Hardcover, 160 pages
English language
Published July 11, 2022 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.
After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.
They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.
Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?
A must-read if you read the first book. Really good.
This is the perfect time for me to be reading these.
Content warning Oblique reference to ending
Been struggling a bit with starting new fiction, and have fond memories of reading the first of this sequence on a trip to the Isle of Skye a year and a half ago, so started this as a way to prime the pump for future reading. A satisfying, enjoyable read on its own merits, incorporating some great descriptive material, and more thoughtful than it had to be, adding depth to an otherwise light-touch bildungsrobot (sorry) plot. The ending is well-judged, breaching reader expectations while keeping things open, and I really appreciated being able to start and finish a book in a single sitting.
Probably even lower on dramatic tension than the first book, but that's just fine -- that's not what's needed here. Instead we have a gentle journey between various human settlements as the background to Dex and Mosscrops' developing relationship and their respective struggles with making sense of life.
Content warning minor spoilers
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the second novella in this series; if the first book focused a bit more on Sibling Dex's journey, this book switches to look at Mosscap and Sibling Dex's shared travel to small towns across Panga. Their journey is presented as a series of vignettes which fill in worldbuilding details and bring in a number of different themes. Because of this, I think this book feels more winding and broad than the first one, but it's still just as endearing.
There's just so many delightful Mosscap moments: Mosscap being newly excited about every tree along the road; Mosscap waking up Sibling Dex up at a godawful early hour because they're just too impatient to discuss a book and then continuing that discussion while Dex attempts to pee; Mosscap bursting in to congratulate Dex about having sex.
Reading both of these back to back makes me appreciate how much the second book's ending is an echo of the first's, where each resolves an uncomfortable question that has been hanging in the air between Dex and Mosscap while also getting to the heart of their own struggles (that continue to hit me right in my own insecurities).
These are lovely little novellas. Easy reads with a philosophical bent.
These are definitely allegories (think Ishmael by Daniel Quinn; Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach), and as such you can see the strings in places. Something in me still sings at the sense of recognition; the struggle of feeling messier than one ought to be, of wanting to fill the world with activity and the diminishing returns that provides, of it being easier sometimes to be vulnerable with people who don't know you very well at all.
What does it mean to be, to exist? How do we find satisfaction in simply being? Or does satisfaction come from contributing something back to others while having our own needs met by them? What do we need as people? As individuals? As a society? As a shared planet?
Chambers explores big questions, maybe even bigger ones in our second journey with Dex and Mosscap as when we first met them.
I left the first book wanting a friend to serve me tea. In leaving this one wanting to give and to be given to. For in that is life and meaning and contentment. Thriving and leaving space for others around me to thrive, too.
Five stars.
Another sweet and generous tale, so full of heart and the doubts that can fill one. I found myself moved to think about the world differently and literally reconsidered my career choices at one point while reading. The way the author teases out ideas about identity and self-perception really landed for me.
On a less positive note, this book got me trouble when I laughed out loud in bed and woke up my wife who had just nodded off. Thanks Becky!
