Title: A Song For The Wild Built
Series: Monk & Robot #1
Author: Becky Chambers
Summary: Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, and wandered into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in.
Score: ★★★1/2☆☆
Review:Dex, a traveling tea monk, decides to make a change of pace in their life of brewing and listening to peoples problems to adventure into the wild woods not that traveled. Along the way, they cross paths with a sentient robot, Mosscap, who is taking their own journey to learn more about humans. Both worlds had agreed to part, and remain undisturbed from each other out of peaceful respect (no ill-will or war), a long time ago; What the two can learn from each-other, life, and understanding along the trails way fills this short but quaint novel, taking a toe dip into scifi and surface level philosophy. I will continue to the sequel and see how our secondary character fairs in the human enviro and it's philosophy learning. For anyone looking to get into a cozy little book and dip their toe into SciFi / philosophic questions between machine and nature and where we belong. This is a nice quick book to do so. — (slight-spoilery indepth review ahead) /// I did enjoy the book: although I believe its brevity caused the most issues I had with it. I loved the solar punk-ish setting but wish they leaned more into it. The beginning time skips didn't help and, in my opinion, actually took away from the character development, which is a huge part of the philosophical coming of age topic of the story. (An awkward first encounter b/c not much knowledge on tea or comforting people, to immediately finding an herb merchant the next paragraph with a 3 month time skip having already perfected their inventory and making tea, to 2 year time skip in the next paragraph where they are now a loved conversational tea monk amidst numerous towns (within a few paragraphs) - then later on the MC struggles with feeling fulfilled after reflecting on all the hard work they put into their life decision… It's not that its not relatable, I just wish we got to read/be apart of it. If the first part of the book was taken out and we just started on them being an amazing tea monk, it would not have made and less an impact, honestly. It also was written quirky (I have no better way of describing) and took itself a little more serious in the second half. The second half, where we met Mosscap, is were the true meat of the story lies and the true philosophy aspect ramps and starts almost immediately. No real stakes to be too afraid of, such is five for a cozy read, as they continue their adventure, but again because of how short it is, the book kinda jumps directly from one action point to another, each curate a foundation to the small philosophical topic they want to talk about. This writing style did keep the story cozy and short, which is the vibe I got while reading it, buy I won't say that I wasn't left feeling like I wanted more. I've read philosophy books, and they can be boring, and this book does a nice job of trying to keep an engaging narrative and philosophy talks, although they are a but surface level and come fast and convenient. Lastly, kind of deus ex machina-ly, Mosscap just knows, or doesn't know (she with Dex), things about the world/humans/robots (because of their centuries separation) when it's necessary for the next philosophy point they both cross. It's not a bad thing, again keeps the story short and moving, but it gets noticeable when the robot quirkily doesn't really know what a chair/its arms are for, and is bewildered at the experience, because info deemed not necessary by the robot ancestors from the times of their human enslavement separation, was not passed down to remember - but does know the inner workings of the centeries old human spiritual religion and their gods…because.
Read my review on Fable