A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

 My local library has been working hard in the last few years to get the community in and reading. Among many initiatives, one that I enjoy is their Staff Recommendations. They do this in two ways. First each branch has a little display of books and media that rotates frequently. There's usually not a ton of explanation but the materials are generally unified by some kind of theme. The second set of staff recommendations is published online. There are 3 every month and they are always good. A Psalm For the Wild-Built came to me from the December 2024 recommendations.

Because it features a robot and because it's set on a moon there seems to be a tendency to call this science fiction. It even won a Hugo award. However, to me this is fantasy if it's anything. The whole book is more philosophical than it is anything else and it's exploration on the nature of consciousness and purpose is central to the narrative. The fact that a tea monk is having these conversations with a robot is a little irrelevant. The setting is a little irrelevant to the story as a whole. 

The main character Dex is a monk who is having a crisis of purpose. In their world, people strive to choose and fulfill a purpose. Dex's is being a tea monk which is a kind of itinerant therapist and tea connoisseur. Their function is to give the people of Penga a moment's respite from their cares and an ear for their worries. However, who heals the healer? Dex is ground down by the routine of their life and even though they are good at their job, they find less and less satisfaction. Eventually, Dex decides to leave the path and head into the wilderness where they encounter a wild-built robot named Mosscap. 

Mosscap has sought out people in order to answer the question "what do people need?" But that's not an easy question to answer. Mosscap ends up traveling with Dex while both characters look for the answers to their questions.

The interesting think about this book is how cerebral it is while still being accessible. Dex's quest to find meaning in their life is the the quest we all take at some point and Mosscap's question is equally relavent. The question of need and purpose is at the core of most people's life whether they are looking at it or not. So, I think this is more a book of philosophy dressed up in a sci-fi costume. 

This slim volume is worth a read.