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?
Continuing the quiet meditation on humanity, like a walk through the woods with a friend
i liked how the storytelling shifted and adapted with the story change that we have between the two groups. the discovery of the different human settlements and their societies is fascinating, thought-provoking and poetic all at once. i loved the ending, even if i had to read it multiple times to be sure. i will miss Dex and Mosscap. :(((
Continues where the first one left off
I started this right after I finished the first one. It deals with Mosscap's tour of Panga to learn what humans need. It gets a lot of different answers. We get to experience the different areas of the world and the different ways people choose to live there in a sustainable fashion. No spoilers but Mosscap is presented with an ineresting philosophical question and it turns out Dex still hasn't really found what they're looking for. The ending is quite open and I'm looking forward to find out where the two are heading next.
Content warning General spoilers
When I finished the first book I wondered why, being the two books so short, were they not just a single book. After finishing the second book I understand.
The second part of the Monk and Robot books is a completely different story. The apparition of Mosscap changes everything, and what was a book centered on Dex and their relationship with the world in Panga transforms into an exploration of the relationship between the monk and the robot.
Cozy as the first book, but slow in a good way. Just like the travelers in it, we have no rush to finish it. There's no big buildup to anything, and that amazes me. Like the first book, the author manages to create an engaging story without resorting to common narrative tools. It makes the book someone who's just sitting on your bedside table telling you "I'm here if you want to cuddle". The feel-good transcends the story and permeates into your everyday life, your imagination, and the things you think are possible.
The theme of purpose in this book made me shed a tear, even while on antidepressants. People telling me it's okay to just be me, I don't listen to them. But if a rusty robot says that to a monk and I'm just eavesdropping, you will be certain that I will heed the robot. And believe that it is ok to just be.
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.
The world described in these books is one that I would love to live in, more than that described in any other science fiction book. Forget cyberpunk, give me solarpunk for life! It's a great book to read before bed, as the book is like a warm hug, helping you settle down and relax before going to sleep.
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 lovely read
