ted's book nook

• author: becky chambers
• genre: sci-fi, slice of life
• pages: 147

“You and I — we’re just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?”

If there is anyone out there that’s looking for a short book to sit back with a cup of tea and relax with, this is definitely a book to consider. Psalm for the Wild-Built is a cosy slice of life set on another world, following a non-binary tea monk as they try to find their purpose – instead stumbling across a friendly robot. Robots, of course, haven’t been seen in centuries, and so the two embark on trying to understand one another, which proves to be more difficult than either of them first anticipated.

Chambers’ writing has always been comforting to me, ever since I read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and this novella is no different. She writes empathetically, like a big hug. There are no great crushing stakes in this one, no threat save for that of the timeless, unanswerable question of ‘why am I here?’, and it was a welcome change from what I usually read. Sibling Dex and Mosscap are wonderful to read about, their perspectives on life being so different, and I can’t wait to pick up the second book, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy and continue their journey.