Between the war in Ukraine and the nature of the previous book I read, This was a good time for Becky Chambers. This book was- like everything Chambers writes - balm for the soul.
This is the second novella in her Monk & Robot series, and for everyone who read A Psalm for the Wild-Built, this hits many of the same notes. The story picks up right where the previous book left off, with Dex accompanying and guiding Mosscap as he goes outside of the wilderness and meets more humans. The humans are delighted to meet Mosscap in turn, as one would expect from the idyllic society that Chambers has envisioned here. So Dex and Mosscap go from town to town and talk to people.
If you’re looking for a tightly plotted book that surprises you with its twists and turns, look elsewhere. Everything I just said? That’s the entire plot. There really isn’t one.
Instead, there is a great deal of commentary on the human condition in a general sense. Mosscap is looking to understand humanity, after all, and his questions are all directed towards that. Unfortunately, Dex and all fellow members of their species aren’t really equipped to answer the question of “What do you need?” if it’s anything less mundane than “a new lightbulb; the one in my kitchen is flickering.”
More than anything, this book is about Dex’s continuing struggles with their mental health. Dex has spent most of their adult life telling people it’s ok to struggle, it’s ok to be tired, it’s ok to just not be ok. Dex set off into the wilderness in the first book precisely because they weren’t ok. They’re still not ok, and they are having a great deal of trouble accepting about themselves that which they so easily accept in others.
I can relate.