A Monk and Robot
2 in 1 Book Review for A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
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The Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers follows Dex, a monk, and Mosscap, a robot, from their meeting, to their journey around Panga and the wilds at the edges of human civilization.
Before A Psalm for the Wild-Built beings, the robots of Panga gained consciousness. They put down their tools in the factories, done with their existence being solely for human use, and migrated into the wilderness away from civilization. They were never seen again and as the years passed so did they become more like myths. Dex, a monk living in the city, feels the itch for something more. They decides they need to leave. Though they have everything they need and their life is good, Dex still feels like something is missing. In doing so they change their life path and end up meeting Mosscap, a robot, who must answer the question of “what do people need?” Together they search for their questions and the answers.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a journey into the unknown. It’s both human and robot’s attempt to find meaning, purpose, and answers in new places. Both Dex and Mosscap leave their lives as they know them behind and in doing so, find each other. The whole book felt like a magnificent climb. Anticipation builds. Will they both find the answers? Will they find happiness and purpose? Though the conflict is largely internal, it felt important, impactful. In our heart, I think we all are searching for the same answers that Dex and Mosscap are. There is a kinship there in the uncertainty that connects reader and character.
This book especially hit close to home when I read it. Dex goes through such a substantial change. They strike out on their own and into the unknown. They didn’t do it for glory or to fulfill some prophecy, but to find happiness. Making such a decision isn’t easy. They have to leave their life, friends of years, and steady reliability of the world. But Dex trades the familiarity for uncertainty in the hope of finding happiness. Which is something I hope I could do.
One of Chamber’s goals in writing this book was “a desire to write something that serves as pure comfort for an adult audience.” And I 100% agree with this. Even in the uncertainties and tribulations there is a comfort there. Lucy (@exlibris.noctis) said in her review that “If you like Studio Ghibli, autumnal graphic novels, solarpunk/hopepunk, cottagecore, WALL-E, and a good cup of tea… you should probably read this book” and I couldn’t have put it better myself.
In A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, Dex and Mosscap journey into back civilization. In an ironic way, it becomes almost like the wilderness to them. They are surrounded by unknown people and places. Mosscap has never left the Wild and doesn’t know how humans will react to it or if they will have an answer to its question. While Dex is going back to their communities, they still seek answers to their own questions about their life. They don’t know if they will ever find them.
This felt, to me, like seeing the view from the top of the cliff after a long hike. That peak of sun hitting the tree tops below mixed with the inevitable step back from the fatigues of everyday life. The second installment brought a similar joy as the first. It was so nice spending time in this world again.
I loved these characters and their interactions. Dex is unhappy in their job, but is still hopeful of the answers. Mosscap is curious and single minded in exploration. Yet, also compassionate to itself and the world. They are two very different beings. Their outlooks and processes of life are at odds. Dex seeks purpose, feels that everyone needs one and yet Mosscap feels the exact opposite. It observes the natural world and notes that bugs and animals have no purpose other than just being. They don’t agree on this and yet neither are wrong or make the other feel wrong. Again, the compassion and respect for individuality shines through with the character interactions.
Most of the works I’ve read from Chambers have this sort of compassion and tenderness to the world and the people in it.
To Be Taught, If Fortunate, another book by Chambers, also holds this same tenderness and hope against all the odds the characters face. In it, a crew of space scientists and engineers are set to travel to far off planets. As they come out of stasis, something I’ve never read before happens. Each character wakes in their own room complete with grooming tools and mirrors. There is time and space given to them to get used to their changed bodies. It’s a small moment but like many moments in the Monk and Robot series, it shows a care for the characters.
In an interview with The Seattle Times, Chambers is asked about her thoughts on people defining her books as ‘hopepunk.’ This is what she says:
“I didn’t choose hopepunk for my work, but I like it and I give a thumbs-up to anybody who would like to use it. Because I do think that hope is punk. We so often use punk things — cyberpunk, steampunk — to just refer to an aesthetic. But really if you’re going to be punk, you have to be challenging the roots of the society you live in. It is fundamentally about rejection and about defiance, but also about celebration. I think that hope truly is a radical act in the times that we live in. Hope is not the same as optimism, hope is not the same as putting on a pair of rose-colored glasses, hope is not always having a happy ending. Hope is the belief that things will get better, whether that be in your own life or in the world as a whole. It’s enormously difficult to look at the world as it is right now and say, “I think it’s going to be OK.” But it’s something I do anyway, something I challenge myself to do.”
I could spend many more books with them and be content. The world feels so encapsulating and by reading about their hopes, imparted hope for our own futures.
Here are some thoughts from my reread in December of 2024.
One of Chambers’ main goals for The Monk and Robot series was “a desire to write something that serves as pure comfort for an adult audience.” My first read-through in 2022 I agreed with this wholeheartedly. The world and characters were absolutely comforting, along with, as with all of Chambers’ books, the empathetic writing.
On this reread, I felt somehow different. Of course, these books are still wholesome but I saw/felt more of the angst in them. As I read these, particularly A Psalm for the Wild-Built, I almost felt annoyed with Dex. Their stubbornness and unwillingness to ask for help, to do things on their own, and their tendency to lean into an exchange society made me feel at odds with them. My reaction surprised me.
I felt like if they were in this society built for helping others, with pebs and rules about the environment, why wouldn’t they easily be able to ask for help or lean on others?
But then I read a section of Prayer where Dex and Mosscap are talking.
Dex says: “You don’t have to have a reason to be tired. You don’t have to earn rest of comfort. You’re allowed to just be. I say that wherever I go… It’s painted on the side of my home! But I don’t feel like it’s true, for me. I feel like it’s true for everyone else but not me. I feel like I have to do more than that. Like I have a responsibility to do more than that.”
Afterward, Mosscap says: “I thought this was the most bothersome thing on my mind until I spoke with your father the other night and he asked me what I need… Sibling Dex, I don’t know. I don’t know at all. So what am I supposed to do now? How am I to ask my question of others when I can’t answer it for myself?”
I couldn’t help but cry because I could understand both of these statements and from there understand why Dex acted like they were. It was in this mutual understanding, between me, Dex, and Mosscap that I fell back in love with this series.
Mosscap responds with this, “You understand. I wish you didn’t because I know what it means you’re as tangled up as I am, but… I’m grateful that you do.”
This coming together, even knowing it entails acknowledgment that everyone has doubts and questions, brings about the sweetest of connections.
It is through this that humans and robots (and reader) relate and journey forward. In Prayer, “What if that is enough, for now? What if we're both trying to answer something much too big before we've answered the small thing we should have started with? What if it's enough to just be...Us.”