Series: Monk & Robot #1
Author: Becky Chambers
Publisher: Tor.com
Released: July 13, 2021
Received: NetGalley

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, written by Becky Chambers, is a robot book that can easily touch the hearts of any of its readers.

Hundreds of years ago, the robots of Earth gained sentience and stopped working for humans. Unlike what pop culture would like to believe, the humans were willing to let the robots run off and have their own lives – and the robots were willing to leave peacefully.

This is the world that our main characters have always known, where robots and humans lived separately – in peace, but never really knowing how the other was doing. Or what they wanted going forward.

“Sometimes a person reaches a point in their life when it becomes absolutely essential to get the fuck out of the city.”

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the best of both worlds. It is imaginative and fun while somehow portraying a futuristic world that is simple and comforting. It is not a world that I would have ever considered imagining all one my own, and I love it so much.

The characters are an absolute highlight in this novella, and with good reason. They’re so charming and inquisitive, trying to find what they want/need out of life. There’s something so refreshing to see this discussion aired so openly.

Speaking of refreshing – I adore how inclusive A Psalm for the Wild-Built is. That is half the reason why I felt this novella was a comforting one, as the characters seem to honestly care – and were always working their ways towards understanding.

I do not know if this will be the first in a series or if this was a standalone novella. I do know that I would love to see anything and everything else that Becky Chambers thinks up, primarily if it stems from this world.

Thanks to Tor.com and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.