Review: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1) by Becky Chambers

In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk and Robot series gives us hope for the future.

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.

They're going to need to ask it a lot.

Becky Chambers's new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

I have to admit that this is my first Becky Chambers book. I can say it will NOT be the last. For the last few months, I have been in the biggest reading slump in my life. I decided to return to my first love, SCI-FI, with some fantasy thrown in. I saw it at the library, and I had read about other book bloggers with similar tastes to me raving about BeckyChambers’ss books saying how much they love her books, so I bit the bullet and picked up The p slams of the wild built.

This reading slump had gone on for so long that I despaired of every indeed reading again. Thank God I decided to return to my first love, sci-fi, and Becky Chambers is a very skilled storyteller. Robot books can go either way, depending on how professional the author is, but I have to say that Becky Chambers’s book is pure Robot gold!

This is the first in the monk and robot series, so there are few explanations for what is happening. This is a GOOD thing. It means the author is showing you and not info dumping. I HATE when I am reading, and the author decided to write 100 pages of pure info dump. I mean, I want to experience the world the author has created alongside the charter.

As a Sci-Fi fan, I have seen other stories where the author tried to show the human condition by various tropes, but I have to admit that Becky Chambers is a master at showing this. I loved the robot and the questions the robot asked to try an better understand humans.

Guess what?? The main charter is nonbinary! It took me a while to get why Dex was bringing called Sibling instead of brother and sister. Then I figured it out and said, wow, this gives me hope for a diverse Sci-Fi genre. I try my best to read diversly, but no matter how hard I try, all the books I love seem to be written by cis straight white males. The only author that is different in this regard is Octavia Butler. I have read every single one of her books two or three times. I was soo upset when she departed this earthly plane. Now that I have read one of Becky Chambers’s books, I have high hopes that her books will be a new favorite. To soon to tell, but ii do have hope.

The most important part of a sci-fi book is world-building. The way that it is presented can make or break a story. I know I have read a book and would think it was bullshit because the author tried to explain how that would work adequately, and one can only suspend beliefs so far. I feel that Becky Chambers shines in this regard. You thought you were in the story with Singing Dex and the robot.