A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (2022) is the second volume of the Monk & Robot series by Becky Chambers. As the sequel to the Hugo award-winning A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021), this book continues the journey of the tea monk Sibling Dex and the robot Splendid Speckled Mosscap across the fictional land of Panga as they seek answers to fundamental existential and environmental questions. Using the journey story as a structuring device, Chambers thematically explores The Balance Between Nature and Technology, The Search for Existential Purpose, The Role of Mutual Exchange and Reciprocity, and The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence.

Chambers is the well-known and highly respected science fiction writer of the Wayfarer series, and her Monk & Robot series has also been well received. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy earned a Nebula nomination for Best Novella in 2023 and won the 2023 Locus Award for Best Novella. In addition, the Washington Post named the book as one of the nine best science fiction and fantasy books of 2022. As representative of the solarpunk genre, an artistic movement and subset of science fiction that imagines a future where communities tackle environmental and social issues head-on with positive results, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy offers an optimistic glimpse at a reciprocity-based society that has overcome consumerism and learned the importance of environmental responsibility.

This guide refers to the hard-cover edition of A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, published by Tordotcom in 2022.

Plot Summary

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy picks up where the previous book in the series, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021), leaves off. In that book, Sibling Dex is a monk working in the gardens of a monastery on the fictional world of Panga. Historically, Panga is a world where, in the distant past, robots worked in factories, manufacturing all the goods needed by Pangans. One day, the robots “woke up”— that is, they became self-aware and sentient. Human society nearly crumbled when the robots decided to retreat to the wilds and live apart from humans in what the novel calls “The Transition.” At that time, Pangans learned to fend for themselves and limit the use of technology.

In The Psalm for the Wild-Built, Sibling Dex chooses to change vocations and become a traveling tea monk, serving tea in outlying villages to provide comfort. Dex longs for something they cannot define and one day chooses to go into the wilds. To their great surprise, a robot steps out of the forest, introduces itself as Mosscap, and tells Dex it is on a quest to discover what humans need.

By the time A Prayer for the Crown-Shy opens, Dex and Mosscap have traveled together for many miles and explored uninhabited wild lands. Now the pair are returning to civilization so that Mosscap can meet humans and ask its question, “What do humans need?” (6). Their journey takes them out of the woods and onto a highway, leading to several villages, each with its own unique culture. Their first stop is the village of Stump, in an area that was previously clear-cut in the Factory Age but that is now a lush woodland setting. In Stump, Mosscap learns about Panga’s post-currency culture, wherein people give each other service and receive a kind of credit called a “peb” for services rendered, which they can spend on goods or services. Because Dex is concerned with ethics, they make sure Mosscap is receiving the same treatment a human would receive for its service.

Dex and Mosscap next visit the Riverlands. Mosscap has damaged an internal part that makes it unable to walk. At the Riverlands, the two connect with the printer Leroy, whose job it is to use technology in reproducing important objects. In this case, Dex asks Leroy to identify and repair a broken piece of Mosscap’s machinery. Tired from the journey, Dex finally allows themselves some personal comfort by bathing in the communal pool and engaging in intimacies with Leroy. While Dex has been very good at offering comfort to others, Dex is less able to accept comfort from others. It is a lesson that Dex continues to learn through the rest of the book.

The Coastland is the next stop on the journey. However, this community has radically rejected all technology. Whereas Dex believes fully that a healthy balance between nature and technology is not only possible but desirable, the Coastlanders fear that the use of any technology will only lead back to the Factory Age. Mx. Avery, a member of the Coastland community, is the only villager to greet Dex and Mosscap. The trio has a cordial discussion of the opposing points of view, and everyone learns something important in the exchange. In addition, the trio contemplates the cycle of life as they catch a fish, and then watch it die to provide food for the humans.

The next stop on the journey is the Shrublands, Dex’s home community. While there, Dex and Mosscap visit with their extended family and explore essential questions of what humans and robots deem necessary to their existence. In a subtle change of focus, the question shifts from “What do humans need?” (6) to “What would a human not want to do without?”

Dex and Mosscap leave the Shrublands and head for the City, where there will be celebrations and parades to welcome the robot back to human society. However, neither Dex nor Mosscap are comfortable with this. When Mosscap says that it still would like to see a beach, they take a sudden detour and camp on an ocean beach for several days. While there, the two undertake deep and meaningful conversation about their relationship, their ongoing companionship, and what they each understand (or do not understand) about their own existential purpose. The book closes with Dex and Mosscap deciding that it is enough just to be together, and that they can tackle the big questions of life and death when they are ready. They play in the ocean waves, reveling in the beauty of the world and happy in this moment.