A Psalm for the Wild Built

by Becky Chambers

In this novella, Becky Chambers creates a world I want to live in. The book is like slipping into a warm bath, applying aloe vera to the soul. At the forefront of sci-fi’s hopepunk, this novella is all the genre promises: grounded in human kindness, sustainability, and care for nature. It is the first book I have read where the protagonist’s pronoun is they. While I welcome a world in which we are not defined by our pronouns, I did find it confusing at times, especially when they were in a sentence with plural-people they. I also found it amusing, as the other main character is a robot, whose pronoun is it. But none of this distracted from the brilliance of a book that asks the question ‘What do human’s want?’ and manages to leave you feeling happy, optimistic and full of wonder.