Last month, Brookline Booksmith hosted Martha Wells (Fugitive Telemetry) and Becky Chambers (A Psalm for the Wild-Built) in conversation—and now, anyone can watch it! The bookstore has posted their hour-long discussion on YouTube for all to see.
Chambers’ new novella, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, is the story of a tea monk who encounters a robot in the woods. The robots of Panga attained sentience ages ago, and no one has seen one since, but this one has come back to the human world to ask a seemingly simple question: What do people need?
Wells’ latest is an entry into her beloved Murderbot series, which began with 2017’s All Systems Red. This time, Murderbot finds a dead body on Preservation Station and reluctantly assists human security in figuring out what happened.
The two discuss outlining (or not); television watching (Wells, like all wise viewers, enjoys Elementary); how much time Chambers thought about tea while writing Psalm; writing with compassion for your characters; and how excellent it is that more voices are telling their stories in SFF.
If you haven’t yet read the authors’ new books, you can read an excerpt from A Psalm for the Wild-Built here, and one from Fugitive Telemetry here!
“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” was difficult for me to finish. I can see where the author was going but there was just, no plot. We’re set on this wonderful moon where everyone has everything they need and life is just peachy for everyone. I just didn’t know where Becky was going. It’s like that friend that just chats on and on about their day and you just nod and say “uh huh” at all the right places. I’ve read all her books so I’m a fan, but brother (or sister or sibling) I need a plot to hang onto. Something to ponder and thing about and wonder.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built connected with me. And I think there were a number of overarching themes and questions for wonder. Specifically as someone that has made it to adulthood with a job that should be fulfilling and access to all the material necessities for my well being and comfort, I connected with the frustration of feeling lost or unsatisfied when you seem to have no reason. This sort of existential question is substantial and I thought Becky Chambers gave it serious weight.
What a treat to see two of my favorite authors of these past few years in a conversation. I find they both approach interesting, important, and necessary subjects with seemingly light story, though very different pacing.
Thanks for the link.
The Brookline Booksmith is one of those wonderful bookstores that is somehow surviving in the wild. I moved to the suburbs and it’s not easy for me to get there, but boy would I enjoy a day by myself in that area. Grab a coffee, hit the bookstore, go to the small movie theater across the street, walk around all the little shops.