By Jay Flood
It’s difficult to imagine that a duology about a robot and a monk could make you so emotional in a positive way and make you really think about the meaning of life, but A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers did just that. This science-fiction novel displays a utopian society in which humans learn from their mistakes and genuinely do better. Experiencing this society is bittersweet because their world makes you wonder what life could be like and makes you hopeful for a better future, while also making you really sad that it’s not like that right now. The dedication in the front of the book is “For anybody who could use a break.” If you’re paying close attention to politics and all of the bad happening in our world, this book will ground you and show you what the end-goal is.
Since both books are really short, it felt like I only read one book. Each book was around 150 pages, meaning the duology is around 300 pages combined. So, for the rest of this review, I will be referring to this duology as “the book.” 
Sibling Dex, a nonbinary tea monk, becomes unsatisfied with their work bringing herbal teas from village to village in order to help people work through their existential crises. Sibling Dex decides to escape for a bit to rediscover their purpose on this moon, which is where they all live. Centuries ago, all of the robots gained consciousness and made a deal with the humans where they would split the moon in half and exist separately. It has been centuries since humans have seen the robots, until Mosscap, a robot, walks out of the forest asking “What do humans need?”
The rest of the first book and all of the second shows sibling Dex and Mosscap having philosophical conversations that make you, the reader, think about it, too. Dex and Mosscap talked about gender and pronouns in such a casual, normal way and it made me realize how much my mere existence as a nonbinary person is part of some culture war. I constantly feel on edge and like I need to defend my existence, but in their world, gender is just a thing that exists. They are who they are and nobody cares because it doesn’t matter. Neither Dex or Mosscap have gender, but in a different way. When Mosscap refers to another robot as “it,” Dex asks if robots have gender and Mosscap explains that gender is only for humans, and that robots refer to each other as “it.” Dex says that they have no gender either, but they are referred to as “they.”
Mosscap and sibling Dex go village to village asking humans what they need, because Mosscap and the robots feel they need to check on the humans they abandoned and see if there is anything they can do to help them. Dex points out that although the question may seem like a simple one, it is quite impossible to answer. Every human responds to the question differently, and it is normally something circumstantial, like their bike needed fixing or they needed their lawn mowed. Dex says that what they need isn’t anything Mosscap can give them. They say that their society isn’t just surviving anymore, they’re thriving.
There are certain aspects of the book that genuinely made me cry in such a bittersweet way. One of those things was their currency system. Without giving too much away, their currency system is built to reward and thank others for their services, not punish others for needing things to survive. Another thing that made me cry was how excited and fascinated Mosscap was over all of the mundane things we take for granted. The humans live in a sustainable society where they have a spiritual connection with nature. Parts of their planet is reserved for the wilderness and they leave it alone. Their community takes care of each other, rather than competing with each other.
This series took me by surprise and made me think so much differently about our current world and how it could be. I cried multiple times, but in an emotional way, not a heartbreaking one. I gave both books five stars and plan to read it again when I need a break from the world. The audiobook is also fantastic because it brings the right amount of emotion into their conversations. On Goodreads, the average rating for A Psalm for the Wild-Built is 4.3 stars and the average rating for A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is 4.44 stars.
This series can ground you, but it can also help you escape. When reading, you feel like you’re in therapy in the most incredible way. I have nothing bad to say about this book and I can’t imagine anyone else would either. It is comforting, therapeutic, and evokes a feeling of hope for a better world. I think everyone should read this book at least once in their life to experience what our society could be.