ear, and quiet moments to any person who needs it. Even in the idyllic setting, where no one manufactures or uses nonrenewable resources or materials, “It was hard to find a Pangan who hadn’t, at least once, spent a very necessary hour or two in the company of a tea monk.”

After two years of service and constant travel, in which time they become the best tea monk in Panga and have a genuine belief in what they do, Dex decides to step away and plunge into the wilderness to visit the ruins of an old hermitage. His encounter with Mosscap—who is on his own mission to reconnect with humans to “find out what they need”—-and the subsequent challenges and truths they find along the way makes for an optimistic and hopeful vision.

We can all use a break.

More to come . . .

DJB

Photo from Pixabay.