drink more tea

Review of Prayer for the Crown-shy by Becky Chambers

Posted: January 14th, 2025

Rating: 8/10

Genre: Sci-Fi (Hopepunk)

Summary: After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.

Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

They're going to need to ask it a lot.

Review:

This duology as a whole reminds me of a warm cup of tea, quite one like Dex would serve. I liked this book as well, though in different way from the first. It had less of the quiet warmth of the "Psalm for the Wild-built", but more of a cold blowing wind that permeated the book. (Haha, I'm not sure if I'm making much sense!)

Personally, I loved the world-building in this book and the deeper glimpse we were allowed into this book. The different communities, with their different purposes and how they interpreted the society's faith differently. Loved the junkyard village that recycled everything into something new. The insular ocean village was also very cool. Honestly, if Chambers just spent another 100 pages meandering through her world, I would've totally enjoyed it.

Compared to the last book, we definitely got more focus on Mosscap in this book and their question: what do humans needs? What a loaded question. I won't spoil the ending but for me, I don't really know what I need... I want a healthy, strong body. I want to be better. I want to be confident. All intangible things, which I can only strive for for the rest of my life.

The end of the book, the scene was rather... hm. Well, let's say I ship Dex and Mosscap together. They'd be so cute together! I'm already a Transformers fan, so shipping robots isn't anything new to me lol.

Anyways, here the the tea I think Dex would give me T2 Tea's Blue Mountain Black Tea a medium black tea with fruity and floral notes. I've never tried this tea in particular, but one of my favorite tea is Lovare's 1001 Nights tea which is a black tea with notes of grape in it..

Below is a little poem(?) about the faith from the book which I found interesting and I thought might be cool to use for an alien culture/race in a fic. Maybe in And So I Swear...

Praise to the Parents. Praise to Trikilli, of the Threads. Praise to Grylom, of the Inanimate. Praise to Bosh, of the Cycle.

Praise to their children. Praise to Chal, of the Constructs. Praise to Samafar, of the Mysteries. Praise to Allalae, of the Small Comforts

They do not speak, yet we know them. They do not think, yet we mind them. They are not as we are. We are of them.

We are the work of the Parents. We do the work of the Children. Without use of constructs, you will unravel few mysteries. Without knowledgeof mysteries, your constructs will fail. Find strength to pursue both, for these are our prayers. And to that end, welcome comfort, for without it, you cannot stay strong.

-From The Insights of the Six, West Buckland Edition

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