kay, so this is a two-fer, two novelettes in one. With this, you get…

A psalm for the Wild-Built

A prayer for the Crown-Shy 

These are just two stories that combine into a unified whole, so it’s better to get this collection.

So anyway, Dex is a young man in a world that, after ecological instability and the robot rebellion (when Robots walked off their factory jobs and wandered into the wilderness), now lives in a utopia. But guess what – you can live in Utopia and still not be happy. So he quits his first job (kinda a part-time gig) and becomes a tea monk. Now he peddles his camper-bike thing from village to village, identifying who is unhappy and what they need (Tea? A hug? A kind word?) and provides for them. He’s quite popular now on his route, and everyone is always happy to see him.

But, dammit, he’s still not happy.

Driven by an urge to hear crickets chirping (largely wiped out in the Factory Age, but still in existence at some run-down monastery well out beyond the boarders of this happy place), he starts out to find his crickets, to find himself, and to find happiness.

And what he finds is a robot.

Mosscap was heading towards civilization, the same one Dex was leaving. He’s been tasked (well, he volunteered) to go to the humans, after centuries of non-contact, and ask them “What do people need”.

Of course, Dex should know this, being a tea-monk and all, but he doesn’t. And so begins a long journey from two unlikely friends, the monk and the robot, to find answers for both of them.

This set of short novels comes from Becky Chambers, who I’ve ranted about before. Soft and lovely sci-fi, her writing always brings a smile and perhaps a tear. Really, you should check this one (or these two) properly. Have I steered you wrong yet?

>>>BOOKS FOR SALE, HERE<<<