A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

June 4, 2022

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

On the moon called Panga, long ago robots put down their tools and walked out of their factories. They wandered off into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Centuries later, they are a legend to tell children.  After being a tea monk for years, traveling from town to town to perform tea ceremonies, Sibling Dex is tired of their normal routine and decides to go off grid into the wilderness. To their surprise, they encounter a robot named Mosscap (who is a wild-built robot, constructed from the parts of earlier generations of robots). Mosscap has been sent by its people to find out what people need. This raises the question for both Mosscap and Sibling Dex that if people have everything they want, do they need more?

This is an homage to taking comfort in another's presence, that it's okay to want to not feel alone. I love Becky Chambers' writing. I loved her Wanderers series and was sorry to see it end. This is the first book in what I hope will be a new series. Mosscap and Sibing Dex are great characters, like all of the characters in Chambers' books. The story is comforting like a cup of tea at the end of a cold or troubling day. Love the cover picture of Dex sitting on his wagon with a steaming cup of tea and Mosscap coming down the road.

Ruins like the ones that Dex and Mosscap find at the wilderness monastery

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

October 18, 2022

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

After exploring the unpopulated areas of their moon, Sibling Dex (a well-known tea monk) and his new companion Mosscap (a wild-built robot, made up from parts of robot generations that came before it) head for more populated regions. As they begin to visit small communities, reaction to Mosscap is varied. Most places are excited to meet a robot, but not all of them. As they draw closer to the City, Mosscap continues its quest for its people: what do humans need? If they have everything they want, do they need anything at all? And more importantly, what do Sibling Dex and Mosscap need?

Becky Chambers writes some of the most creative sci fi out there. She goes places other sci fi authors don't even know exist. I love her descriptions of a world that has come back to life after humans did their best to kill it. Crown-shy is Mosscap's term for the way that trees instinctively know how close to grow together, to give each other space to live and grow.

I love Sibling Dex and Mosscap, and I hope there will be more Monk and Robot books.

A post-apocalyptic town like the ones Dex and Mosscap visit

The Abbot's Agreement by Mel Starr

April 14, 2021

The Abbot's Agreement by Mel Starr

Surgeon and bailiff Hugh de Singleton is en route to Oxford to purchase a Bible when he finds the body of a young Benedictine monk. The novice master at the nearby abbey confirms that the body is one of their novices. Plague has been in the area recently but the boy did not die from the Black Death: he was murdered, stabbed in the back. The ailing abbot strikes a bargain with Hugh: if he will take on the task of finding the murderer, the monks in the abbey scriptorium will make a Bible for him.

But this is more than a murder for money or revenge. As Hugh investigates the boy's background and the other monks, a more serious conspiracy surfaces, one that will affect the abbey's very existence. Hugh soon begins to wonder if the promised reward of a costly Bible is worth the danger.

The seventh outing for Hugh de Singleton is an interesting mystery and will keep you guessing. But the series' real beauty is the historical context and the picture of daily life in the Middle Ages. At one point, Hugh speaks with the dying abbot about the afterlife and forgiveness, topics that we take for granted but that were considered heretical at the time. As one monk tells Hugh, if there is no purgatory, then no one would pay the monks to pray for the souls of their beloved dead, and the abbey's revenue stream would dry up. Highly recommended for readers of historical mysteries.

Stained glass window depicting Benedictine monks in the scriptorium