A review by grimalkintoes
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-built follows Dex, a tea monk offering a brewed cup of comfort to all who seek it on their travels, and Mosscap, the first robot to make contact with humankind after robots developed sentience and left the laboring human world to wander the wilderness, as they embark on a pilgrimage together. It is written to those of us who are unsettled by the question of our own purpose in life, to those of us who are unfulfilled, uncertain, and tired. And most importantly, it is an elegy to dis/comfort, to our reaching out to grasp meaning in a meaningful/less world. 

“When I am done with this, I will do other things. I do not have a purpose any more than a mouse or a slug or a thornbush does. Why do you have to have one in order to feel content?” 

Read if you enjoy: solarpunk fiction, lyrical prose, leisurely pacing, and reflective tone.