I love the wonderful world they live in. An optimistic, utopian type society where even the young are taught goodness and kindness. Ah, it was so heartwarming. I loved seeing Mosscap explore everything for the first time like a child! The first book followed Dex’ journey deep into the wilderness, into Mosscap’s territory, to a remote location that was once sacred to their god and their service as a tea-monk. This second journey goes the other direction, as Dex and Mosscap head towards the City, home of the University and all its scholars, so that Mosscap can ask its questions of the people in Dex’ world who are supposed to have all the answers. Like, Psalm for the Wild-Built the plot is largely incidental: having returned from their trip to the wilderness, Sibling Dex is now Mosscap’s guide and companion as the pair of them tour the local villages so that Mosscap can ask the question it has been tasked with: what do humans need. Also like Psalm, the book has a light, picaresque quality that makes it a swift, accessible read—though that accessibility should not be taken for simplicity because Prayer builds upon, and is still wrangling with, the same philosophical and existential ideas that gave Psalm such depth and resonance. Materially, yeah, pretty much,” Dex answered, in regards to the wagon. “At least, in an everyday sense.” Roughly of the same novella-like length as A Psalm for the Wild-Built, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy probably won’t be named the feel-good book of 2022 in a way that the first book in the series was named a year prior (especially by me). It’s a tad bit darker, as Mosscap begins to confront its mortality when a piece of it malfunctions during the events of this book. It’s also a bit frustrating because Dex isn’t as patient as Mosscap, so that means they often get flummoxed explaining things to Mosscap, which doesn’t do too much for the touchy-feels. Mosscap, too, comes off as a little bit needier in this book, which can be a bit of an annoyance because it seemed to be so wise in the first book. However, while A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a notch below the previous book, it is still a commanding read. When Dex and Mosscap visit Dex’s family, the scene is so touching and heartfelt that it approaches and perhaps exceeds the quality of writing found in A Psalm for the Wild-Built. There are tender moments scattered here and there throughout the read, but this book has none of Dex’s wisdom offering tea monk services (they’re more of a guide in this novella), and the towns they visit are crowded with fans and onlookers, thus not offering the kind of solitude that A Psalm for the Wild-Built brought to readers by being set in the forests and mountains.

I read this book in one sitting when I was having a really wretched day, and it helped. It felt like a warm cup of tea made by someone who loves me. It's a soft hug of a book, and it says 'It's okay if you're not okay right now.' It made me cry the good sort of tears—the sort when someone is unexpectedly kind to you at the moment you need it most.” —Alexandra Rowland A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the second book in The Monk and Robot Series, the second book after A Psalm for the Wild Built. But underneath the warmth and fuzz is a serious existential enquiry. What does it mean to be human or robot? What do we want from our connections with the universe? Seen through a robot’s eyes, the conventions even of this respectful and ecological society can seem bizarre. I was close to tears a couple of times, once when Dex and Mosscap went fishing, once when they walked through the woods. This kind of writing is deceptively simple, but it takes great skill to write deeply about such seemingly ordinary things and fill them with wide-eyed wonder. A stunning book. A Psalm for the Wild-Built did the work of establishing the world, premise, and characters, so now we get to play in it. Mosscap and Dex make new friends, navigate their fresh near-fame, and make their way through the world to Dex’s childhood home, and beyond. Returning home, as it does, makes both Dex and Mosscap question their purpose again. They get to question it together now, though, and that helps. I was looking forward to this 2nd instalment in the Monk & Robot novella series and I was not disappointed.Dex (a nonbinary monk) and Mosscap (a robot) are travelling together from village to village, Mosscap in the hope of finding what it is that humans need and Dex in the hope of finding themself. In this second instalment of her Monk & Robot series, we follow Sibling Dex and Mosscap out of the wilderness and into villages and settlements along the road, as Mosscap fulfills it’s wish to meet humans and try to understand what they need. This question, which it thought simple, turns out to be much more nuanced than expected. This new turn in their travel also gives Sibling Dex a lot to ponder, as they aren’t quite sure about their own purpose at this stage of their journey. Mosscap’s questions, concerns and view points send their thoughts in unexpected directions and I must say that the characters’ inner process are just as interesting as the external events. Still, what you’re saying is quite a responsibility.” Mosscap folded its fingers together before its chest, and its eyes glowed intensely even within the brightness of the day. “What if I make a mess of this?” Because, whereas A Psalm for the Wild-Built was preoccupied with Dex’s journey into the unknown wilds of Panga’s reforested wilderness, Crown-Shy is its inversion. This time, it is Mosscap who is stepping into unknown territory and Dex who must act as guide amidst the world that raised them. Don’t think of yourself as a problem... If they have an issue with you, that’s on them. And it’s not even about you, personally. They just … don’t understand what you are. Or maybe they can’t fit you into their beliefs, and that scares them. The unknown makes us stupid sometimes."

