A Prayer for the Crown-Shy: A Monk and Robot Book (Monk & Robot 2)

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B&N: Excellent, thank you. So I have to say that you strike quite a tone from the first sentence in A Psalm for the Wild-Built by saying sometimes a person reaches a point in their life when it becomes absolutely essential to Get the eff out of the city. As a New Yorker, I get it. I was instantly in Dex’s mindset and fully felt that emotion. It is such a great beginning. Can you just talk to that? Mosscap turned to Dex with as big a smile as its boxy metal face would allow. “This is very nice,” it said, pointing a finger at the text reading STUMP—20 MILES. “Wonderfully neat. Though a little prescriptive, don’t you think?” It’s impossible to review A Prayer for the Crown-Shy in a vacuum. The novella is too much in conversation with its predecessor, too much an immediate continuation of Wild Built’s story, that it would be a disservice to not look at them as parts of a whole. Dex had never really thought about this before. They steered the bike in the direction the sign indicated, and Mosscap fell into step alongside. “If you have everything you need around you,” Dex said, “there’s no reason to leave. It takes a lot of time and effort to go someplace else.” I love that the phenomenon of 'crown-shyness' inspired the title and is a central metaphor for the story:

This is what I love most about these books—how they give language to those of us who never learned in college or media or life how to deal with being lost, with feeling that you have wandered out of the right life, forgotten who you are and kept turning up in all the wrong places assuming different faces. The kind of lost you cannot help and cannot explain; there is only the feeling, deeper than words, that something is missing, something you hadn’t named yet, or perhaps you are simply not letting yourself know. This is the kind of lost some of us might go our whole lives trying to accommodate because it hurts too much to face it head-on, like pulling your own heart out by the roots. I was looking forward to this 2nd instalment in the Monk & Robot novella series and I was not disappointed.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 In the hope that AI will develop sentience, and knowing we might not know when and if they do, I've begun adding 'please' and 'thank you' when asking Alexa to do something. Mosscap is a robot who has descended for the original robots built to supplement the human workforce in an era known as The Factory Age. The issue was that the robots started to replace the human workforce and without the need to work, the balance of civilisation shifted and began to falter. Then one day, the robots became self-aware, and the ‘Awakening’ occurred. The robots left the factories and walked out into the wilderness to stop humankind from imploding but made the ‘Parting Promise’ as they left. Mosscap has volunteered to go out amongst the humans to find out what they need and make sure that the development of humanity has progressed in a positive manner. Exchanging

Dex and Mosscap are no different, though Crown-Shy sees them thrust into somewhat unexpected notoriety as they begin their journey through Panga’s human territories. Neither is seeking to change the world, and in fact the world they live in doesn’t actually seem to require changing. What the Monk and Robot series explores through its solarpunk setting are the existential questions that arise even when all one’s basic needs are met. For Dex it is a struggle with purpose and direction, for Mosscap it is the much broader question of “What do humans need?” A question they find increasingly confounding as they are introduced to the human denizens of Panga. This is possible in part because capitalism no longer exists on Panga, a concept that can be at once exhilarating and also inconceivable for a reader like myself living in the United States in 2022. At one point Dex patiently explains their culture’s version of currency to Mosscap, a publicly accessible virtual exchange system called pebs: The first book in Chambers’ new series feels like a moment to breathe, a novel that exists to give readers a place to rest and think… Recommended for fans of Chambers’ Wayfarers series and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.”— Booklist, starred reviewJohnstone, Doug (2022-09-15). "A Prayer For the Crown-Shy review: 'Hopepunk' novel imagines a positive future for humanity". The Big Issue . Retrieved 2023-09-12.

I’m so pleased that this is the first of a series, and that there will be more of this world, because, wow, do I want more of it. This book is the type of reading experience I’d recommend to anyone having a hard time, which might be a lot of people at this point... it’s a comforting story about comfort and care, as soothing to read as it is to think about, and so full of hope and wonder and potential discovery. I hope you’ll try it.” — Smart Bitches, Trashy Books 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? BC: Thank you, I’m happy to hear that because it was really fun to write. I wanted it to be something that felt comfortable for people to read. But it also was a comfort for me to write, it was a real pleasure to write those two. Written with all of Chambers’ characteristic nuance and careful thought, this is a cozy, wholesome meditation on the nature of consciousness and its place in the natural world. Fans of gentle, smart, and hopeful science fiction will delight in this promising series starter.”— Publishers Weekly Leisurely prose firmly roots setting and characters, with a nonbinary lead and non-traditional family structures, plus finely balanced introspection and interaction. The story is thoughtful, with a gentleness that is as encompassing as any action-filled work. Chambers's second Monk and Robot novella continues the quiet, contemplative journey through philosophy, nature, and personal experience." - Library Journal (starred review)BC: Things I have read lately, I just read Spear by Nicola Griffith, which was fantastic. It was so it was one of those books where I don’t know if you do this, where you kind of like press your forehead against it. When you’re done. You’re just like, Oh, it’s so good, because you want to just consume the whole thing. Um, let’s see, I also I recently read How to Do Nothing by by Jenny Odell, which was fantastic. The communities in Panga are like that. They grow but so big and no further, so that each village has enough – actually more than enough – to sustain itself and its people. No one needs to want for more.