A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

 

Reviewed by Kristin

Since the Great Awakening, people and robots have gone their separate ways. Upon attaining consciousness, robots chose not to remain in servitude in the factories. In turn, humans simplified their lives in order to accommodate the removal of automation from production. The factories grew silent, and the robots disappeared into the protected wilderness of Panga.

Sibling Dex feels a pull to move beyond the walls of the Meadow Den Monastery, to discover a new vocation, to simply get out of the City. Dex decides to become a tea monk, a disciple of the god Allalae. Dex drives their electric ox-bike from town to town along carefully designed routes, pouring others tea and providing an hour of respite at a time. Letting others lay their burdens down, and serving other people fills a need in their soul.

But is it enough?

On a trek into the wilderness seeking solitude, or perhaps just to hear the song of near extinct crickets, Dex suddenly comes face to face with a….thing. The thing is vaguely human shaped, but encased in grey metal panels, with glowing blue eyes, and it towers over Dex. It’s been centuries, but the robots have decided to take the humans up on the Parting Promise of always being welcome, and to check in to see how things are going.

The ensuing adventures of a human tea monk and a robot called Splendid Speckled Mosscap are so very, very delightful. Both had heard about the existence of the other type of lifeform, but they really had no idea what to expect from each other, or if perhaps the stories of the other were simply urban legend. As they together go deeper into the wilderness, Dex and Mosscap discover more about each other and about themselves as well.

Becky Chambers has a talent for building worlds and populating them with unique and interesting characters. This short novel had me bursting into laughter at some of the interactions between Dex and Mosscap. This title is billed as “Monk and Robot #1” so I certainly hope that the series will bring many more adventures for we humans here on Earth to share.

*A Psalm for the Wild-Built is available as an ebook and audiobook via Tennessee READS, and will soon be ready to pick up on the BPL new fiction shelves.

Red Rover: Robots in Space

Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, from Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity by Roger Wiens

Reviewed by Kristin

On July 21, 1969, Americans were glued to their television sets to see Neil Armstrong take the first steps on the moon.  On August 6, 2012, people all over the world were glued to their television sets and computer screens to see the landing of the unmanned Mars rover, Curiosity.

Roger Wiens takes his readers on a journey though the modern era of space exploration.  While he doesn’t go as far back as the first moon landing, he writes of the exciting advances in astronomic knowledge over the past decade.  Wiens also writes of the budgetary and political crunches that exerted their forces on the projects within the scope of this book. 

Wiens starts with the NASA unmanned probe, Genesis, which collected solar wind particles from 2001 to 2004.  Wiens played a large role in proposing the mission, as well as planning and designing the spacecraft module and the solar wind collectors.  Every component was designed, tested, and tested again.  From the delayed launch of Genesis, to the unexpected crash landing, Wiens provides an insider’s look at the largely successful solar wind collection mission.

After Genesis, Wiens and his colleagues turned their attention to Mars.  Wiens devotes a large portion of the book to the ChemCam, or Chemistry and Camera.  The ChemCam consists of the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) and the Remote Micro-Imager (RMI).  To oversimplify, the LIBS directs a laser beam at something in order to analyze it, and the RMI takes a picture.  The ChemCam was placed on the Mars Curiosity rover with great expectations for scientific advancement.

While written for the non-scientist, Red Rover still covers a lot of detail.  Several pages of full color, glossy photographs help the space-enthusiast visualize the space missions described.  The book was published in 2013, soon after the landing of Curiosity, so we can expect much more information on that mission as time passes.

In 2013, look up in the night sky and you might see the International Space Station moving from horizon to horizon.  We have come a long way from looking up at the stars in centuries past; we also have so much more to explore.  Wiens takes the stargazer on a journey from the solar winds to the red rocks of Mars.