Back in 2022 I read and loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built and its companion book Prayer for the Crown-Shy so when I came across the Read Harder task this year to read a novel where a character uses they/them pronouns I immediately took the excuse to add a re-read of these Becky Chambers books to my annual to do list. I normally don’t use re-reads for Read Harder challenges, but because my soul has been crying out for a good cathartic cry with Sibling Dex and Mosscap I decided that it was okay this time.
I don’t know what specific magic that Chambers weaves into her writing that it so often hits me deep in my feelings. It’s getting easier as I age for something I’m reading or watching to get me, but Chambers seems to have a particular skill at it. The story here is of Sibling Dex changing careers because something inside tells them they need to. But, a few years in they are still feeling that same longing pang that caused them to change their vocation in the first place. When they get to a particular literal fork in the road they decide to follow a what-if into an area that is off-limits to people, having been left wild for the robots who gained sentience a couple hundred years ago. That decision brings them into contact with Mosscap, one of the robots who has taken on the responsibility of reaching out to humans to discover what they need. In the short-term, Dex needs help getting to the monastery, and Mosscap decides to help.
And that’s about it for the plot. The book is just shy of 150 pages after all. But Chambers understands that asking the basic questions of what do we want and what do we need will send many a human spiraling, and Dex does just that. Heck, they already were. The back half of the book is full of conversations and moments where Dex and Mosscap are doing their best to understand each other and themselves, and just like last time it soothed something in me.
Bingo Space: Refuge. This book is a comfort read for me, and what is Dex looking for if not a sanctuary that will let them solve their inner turmoil? (Spoiler, they don’t get that here.)
