I would pick up a copy and read it. The language in it is very kid friendly, and like I said, it taught me things that I had never learned before. It's very accessible. It only took me a couple of days to get through it .
I bought my copy last summer and finally dived in...glad I did.
Book 7: Psalm of the Wild-Build by Becky Chambers
This book was a perfect balm after a slew of challenging reads, either in form or subject matter. I've read Chambers's other prominent book, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and while I liked her aspirations towards writing "cozy" sci-fi that's more about misfits finding themselves and found families, sometimes the humor was a bit too "squee!" and the cast felt like the Burger King Kids Club in the sense that every individual had a single diverse trait that nearly overwhelmed and defined their character.
Psalm is set in some undefined future, on an Earth-like planet or moon, after robots have become sentient and decided to split from humanity. In a sort of anti-Matrix, the machines live in the woods while humans learned to develop society in a less exploitative manner. Dex, the main character, is a tea monk who goes from town to town, brewing tea for people and listening to their problems; they're somewhere between therapist and guru and daycare manager. Of course, Dex feels a yearning for something different, and takes a chance detour through the woods. There, they meet Mosscap, a robot chosen to make human-robot contact for the first time since the split.
The book mostly concerns their journey, and the ways they get to know one another. It has a slight philosophical bent as the two engage in chatter over their preferences in life, how they live, and how they choose to find meaning. Not meant as faint praise, but I could see this as a decent entry point into philosophy for younger readers, as it focuses a lot on the question of what one takes for granted and what one might see if they take one step outside themselves.
Good book, short book; I hear there's a sequel coming, and I won't be waiting to pick it up.
I'd be curious if anyone has any other cozy or hangout suggestions; it's rare for me to find fiction that steps on the brakes and just gives you a slice of life, or captures the pleasures of the quotidian.
This is on my list, I'm glad you recommended it! I also have A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet in my kindle library but I haven't read it yet.Book 7: Psalm of the Wild-Build by Becky Chambers
This book was a perfect balm after a slew of challenging reads, either in form or subject matter. I've read Chambers's other prominent book, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, and while I liked her aspirations towards writing "cozy" sci-fi that's more about misfits finding themselves and found families, sometimes the humor was a bit too "squee!" and the cast felt like the Burger King Kids Club in the sense that every individual had a single diverse trait that nearly overwhelmed and defined their character.
Psalm is set in some undefined future, on an Earth-like planet or moon, after robots have become sentient and decided to split from humanity. In a sort of anti-Matrix, the machines live in the woods while humans learned to develop society in a less exploitative manner. Dex, the main character, is a tea monk who goes from town to town, brewing tea for people and listening to their problems; they're somewhere between therapist and guru and daycare manager. Of course, Dex feels a yearning for something different, and takes a chance detour through the woods. There, they meet Mosscap, a robot chosen to make human-robot contact for the first time since the split.
The book mostly concerns their journey, and the ways they get to know one another. It has a slight philosophical bent as the two engage in chatter over their preferences in life, how they live, and how they choose to find meaning. Not meant as faint praise, but I could see this as a decent entry point into philosophy for younger readers, as it focuses a lot on the question of what one takes for granted and what one might see if they take one step outside themselves.
Good book, short book; I hear there's a sequel coming, and I won't be waiting to pick it up.
I'd be curious if anyone has any other cozy or hangout suggestions; it's rare for me to find fiction that steps on the brakes and just gives you a slice of life, or captures the pleasures of the quotidian.
Yes, the show is probably the next thing on my list once I finish what I'm watching now. I've heard it's not exactly the same, but everyone I've talked to seemed to like it.
The show is very good! I watched it right after reading the novel, which I also really liked, but I thought this was better. They took it in a really enjoyable direction off the path of the novel.
I just finished another one of her novels: The Glass Hotel, which I enjoyed a lot. Like Station Eleven, it’s a very engaging and quick read. And she’s got a little bit of the David Mitchell meta thing going, where she has Easter eggs throughout that reference her other works. In her case, just station eleven, to my knowledge as I’ve yet to read anything else by her. I just grabbed the new one l, Sea of Tranquility, this week and am excited to dive in.
The rest of the Rabbit books are interesting; he put one out each decade or so, and matches the arc of Rabbit’s life with that of American society. I only didn’t make it through #4, Rabbit at Rest, because I thought it’d be cute to read on a florida visit (since Rabbit retires to Florida) and got instantly depressed by his descriptions of the Tamiami Trail, an incredibly depressing highway my wife’s grandparents live off of.
