After the Wayfarers Series (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, Record of a Spaceborn Few, and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within) catapulted itself onto the list of my favorite series ever, I have been Team Auto-Buy/Read anything Becky Chambers writes. Although I know this one came out last year (and the next in the series is already published), I'm just now getting around to reading it. I've had it on my shelf since last year, and you would think its small size would have made it easier to pick up at any time, but I think I just kept waiting for the perfect cozy moment to read it. Now that I've finally read it, it's clear that it creates its own cozy moment, and doesn't need to wait for one to pop up. All that to say, Chambers remains firmly ensconced on my "favorite authors" list after finishing this one. 

 

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is narrated by Sibling Dex, a human whose vocation is a tea monk, traveling the moon that they call home, dispensing personalized teas that help ease the emotional burdens of the citizens of Panga. Although they love their vocation, they are also struggling with a bit of a crisis of their own, and decide to make a pilgrimage to an old, remote monastery, to see if that will ease their sense of ennui. Along the journey, Dex crosses paths with a robot, Mosscap, in a meeting that takes them very much by surprise as robots haven't been seen in generations (not since they gained sentience and left for the wilds). Mosscap's mission, as it were, is to reconnect with the humans and find out what they need, which is a question Dex can barely answer for themself, much less all of humanity on Panga.   

 

Well, I'd heard this was a real feel-good, cozy-cup-of-tea-style read, and my goodness was that ever accurate. Not least because there are actually quite a lot of heart-warming tea-related scenes. I was absolutely charmed by both Sibling Dex and Mosscap, their interactions with each other were of that classic foundational theme of peoples/species unknown to each other feeling out and learning the other, in this case with an incredibly wholesome vibe. Chambers just has this gift for distilling into words the uniqueness and intangibles of being human...even when the characters in question are not always human themselves, there is a recognizability in the "humanity" of them all. And overall there was just a gorgeous symmetry in the framework of the story, from Dex feeling overwhelmed by the breadth of their work as a tea monk to Mosscap feeling unable to do his job (for all humans), yet the effort in trying, the act of simply being there, the greater meaning born out of working in combination, is what makes all the difference in the end, and that’s such a beautiful message. 

 

I also loved the way that nature, both the natural world and the nature of things, was featured throughout. This was a sort of meditation on the paradoxes of nature and the beauty in nature retaking remnants/structures of the past. Chambers includes a soft lesson for humans about the importance of being careful not to take things too far, in a number of ways. There is a comforting acceptance throughout of the way that sometimes, no matter how perfect one’s surroundings or objectively "happy" one is with their life, one can still be dissatisfied/restless or yearn for change/difference and that’s ok. Chambers also writes about agency, the way that it is both to not be forced to do something and to choose to do something by their own wishes - a nuanced, but thought-provoking distinction.    

 

This entire novella was written with the sort of precision detail that is comforting in how important each small piece is made to be, that "everything in its place feeling." There is a focus on the healing inherent in simply making a space respected for healing, which was so powerful. And I finished reading this just full of a sense of gratitude, goodwill and relaxation. 

 

“But then, humans had a knack for throwing things out of balance.” 

 

“The homes were like trees themselves in that regard – unmistakably part of a specific visual category, yet each an individual unto itself.” 

 

“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.” 

 

Everybody thinks they’re the exception to the rule, and that’s exactly where the trouble starts. One person can do a lot of damage.” 

 

“So, the paradox is that the ecosystem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior.” 

 

“Its only legacy was to exist where it did not belong.” 

 

“Still. Something is missing. Something is off. So, how fucking spoiled am I, then? How fucking broken? What is wrong with me that I can have everything I could ever want and have ever asked for and still wake up in the morning feeling like every day is a slog?” 

 

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is not enough to exist in the world and marvel in it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.” 

 

“And I’m saying that I think you are mistaking something learned for something instinctual.”