Bought for $12 (minus $3 in reward points), to read for Geeks Read on February 6, 2024. Eager to read after liking A long way to a small angry planet (2014) and the wait for a CLP copy is too long.
Becky Chambers’ patented relentless cheerfulness, e.g., joyfully chubby 13
New words:
synanthropes
casein
thermovoltaic
stridulated
chatterburd
creepily
Dex the tea monk: listen to people, give tea. Useful and competent - yet dissatisfied: why?
No money (who pays for the wagon, the tea? And how?)
TRANSITION
Cute, but I’m not sure I like a non-gendered protagonist. I’m ok with people who cannot proclaim a binary gender for themselves, but to have those feelings thrust upon me as a reader is disconcerting, if not wearisome.
Using they/them pronouns for Dex was cute at first, then became irritating, especially since it didn’t advance the story. For instance, Naomi Kritzer uses them for a character or two, but not the central character so the usage is not terribly frequent, and the non-binary sexuality of the character is at least relevant to the action or the character if not center stage.
QUESTIONS:
How does Dex go from being the village idiot to being the villages - and country’s - shaman?
A plenteous array of parent gods and child gods. E.g., p. 29 Do they matter? Or are they merely decorative?
the vast wilderness that humans had given back to Panga. p. 41
Calendar/ dating system, p. 41
Robots gain (or are given?) sentience and leave the factories. Haha. Later one visits: “I was sent here to answer the following question: What do humans need?” “How do you know when you’re satisfied?” p. 59
“Someone like you made us. How could I think any other way?” p. 60. Haha - exactly my thesis about “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (H. Ellison) and “Second Variety” (P.K. Dick) - sentient robots (A.I. with consciousness) have the same kind of thinking as their creators (humans), including all their worst traits.
Erroneous assumption that robots are - or enjoy performing the tasks of - computers, e.g. mathematics, computation, networking, etc.
Mosscap’s metal faceplates manage to convey smiles (including cheekily), frowns, perplexity, disgust, surprise,
The “Parting Promise”
How different species (?) learn to talk to each other
They are referred to as “human” but they not quite *our* humanity: stagnant culture, willing to let the robots go, basic kindness and lack of ambition or greed,
WISDOM:
“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.” p. 69
