A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, by Becky Chambers

The Monk & Robot series is set in the world we would like to live in after the world we live in now collapses and recovers. We have gotten a few references to the dystopian past but the focus is on the Here and Now, with Dex on his journey to find himself and Mosscap trying to find out what humans need.

Funny question to ask, since it appears that robots took themselves out of the picture when things got very bad and they decided they were part of the problem. Humans winnowed themselves and muddled through, and have now achieved the Beloved Community (it is not referenced as such, but see Josiah Royce or Martin Luther King and substitute a future kind-of-pagan religion and we're there). So what Mosscap encounters when he asks this question is that no one is in particular need.

The writing and characters are engaging, but these get harder to read as the distance between where we are and where these books are set gets wider. I think it's just plain hard to please people in a time when anything pleasing is a reminder of what can be taken away. Cheers to Becky Chambers for bringing the warmth and light--sad for us if we can't appreciate it.

My Goodreads Review

A Psalm For the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

I liked this more than a 3 but not enough to make it a 4. Another reviewer has called this "comfort SF" and I wish I'd thought of it. The book is a very cozy story of self-discovery, and lays out the author's philosophical roots as an existentialist. At least the robot is an existentialist. I am very happy that main character Dex is provided the space and resources to go find himself--in fact that very provision is a grounding for the book. Many of us would love to live in that world, which sounds a lot like what Martin Luther King's (or maybe Josiah Royce's) idea of the Beloved Community would look like. We do not live in that world, nor will we. Chambers alludes to hard sacrifices made by previous generations to release the sentient robots from their servitude, clean up their planet, and clean up their relationships with each other. That work is ours to do, and knowing that we work to create that future will have to be enough to comfort us.

My Goodreads Review

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers

For what Chambers says is the last installment in this series, she gives us My Dinner With Andre, with aliens. The plot does not relate to the characters at all--a disastrous satellite accident strands a set of aliens at a space truck stop/motel with nothing to do but interact with each other. The intent is in no way disguised so this is fine.

The aliens are all humanoid and represent various ways of being human. A human is offstage (the Aeulon Pei's boyfriend) and is the only mentioned human, but the aliens represent various social types here on Earth--privileged (the Aeulons), xenophilic (the Laru), xenophobic (the Quelin), and oppressed (the Akarak). They come from different circumstances but basically share a value of caring for others that drives the interactions in the book, as it does for the others in this series.

So really Chambers is only trying to do one thing in this book and that's show how very different people can get along with each other. And she does it very well. It is a heartwarming read from end to end in a coldhearted time in world history. My quibble with it would be that despite the differences the aliens are really very close together in personality. Real people differ more fundamentally than these "aliens" and it's more challenging to see each other's humanity. And the moral blind spots of the more privileged ones are brought up, but not really worked. Still it accomplishes what Chambers wants, which is to allow us to hope and breathe for a bit. Would give it a 3.6 and round it up.

My Goodreads Review

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is a departure from the Wayfarers series, so bringing a fresh eye to it helps. But I second what one reviewer said below--it's like reading non-fiction about a fantasy place. I think that's what the author was going for, and she succeeded.

There's a lot of exposition in this book, including an exposition on why there's so much exposition. In a way it never ends. The glory of science, including its not-so-glamorous parts, is what is supposed to carry the book along.

I liked it OK, though as hard SF it stayed somewhat superficial. There was drama but it didn't feel artificial. The crew got along super-well, diverse in various ways that seemed to intentionally complement each other.

But it seemed like much of the point of the mission was to be an inspiration to a planet trying to recover from the worst of climate change. That was definitely on the mind of the narrator. And yet there was very little of that inspiration or action in the story. And the ending, while it has a certain likelihood, seemed kind of random.

Decent book, Hugo nomination for best novella, can't see it winning.



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Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers

Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Most novels tell a story that's meant to hold together as a narrative. Not all of them. This one is several individual stories, none of them exciting heroes, nasty villains, or tragic victims. These are people more like most of us who read SF--we see tragedy, we watch the news, the general tone of society impacts us, and we try to get by in it.

But I read it anticipating that it would, at some point, turn into a story and it never did. That makes it harder to appreciate it for what it is, which is more of an ethnography, told both through an actual ethnographer (though called a reporter) and through personal stories of the people the ethnographer is writing about.

The Exodans escaped a collapsing ecosystem on Earth, and self-selected as basically an ideal communist society--everyone is guaranteed what they need to live, and everyone does what calls them. They share the work no one particularly wants (sanitation etc) as volunteers. Decisions are made collectively. Some critique this book for having an overly saccharine view of human nature, but this is a group selected for that trait. It's an examination of how that society is diversifying now that the pressure of staying alive in self-contained ships is off. They live among aliens, and among humans that chose other paths. It's bringing wealth and causing problems.

And as an exposition, it's all right, except for being not real. As a story, it's ultimately frustrating. I did finish it and wasn't sorry I did, and I even liked it a little for the view of how people *could* be if they cared for one another. I guess I'm not even surprised it got award nominations, since it is interestingly different and nested in a series where the other two books did. But it's not a space opera. Kind of the opposite.



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A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky  Chambers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a thoroughly entertaining book that shows Chambers' skills well. We have two parallel narratives, one with Lovelace the embodied AI living with Pepper in current time, and a flashback to Pepper's origins. The stories weave together well and keep things fresh. It's an excellent followup to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Have fun with a classic SF piece



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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky  Chambers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I like to read the major award nominated novels each year. Chalmers' A Closed and Common Orbit was nominated for the Hugo award this year, and now that they've gotten their act mostly back together I take them seriously again. So I wanted to catch the series up.

I would describe the Wayfarer's setting as an alternate, less heroic version of the Star Trek universe. The GC (Galactic Congress?) is the equivalent of the Federation, a group of spacefaring races that took in a faction of the human race that left Earth when it collapsed environmentally. The alien species are closely related, most having some kind of symmetric body plan, a central nervous system including a brain, and DNA. Interspecies sex is just as common but brought up to date.

The author shares a reflection of Roddenberry's vision of Federation goals--an inclusive grouping dedicated to helping all, but prone to mendacity in the details. That mendacity drives the plot, as the GC prepares to take in a new, perhaps not very stable, race.

The protagonist is Rosemary, a woman from a different (wealthy, escapist) faction of the human race that was found later. She is fleeing her past. She joins the ensemble cast of the Wayfarer on their part in working with this new race.

The strength of the book is in its deft, solidly competent weaving together of the stories of the crew and the current situation. The characters are easy to care about. Chalmers makes a solid case for Federation (er, GC) values through characters' actions, so it's only mildly preachy. And the writing carries you along, you're never bored waiting for something to happen.

Original? Not so much, but that's pretty hard to achieve now. This is darned good storytelling, and I'm excited to move to the next book in the series.



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