These two books are a novella and its sequel – A Psalm for the Wild-Built is the first and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is the second. Buying them together is not expensive and you’ll have the second when you finish the first. }

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy 
by Becky Chambers 
2023 /  (152 pp)
Read by Em Grosland  4h 8m
Rating: A / science fiction 
(#2 in Monk and Robot Series)

I don’t always recommend reading series in order because I don’t follow that as a strict rule. I usually skip around until I either buy into the ideas/plots or I bow out. But with these two books from Becky Chambers going in order is necessary just to know what’s going on in the second book which is more like an actual sequel and if  you were tp just go right into book 2 first you’d have no idea what’s going on or who/what (?) these characters are.   I suppose there could be a book 3 but I’m not betting on it. For now it’s a novella and its sequel and that’s great.

Because the gist is that in the far future a human named Dex and a robot named Mosscap are visiting other villages where a robot has never been seen – they’re mythical.  Mosscap, who doesn’t eat, has philosophical problems with fishing and killing anything, even for food.  The theme, again, deals with the difference between organic and inorganic people, robots, animals and/or plants and also goes into the wants and needs as well as love and fear plus some other elements of life and death (killing, too) on this or maybe any planet.  

It’s a sweet and heartwarming story,  so maybe not for everyone, but there are those (including myself) who wouldn’t change a word.