A Psalm for the Wild-Built

This is a beautiful, quiet meditation on what the purpose of life is and finding one's best self. I liked the idea of a tea monk, I liked the idea of a book focused on a character's journey to find the purpose of their life and how to spend their time and I really liked the idea of a post-apocalyptic world that functions by letting the wild lands stay wild.

But exactly what a tea monk does is relatively unstructured, as is Sibling Dex's story in general. And while I found the conclusion beautiful, I also found it a little unconvincing since the philosophical denouement was dependent on the setting that Chambers developed, so ultimately it didn't really speak to the reader about: what is the purpose of me and my individuality and my life and my time?

The best speculative fiction exists in dialogue with the world as it is and I think Chambers slipped a little in that goal.