The author, Becky Chambers, won a Hugo for this book, in the "Best Novella" category. In Googling around, I learned that it's part of the "solarpunk" genre, which is an optimistic look at a world devoted to sustainability, small-is-beautiful solar power, etc.
The protagonist, "Sibling Dex", is a "tea monk", traveling in a pedal-powered tea wagon to various communities on the idyllic moon of Panga. That civilization used to be industrial, relying on fossil fuels and AI robots. But centuries previous, the robots decided to self-exile from humanity, and nobody's seen them since.
Except Dex. Because, on a perilous quest to explore the once-inhabited "wild" lands that are in the long process of reverting to nature, Dex meets Mosscap, a robot on its own quest to find out how humanity is holding up these days.
Reader, Mosscap does not show up until page 50 in this 147-page book. Sorry for the spoiler, but it's also revealed on the book flap, so…
Dex's interactions with Mosscap are charming and occasionally funny. Things wind up with an exploration of an ancient temple/inn and a discussion of the "purpose" of people and robots.
It would be a good book for the kiddos, except for Dex dropping occasional f-bombs.
Chambers consistently refers to Dex with "They/Them" pronouns. Which I, as an old fogy, found slightly grating. But Dex, when speaking, refers to "themself" as "I/Me" instead of the expected "We/Us". So we are left unsure what we are supposed to think about that, or what the point of this particular usage is.
![[The Blogger and His Dog]](/ps/images/me_with_barney.jpg)
