Synopsis:
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction (2021)
Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.
Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers’ series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
- Genre: Sci-Fi
- Pages: 151
- Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
- Published by: Tordotcom
THE REVIEW:
Besides the confusing they/them part, it was refreshing to read about a positive outcome after the robots have “Awakened” instead of the usual “kill humanity” switch that most sci-fi books buy into.
Well, this said, this book is neither here nor there if you know what I mean. It’s just bland. You can smell something yummy cooking in the oven, but when you bite into it, it lacks flavour…
So my main question is, where was the plot here? Although I found the writing to be cosy, it’s just rambling and pondering the question: What do humans need, really. With the main characters being a human and a robot that has no gender… like, ok, but this is giving me nothing. We don’t have a character arc, we don’t have a plot arc, and we don’t have a villain, not even a love interest. The only exciting thing that happened was a bear came out of nowhere and ate the food on the campsite…
Basically, in this utopia, people go to tea monks instead of going to psychologists?? And apparently, in this world of Panga, there are no cafes… no cinema, no restaurants. Not even once did it mention what people do for fun and what they might do to unwind… and no wonder Dex sounds so depressed lol he’s been doing the same bloody thing his whole life and is in dire need of something exciting, which, in our case is deciding to go see the hermitage in an already abandoned part of the country where people have not been in decades, and the nature has taken and claimed over.
I do hope the next book has more flavour to offer…
P.S. I love the cover!!
What about you? Have you read this book?
Lin's Perspective 
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