A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a wholesome book about the friendship between a robot named Moss and a non-binary monk travelling the world, serving people tea, and listening to their problems in their journey to discover what it is that people need on the most basic level. Of course, there is some really interesting world-building that sets up the protagonists’ current situation, a history that includes robots becoming aware of their slave-like conditions, revolting, and disappearing into the wilderness, and lore surrounding the society that they created. My favorite of which is the tidbit that the robot’s name is Moss because moss was the first thing the robot saw when it woke up!

This is a perfect short read for those looking for an escape from a world where everything seems to be going wrong into a world where things went wrong, in the past, but in the current moment characters are allowed to explore themselves and their world peacefully. Although the subgenre of  “cozy mysteries” is well-established, I can’t say there is an equivalent in the science fiction genre – that is, aside from any book written by Becky Chambers. A Psalm for the Wild-Built is simply Chambers’ most recent. I *still* think it would be my favorite even if it wasn’t the most recent book of hers, though! I even bought a hard copy of it for my personal collection when I finished it! I’m hopeful that Chambers’ books are the beginning of a larger pattern within the genre of comforting books that are somehow still exciting, that explore our world and philosophy in ways that enable escapism without increasing the reader’s heart rate too much. 

And there are more adventures of Moss and Sibling Dex (the monk!) coming out in July of 2022, according to the rumors on the internet (by which I mean this incomplete Goodreads page).

– Review by Valerie, Newburg Branch