The novella “A Prayer for the Crown-Shy” by Becky Chambers was published for the first time in 2022. It’s the second book in the Monk & Robot series and follows “A Psalm for the Wild-Built“. It won the Locus Award for best novella of the year.
Sibling Dex and the robot Splendid Speckled Mosscap, or simply Mosscap, continue their journey around Panga, the moon that is home to both humans and robots, albeit in different regions. Sibling Dex’s reflections continue after their encounter forced them to seek an answer to a question: what do humans need?
To find an answer, Sibling Dex takes Mosscap to various cities where the two of them can meet other people who can offer their opinions. These encounters include some of Sibling Dex’s relatives and people who make very limited use of technology.
“A Prayer for the Crown-Shy” picks up the story of the monk Sibling Dex and the robot Mosscap where it left off at the end of “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” continuing the journey of this odd couple. The motives of the two protagonists continue to be explored but you need to read both novellas to get the full picture. This is crucial because this is a case where the journey is what matters, not the destination, in search of a purpose.
This existential journey made of introspection is based on dialogues, often between the two protagonists and other times with other characters encountered on the road. The setting is more or less utopian, in a society that learned from past mistakes and found a balance with nature. From this derive the labels solarpunk and cozypunk (or cosypunk) but also what seemed to me a certain dullness in a story in which there are no real contrasts but almost only the exposition of opinions.
Perhaps even Becky Chambers herself wanted to go a little beyond a situation in which almost all characters are used only to express some opinion in the part in which the protagonists arrive in an area inhabited by people who make very limited use of technology. However, the author didn’t really explore this possibility but just stated through Sibling Dex that those people might not be friendly with a robot only to actually meet just one man who proves to be very tolerant.
In the end, “A Prayer for the Crown-Shy” seems particularly suitable for the people to whom it’s dedicated by Becky Chambers, that is, the ones who don’t know where they’re going. The author expresses through Sibling Dex existential doubts but also the various possibilities with which love manifests. Dex is a non-binary person and in some cases, that matters in the plot.
All this is expressed with the light-hearted attitude that the inhabitants of a utopia can have, as their primary needs are easily satisfied, and can focus on their existential needs. Sibling Dex is a tea monk who no longer offers tea due to an internal discomfort that precedes the meeting with Mosscap but is far from depression or other serious problems.
“A Prayer for the Crown-Shy” ends with what seems to me more like a movie image than a real conclusion, confirming that in the Monk & Robot series, it’s the journey that matters. I would have preferred a single novel to two novellas but for the readers who appreciate Becky Chambers’ style and the themes covered with underlying optimism and positive feelings, that’s OK. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
