I can only hope that the future humanity builds out of the rubble resembles the world in A Psalm for the Wild-Built ... A cozy novella ... The inherent reliability of this novella in its voice, structure, and narrative choices will make it a standard in the idealized futurism of hopepunk stories.
A quiet, gentle book made up of episodic conversations about robot and human societies, about history and ecology, and about philosophy, desire and purpose ... There are moments jarring in their familiarity, where the thing depicted is so fundamentally at odds with the society Dex seems to inhabit that I felt dislocated by the reading ... Psalm for the Wild-Built begins a series that looks optimistic and hopeful, pursuing stories that arise from abundance instead of scarcity, kindness instead of cruelty.
... the perfect length. If it were shorter, it would be unsatisfying. But if it were longer, its meditative tenor might have become unsustainable, even with Chambers’ sense of whimsy shining through as frequently and naturally as it does. Introspection and humor are perfectly balanced, to the point that these two tones literally bracket the novella ... duality is characteristic of Chambers’ work, and A Psalm for the Wild-Built admirably demonstrates how it can translate beautifully into shorter formats ... a worthy addition to Becky Chambers’ already burgeoning oeuvre. It distills her established interest in moving the grand conflicts of genre fiction to the background, in favor of more inspiring personal stories infused with beauty and optimism.