The 9 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2022". Washington Post. 2022-11-17 . Retrieved 2023-09-12. While I read this novella, I had a gentle smile on my face for most of it. I wanted to hug it and pet it and gently scritch it under its chin. I wanted to sit quietly with it and watch it experience the world and muse about its questions. It makes me feel hopeful. It’s comfort reading but more. I don’t know if there will be more “Monk and Robot” stories. But I would happily read them. A The heart of the book is the relationship between Dex and Mosscap. Set on the earth-like world of Panga, Dex is a gender-neutral monk whose life felt unsatisfying. They left their role working in the gardens of a monastery in Book 1, ‘A Psalm for the Wild Built’ and started a new vocation as a travelling Tea Monk. As they mastered the art of brewing the perfect blend of tea whilst listening to the concerns of others, they still found a gaping hole in their life that they couldn’t fulfil. Due to their nagging sense of being without a true purpose in life, they decided to travel into the wilderness to find a long-forgotten hermitage. During this journey, they met with Mosscap and agreed to guide it in the human settled areas so that it could ask the human’s: The primary intent of these books is to take a break … have something you can just curl up with for an afternoon. This is a book that is not going to hurt you. And I think that that’s so vital in this day and age, to be able to just pause for a second. I want the book to feel like a cup of tea as well … But I wanted to give you the option of chewing on some of the stuff in there.”

Review

A joyful experience and, as with all of Chambers’s books, I was left with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.” — New Scientist As Dex escorts Mosscap from town to town, Mosscap’s ostensible purpose is to ask each group of humans, “what do you need?” as the answers to that question become Mosscap’s datapoints of research on how humans are doing. There is an almost melancholy air to Dex at times as they continue to question their life’s goals and purpose. Dex is willing to accommodate everyone else’s feelings and emotions, but never gives them self permission to lean on others. This has led them to reach the brink of exhaustion and it resonated with me on a personal level, as I am sure it will for most of us. The interactions and conversation between Dex and Mosscap are poignant, putting into words the doubt we can all have around our self-worth when we feel we are not being productive.

B&N: We have talked about the lands you created. They were all individual and beautiful sounding, and exactly where I want to go. If I wanted to get out of the city, were they based on anywhere? I get excited by the prospect of sharing our world with other talking sentient beings. As much as I love other species, communication with them is limited. We are not able to understand their languages and to know if and what they're thinking and feeling. An AI on the other hand, would be able to communicate with us in whatever language we speak and it has access to. Mosscap’s lenses shifted, and Dex could hear a small whir inside its head. “I’d never thought of it that way,” Mosscap said. It put its hands flat against its torso, falling silent and serious. B&N: Yeah, yeah. And I think that’s exactly what is the switching of the of the career or the trying something new where in our minds like and Dex says it in the book, it’s new to you. But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. And I think that’s true, or it’s something we all kind of ruminate on and think, like, Okay, I’m ramping myself up. And so to everybody else, it may be a surprise. But to us, it’s like, no, I’m doing this, like you don’t know how to do it. You don’t know anything about you’re like, I know, but I just got to do it. So he’s just such a wonderful character. And it was so wonderful to see myself through that to be like, Oh, Okay, I get it. And so yes, you have grace with yourself to, to just be okay with not being an expert. And and, yeah, it’s a helpful character, I think to relate to.The story continues from where the last volume has ended – the Monk (Sibling Dex) and the Robot (Mosscap) travel together and finally visit some places, where there are other people. Mosscap has a mission – to find out what people need, for after robots achieved sentience and people decided they cannot exploit them no more, for the last few centuries humans and robots lived without any communication. Dex has to help it, to work as a middle person and teach it what is ok and what is not in a society. The robot behaves like a kid, for almost everything for it is new, stopping at every second tree or anthill to observe it. The dedication for the first book states, “ For anybody who could use a break,” and for this book it reads, “ For anybody who doesn’t know where they’re going.” It must be said that half the joy of reading this series is one of a promise kept. B&N: It’s so funny, because we are just these beings that do have all of these things that we’re just trying to figure it out. And it’s so funny when we all feel so alone, because it’s like, dude, everybody has this. And, we all just go through life. We’re like, I don’t know what to do. Should I go do this? I don’t want to ask for help. I’m gonna let everybody down. It’s so interesting that and I do love that Mosscap has it too, because it is such a great way to be like nobody has it figured out, not even robots. Isn’t that amazing. Either someone needs help with a very specific concrete issue that either they haven’t gotten around to or for which there isn’t anyone local with the right skills or knowledge. Or, the answer is more existential, where the short version is often something like “purpose” or “fulfillment”. The kinds of things that a person needs to determine for themselves.