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A review by trevert
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
3.0
Kind of sad about this one, as I really enjoy most Becky Chambers books. And this one is well written, with the usual entertaining characters and interesting world, but it feels long even as a 4 hour audiobook and suffers from the "Nothing really happens" problem - Like most of her books, it doesn't really have any plot and is mainly a couple of unusual people talking to each other. She writes damn well that this is enjoyable enough, but it just feels a little... lacking, like more of a rough idea for an intro of a book than a whole book.
Also, got to mention the elephant in the room, her forced and awkward usage of they/them as non-gendered pronouns. I know the gender warriors love this, but ye gods, I hate this trend with a passion... The fact that it's dumb is only the intro to the main problem, which is that in a book like this, it frequently becomes impossible to tell what's going on. If the gender-free point MUST be made, I'd much rather that "it" was used instead of they, because at least you can tell that 'it' is singular.
"Main character is standing with a crowd. Someone speaks to the crowd. They feel agitated and uncertain. Someone talks to them. They feel further confused." Who? WHO is confused? The main character or the entire crowd?
"Two characters are walking and come upon a bear. They are suddenly filled with fear and they must fight panic. The other character is unafraid." Wait, I thought they were both afraid...
It's just annoying and pointlessly confusing in text and spoken audio, and clear communication is challenging enough with forcing deliberate awkwardness into it. Give me 'it', give me 'xir', give me ANYTHING as long as it's identifiably singular when used in contrast with a group pronoun. /rant
Also, got to mention the elephant in the room, her forced and awkward usage of they/them as non-gendered pronouns. I know the gender warriors love this, but ye gods, I hate this trend with a passion... The fact that it's dumb is only the intro to the main problem, which is that in a book like this, it frequently becomes impossible to tell what's going on. If the gender-free point MUST be made, I'd much rather that "it" was used instead of they, because at least you can tell that 'it' is singular.
"Main character is standing with a crowd. Someone speaks to the crowd. They feel agitated and uncertain. Someone talks to them. They feel further confused." Who? WHO is confused? The main character or the entire crowd?
"Two characters are walking and come upon a bear. They are suddenly filled with fear and they must fight panic. The other character is unafraid." Wait, I thought they were both afraid...
It's just annoying and pointlessly confusing in text and spoken audio, and clear communication is challenging enough with forcing deliberate awkwardness into it. Give me 'it', give me 'xir', give me ANYTHING as long as it's identifiably singular when used in contrast with a group pronoun. /rant