First time on Cannonball Reads. First comment on Pajiba two days ago (after 10 years of lurking). First time in years that I’m bothering to review. Thanks for exiting and offering a platform for whatever T H I S is that I need for right now…
Which aligns with my reviews for my first reads of 2023 that aren’t library/ work-related: Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot novellas, A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. These two novellas – not sure if we can call them a duology just yet, considering I don’t know the plans Chambers and Tor have for the series yet – are exceedingly kind, gentle, and comforting reads. A very quick, simple synopsis follows:
Sibling Dex is a tea monk who, in a moment of existential crisis, decides to venture to the wilds where no human has gone since the robots left to do their own thing, separate and apart from the humans that created them. Therein, Dex encounters Mosscap, a robot with a mission to find humans and ask a simple, single question: What do you need?
The synopsis sounds like something that it isn’t… something about robots. Something about technology. Maybe some science fiction. Maybe something futuristic. Maybe something with thrills and adventure. Maybe a crisis or mystery. Maybe all sorts of things that would make for a good movie or miniseries. Maybe something HBO Max can pick up for prestige drama. I would warn you… compared to all that it’s kind of… boring? It has none of the things that make for compelling, gripping, thrilling entertainment. It is just… simple. It’s kind. It’s reflective. Sibling Dex and Mosscap experience both interior and exterior lives of humans and humanity through one another and with one another. It’s the story of companionship and the desire to accept our nature and nature itself.
A lot – or maybe not “a lot” but “some” – has been written in the last couple of years or so about hopepunk. “Hopepunk” has been coined! That’s a thing now! And Chambers has been assigned some laureate role in it. With reason and with respect. I believe that’s true. I don’t know that I see Monk & Robot as hopepunk, per se. I see it, instead, as kindness punk. (I can’t take credit for that. I read that term used to describe Everything Everywhere All at Once and I fully agree. FULLY agree. And it’s changed me – just reading it and knowing it and feeling the need for it so deeply and unshakingly.) Anyway, kindness punk… that’s what these novellas are. They’re meditations. They’re slow. They’re introspective. They look out at the natural world and they say: This is it. This is where I exist. And they ask: What now? And they take your hand, make you a cup of tea, and share a comfortable silence with you.
An excellent way to start the year.
